Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ma'aikaciya tana aiki a asibiti da safiya. - The female worker works at the hospital in the morning.

So tana already means “she is”.
You don’t normally add another separate word for “she” in front of it; tana aiki by itself means “she is working.”

What is the difference between tana aiki and just aiki?

aiki alone is a noun: “work, job, working” (like “work” in English).
tana aiki is a full verb phrase: “she is working” or “she works.”

You need tana to show who is doing the action and to mark the aspect (ongoing / present).

Is tana aiki present continuous (“is working”) or simple present (“works”)?

In many contexts, tana aiki can express both:

Present continuous:
- Ma'aikaciya tana aiki a asibiti.
  → The female worker is working at the hospital (right now).
Habitual/simple present, especially with a time phrase like da safiya (“in the morning”):
- Ma'aikaciya tana aiki a asibiti da safiya.
  → The female worker works at the hospital in the morning.

The time expression and context usually tell you whether it’s “is working” or “works.”

What does a mean in a asibiti, and is it like “in” or “at”?

a is a preposition of location, and it can mean “in,” “at,” or “inside.” English often has to choose one, but Hausa a is more general.

So:

a asibiti can be translated as “at the hospital” or “in the hospital”, depending on what sounds more natural in English.

Why is it asibiti and not something like “hospitali”? Is this a loanword?

Yes, asibiti is a loanword (ultimately from Arabic, and similar to “hospital” in concept).

Key points:

asibiti = hospital
It behaves like a normal Hausa noun.
There’s no separate article; context tells you if it’s “a hospital” or “the hospital.”

So a asibiti can mean either “at a hospital” or “at the hospital.”

What does da safiya mean literally, and why use da here?

Literally:

da usually means “with”, but in time expressions it functions like “in / at”.
safiya = morning.

So da safiya is an idiomatic time phrase meaning “in the morning” / “during the morning.”

You’ll see da used this way in many time expressions:

da yamma – in the evening
da dare – at night

Could you also say da safe instead of da safiya?

Yes.

da safiya and da safe are both used to mean “in the morning.”
da safiya is slightly more formal/standard; da safe is very common in everyday speech.

In this sentence, you could say:

Ma'aikaciya tana aiki a asibiti da safe.
→ Same meaning: The female worker works at the hospital in the morning.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” in this sentence?

Hausa does not have articles like English “a/an” and “the.”

ma'aikaciya can mean “a female worker” or “the female worker.”
asibiti can mean “a hospital” or “the hospital.”

Whether it’s definite or indefinite is decided by context, not by a separate article word.

Does ma'aikaciya mean a specific kind of worker, like a nurse, because she’s in a hospital?

No; ma'aikaciya by itself is general: it just means “female worker/employee.”

In a hospital context, it could be:

a nurse,
a doctor,
a cleaner,
an administrator, etc.

If you want to be specific, you add another word:

jinya = nursing; ma'aikaciyar jinya = nurse (female).
likita = doctor (often neutral for gender, but feminine can be marked in some contexts).

How do you pronounce ma'aikaciya, and what is the apostrophe doing?

Ma'aikaciya is roughly pronounced: ma-ah-ee-ka-chee-ya (with quick syllables).

The apostrophe (') marks a glottal stop – a small break in the airflow, like the pause in the middle of “uh-oh” in English:

ma'aika- → you slightly stop your voice between ma and aika.

So don’t blend it into “may-ka-”; keep a little pause: ma [glottal stop] aika-ci-ya.

If the worker were male, how would the sentence change?

You would change both the noun and the verb subject marker:

Ma'aikaciya tana aiki a asibiti da safiya.
→ Female worker: She works at the hospital in the morning.
Ma'aikaci yana aiki a asibiti da safiya.
→ Male worker: He works at the hospital in the morning.

Difference:

ma'aikaciya → ma'aikaci (female → male/default)
tana (ta-na) → yana (ya-na) (feminine → masculine subject marker)

Can the word order be changed, like putting da safiya earlier in the sentence?

Yes, you can move the time phrase, especially to the beginning for emphasis:

Da safiya, ma'aikaciya tana aiki a asibiti.
→ In the morning, the female worker works at the hospital.

The basic neutral order is:

Subject – Verb – Object/Other information
Ma'aikaciya – tana aiki – a asibiti da safiya.

Moving da safiya to the front changes emphasis slightly, but the meaning stays the same.