Learn Hardcore Hausa: Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu.

yaro – boy
yana – he is / it is (3rd person masculine singular, progressive)
jin – feeling, experiencing (verbal noun of ji “to feel, to sense, to hear”)
kunya – shame, shyness, modesty
yanzu – now

So the structure is roughly: boy – he-is – feeling – shame/shyness – now.

Why is it yana and not ya here?

ya is the simple (perfective) form: ya ji = “he felt / he has felt”.
yana is ya (he) + na (progressive marker), used for an ongoing action: yana jin = “he is feeling / he is experiencing”.

In Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu, we want “is feeling (now)”, not “felt”, so Hausa uses the progressive form yana.

Compare:

Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu. – The boy is feeling shy now.
Yaro ya ji kunya. – The boy felt shy / has felt shy.

What exactly is jin? Why not just ji?

In Hausa:

ji is a verb meaning “to feel, to hear, to sense”.
jin is the verbal noun (a noun-like form of the verb), roughly “feeling / the act of feeling”.

The progressive in Hausa is very often formed as:

subject + progressive marker + verbal noun (+ object)

So:

yana jin kunya literally = “he is in the state of feeling shame/shyness”.

That is why you see jin and not ji in this structure.

What does kunya really mean? Is it just “shy”?

kunya covers several related ideas:

shyness – being timid or bashful
embarrassment – feeling exposed or awkward
shame / modesty / sense of propriety – cultural idea of knowing what is appropriate, showing respect, not being too forward

So yana jin kunya can mean:

“he is feeling shy”, or
“he is feeling embarrassed / ashamed”, depending on context.

The exact English word depends on the situation, but shy/embarrassed is usually a good translation in this kind of simple sentence.

Does yaro mean “a boy” or “the boy”?

On its own, yaro is usually indefinite:

yaro – a boy

To make it clearly definite (“the boy”), Hausa often adds a definite ending:

yaron – the boy

So more literal equivalents:

Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu. – A boy is feeling shy now. (or just “the boy” if context makes it clear)
Yaron yana jin kunya yanzu. – The boy is feeling shy now.

In real speech, context often decides whether you understand yaro as “a boy” or “the boy”.

Why is there no separate word for “he”? Why don’t we say something like Yaro shi yana jin kunya yanzu?

In yana, the “he” is already built in:

ya = he (3rd person masculine singular subject marker)
na = progressive marker

So yana already means “he is …”. Adding shi (“he”) again would be redundant or wrong here.

The pattern is:

Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu. – The boy is feeling shy now.
- yaro is the noun subject
- yana already contains the “he” referring to that subject

You normally do not add a separate pronoun like shi in this kind of sentence.

Can I move yanzu to a different place in the sentence?

Yes, yanzu (“now”) is fairly flexible. All of these are possible:

Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu.
Yaro yanzu yana jin kunya.
Yanzu yaro yana jin kunya.

They all mean roughly “The boy is feeling shy now.”
Different positions can slightly change what is being emphasized (for example, starting with Yanzu can emphasize now), but they are all natural.

How would I say “The boy is not feeling shy now”?

You use the Hausa negative pattern with bai … ba for 3rd person singular masculine. One natural way:

Yaron bai jin kunya yanzu ba. – The boy is not feeling shy now.

Breakdown:

bai … ba – “is not / does not / has not” (negative wrapper)
jin kunya – feeling shy
The progressive marker na is usually dropped inside this bai … ba pattern: you say bai jin (not bai yana jin).

With an indefinite subject, you could also have:

Yaro bai jin kunya yanzu ba. – A boy is not feeling shy now.

How do I say “The boys are feeling shy now”?

First, make yaro plural, and use the 3rd person plural progressive:

yaro – boy → yara – boys
suna – they are (su + na, 3rd person plural progressive)

Sentence:

Yara suna jin kunya yanzu. – The boys are feeling shy now.

If you want the boys:

Yaran suna jin kunya yanzu. – The boys are feeling shy now.

How would I say “The girl is feeling shy now”?

Change the noun to feminine and use the feminine form of the progressive:

yarinya – girl
tana – she is (ta + na, 3rd person feminine singular progressive)

Sentence:

Yarinya tana jin kunya yanzu. – The girl is feeling shy now.

Again, for a definite “the girl” you can use:

Yarinya-n or yarinyar (depending on spelling style) tana jin kunya yanzu. – The girl is feeling shy now.

Why don’t we use ne or ce in this sentence, like in other Hausa sentences that mean “X is Y”?

ne/ce are used in Hausa mainly for equative / identifying sentences, like:

Wannan yaro ne. – This is a boy.
Wata yarinya ce. – It is a girl.

In Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu, we are not just equating “boy = shy”; we are describing an action/state in progress (“is feeling shy”). That job is handled by:

yana jin … – “he is feeling …”

So we don’t use ne/ce here. The progressive yana already gives the “is (doing/being)” meaning.