Yara suna bi umurni na likita.

The children are following the doctor’s instructions.

Breakdown of Yara suna bi umurni na likita.

• ne: to be
• yaro: the child
• na: of
• likita: the doctor

Questions & Answers about Yara suna bi umurni na likita.

What does suna mean here, and why isn’t there a separate word for are?

In this sentence suna is doing two jobs at once:

• su = they (3rd person plural subject pronoun)
• -na = a marker showing a present/ongoing action (often called “progressive” aspect)

So suna bi literally means “they‑PROG follow”, i.e. “they are following / they are obeying.”

Hausa doesn’t have a separate verb “to be” used with verbs the way English does. Instead, the pronoun + aspect marker combination (like suna, ina, kana, muna, etc.) plays the role of “am/is/are (doing)” before the main verb.

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Why do we have both Yara and suna? Isn’t that like saying “The children they are following…”?

Yes, literally it is similar to “The children, they are following the doctor’s orders.” But that’s normal and required in Hausa.

• Yara = children (a full noun subject)
• suna = they are (subject pronoun + aspect marker)

In standard Hausa:

• You almost always need the subject pronoun (su, ya, ta, ka, na, etc.) before a verb.
• If you mention a full noun like Yara, it often appears before the clause, and then the pronoun repeats the subject inside the clause.

So Yara suna bi umurni na likita is like a topic + comment structure:

• Yara – as for the children,