Learn Hardcore Hausa: Baba ma'aikaci ne a banki, amma uwa ma'aikaciya ce a asibiti. - Father is an employee at the bank, but mother is an employee at the hospital.

Baba ma'aikaci ne a banki
→ Baba (father) is grammatically masculine, so you use ne.
uwa ma'aikaciya ce a asibiti
→ uwa (mother) is grammatically feminine, so you use ce.

So ne/ce agree with the gender (and some other features) of what you’re talking about.

Why is there no separate word for “is” in the Hausa sentence?

Hausa often doesn’t use a separate verb meaning “to be” in the present tense between two nouns. Instead, it uses:

Subject + predicate noun + ne/ce (+ other elements)

So instead of a verb like English “is”, Hausa uses ne/ce (and sometimes nothing at all, depending on the structure) to tie the subject to what is said about it.

Example:

Baba ma'aikaci ne a banki
Literally: Father worker ne at bank.
Meaning: Father is a worker at a bank.

Why is the father described as ma'aikaci and the mother as ma'aikaciya?

Both come from the same root meaning “worker/employee”, but they are marked for gender:

ma'aikaci = male worker / worker (masculine form)
ma'aikaciya = female worker (feminine form)

So:

Baba ma'aikaci ne… → Father is (a male) worker…
uwa ma'aikaciya ce… → Mother is (a female) worker…

In everyday speech, you might also hear people use the masculine form more generally, but the feminine -iya ending is the standard way to show a female person in many job titles.

What does a mean before banki and asibiti?

The preposition a generally means “in/at/on” depending on context. Here it matches English “at” or “in”:

a banki → at a bank / in a bank
a asibiti → at a hospital / in a hospital

So the structure is:

ma'aikaci ne a banki → is a worker *at a bank*
ma'aikaciya ce a asibiti → is a worker *at a hospital*

How do I know whether a banki means “at a bank” or “at the bank”? Hausa has no “a/the” here.

Hausa does not have articles like English “a/an” and “the.” The bare noun banki can be understood as “a bank” or “the bank” depending on context.

So a banki could mean:

at a bank (new information, not specific), or
at the bank (a particular bank already known in the conversation).

Context and shared knowledge determine whether you understand it as definite or indefinite.

What does amma mean, and can it come at other positions in the sentence?

amma means “but” and works much like English “but” at the beginning of a contrasting clause.

Baba ma'aikaci ne a banki, amma uwa ma'aikaciya ce a asibiti.
→ Father is a worker at a bank, *but mother is a worker at a hospital.*

Position:

amma normally comes at the beginning of the clause it introduces, just like here.
You would not move it to the end of the clause.

You may also see variants like amma dai, amma fa, etc., which add nuance (emphasis, insistence) but still mean roughly “but.”

Why is it Baba for “father” but uwa for “mother”? Are these the standard words?

Both are common, but there are alternatives with slightly different flavors.

For father:

baba – very common, often used for “dad/father” or as a way to address one’s father. Feels familiar/neutral.
uba – also “father,” slightly more formal or bookish in many contexts.
mahaifi – specifically “biological father,” often formal.

For mother:

uwa – standard word for “mother.”
mama – colloquial “mum/mom,” used in many families.
mahaifiya – specifically “biological mother,” more formal.

In this sentence, Baba and uwa are perfectly normal choices and sound natural.

Can I change the word order to something like Baba ne ma'aikaci a banki?

Yes, Hausa can change word order to highlight or focus certain parts of the sentence. But you must be careful, because moving ne/ce can change the nuance.

Current sentence:

Baba ma'aikaci ne a banki.
Neutral: Father is a worker at a bank.

If you say:

Baba ne ma'aikaci a banki.
This tends to put focus on Baba, as in:
It is *father who is a worker at a bank (not someone else).*

So:

[Subject] [Predicate] ne/ce… → neutral statement.
[Focused element] ne/ce [rest] → focus/emphasis on that element.

For a beginner, the original neutral order in your sentence is the safest pattern to copy.

Where is the subject pronoun like “he” or “she”? Why don’t we see shi or ita?

In this sentence, the nouns themselves (Baba, uwa) are the subjects, so Hausa does not need extra subject pronouns:

Baba ma'aikaci ne… → Father is a worker… (no “he” needed)
uwa ma'aikaciya ce… → Mother is a worker… (no “she” needed)

You could make similar sentences with pronouns, but then the structure usually changes:

Shi ma'aikaci ne a banki. → He is a worker at a bank.
Ita ma'aikaciya ce a asibiti. → She is a worker at a hospital.

Here shi/ita are the subjects, and Baba/uwa are not explicitly mentioned.

What is the origin or pronunciation of ma'aikaci? What’s that apostrophe doing there?

The apostrophe ’ in ma'aikaci marks a glottal stop, a brief break in the airflow, similar to the pause in the middle of the English exclamation “uh-oh.”

So ma'aikaci is roughly:

ma [short] + (glottal stop) + aika (from a root related to “send/assign work”) + -ci (agent suffix).

The glottal stop separates ma and aika:

Without it, it would sound like one smooth syllable; with it, there is a tiny break: ma-[ʔ]-aika-ci.

For practical purposes as a learner:

Try to make a tiny “catch” in your throat between ma and aika: ma-(pause)-aikaci.

Is asibiti just “hospital” in general, or a specific type of hospital?

asibiti means “hospital” in general:

a asibiti → in/at a hospital / at the hospital.

It does not by itself specify public vs. private or large vs. small. Those kinds of differences would be expressed with extra words (e.g., asibitin gwamnati – government hospital, asibiti mai zaman kansa – private hospital), not by changing asibiti itself.