Learn Hardcore Hausa: Baba na tsoho ne amma yana aiki a banki. - My father is old but he works at the bank.

Baba na – two separate words: noun (Baba) + free possessive pronoun (na).
Babana – one word: the possessive -na is attached to the noun.

Use:

Babana is very common and feels a bit more compact / colloquial.
Baba na is also correct; it can sound slightly more careful or emphatic in some contexts.

In everyday speech, learners will hear Babana a lot, but Baba na is fully normal and grammatical.

Does Baba always mean “father”, or can it also just mean “old man”?

Baba primarily means father, but it has related uses:

Literal father:
- Babana = my father
Polite address for an older man (like “sir”, “old man”, “uncle” in some cultures):
- A child can call an elderly man Baba out of respect, even if he is not their actual father.
As part of names or titles:
- Baba Ahmed, Baba Musa, etc.

In your sentence, Baba na clearly means “my father”, not just “some old man,” because of the possessive na.

Does tsoho just mean “old”, or does it specifically mean “old person / elderly”?

Tsoho mainly refers to an old/elderly person, especially a man.

Important distinctions:

Tsoho (for people, usually male)
- Baba na tsoho ne ≈ “My father is old / an old man.”
Tsohuwa (feminine form for a woman):
- Mahaifiyata tsohuwa ce = My mother is old / an old woman.

For old things (an old car, an old house, etc.), Hausa often prefers a different word, such as:

ƙõhne / ƙohone (spellings vary) for objects that are old/used/worn out.
- Mota ta ƙohone ce = My car is old (worn/used).

So tsoho is more “elderly (person)” than a general “old” for inanimate things.

Why do we need the little word ne after tsoho? What does ne do?

Ne is a kind of copular particle, roughly playing the role of English “is” in this type of sentence.

In Baba na tsoho ne:

Baba na = my father (subject)
tsoho = old (predicate adjective / description)
ne = particle that links the subject to the description

A very rough structure is:

Baba na tsoho ne ≈ “My father, (he) is old.”

Hausa often uses ne/ce/ne instead of a separate verb “to be” when you are:

describing someone/something with an adjective or noun,
or equating one noun with another.

So you shouldn’t drop ne in this sentence; it’s part of the basic equational structure.

When do I use ne and when do I use ce?

The choice between ne and ce mainly follows gender and number:

ne is used with masculine singular subjects
ce is used with feminine singular subjects
For plurals, usage can vary, but beginners can start by focusing on the singular contrast.

Examples:

Baba na tsoho ne.
- Baba (father) is grammatically masculine, so we use ne.
Mahaifiyata tsohuwa ce.
- Mahaifiya (mother) is feminine, so we use ce.

Another pair:

Littafi sabo ne. = The book is new. (littafi = masc.)
Mota sabuwa ce. = The car is new. (mota = fem.)

So in your sentence, ne is there because Baba is masculine.

Why isn’t there a separate word meaning “is” in Baba na tsoho ne? Where is the verb “to be”?

Hausa handles “to be” differently from English.

In this equational sentence, there is no standalone verb like English “is”. Instead, Hausa uses ne/ce (and sometimes ne/ce + pronoun) to perform that role.

So:

Baba na tsoho ne.
Literally: Father my old ne
Functionally: “My father is old.”

You will often see:

X
- adjective/noun
  - ne/ce

as the way Hausa says:

X is Y (descriptive / identifying).

So ne here is the copular element; you shouldn’t expect a separate word that directly equals “is.”

What does amma mean, and can it appear in other positions?

Amma means “but”.

In your sentence:

… tsoho ne amma yana aiki a banki.
= “… is old, but he works at a bank.”

Usage:

It normally comes at the beginning of the contrasting clause, just like English “but”.
It can be used at the start of a sentence as well:
- Amma bana son shi. = But I don’t like him.

There are other contrast words/phrases (like sai dai, amma dai), but amma is the basic, very common “but”.

What exactly does yana aiki mean? Is it “he is working” or “he works”?

Yana aiki literally breaks down as:

ya- = 3rd person singular masculine subject marker (“he”)
-na = progressive/continuous aspect marker
aiki = work (noun)

So yana aiki is a progressive or imperfective-type expression.

Depending on context, it can mean:

“He is working (right now).”
“He works / He has work (as a job).” (habitual or general fact, especially with something like a banki)

In your sentence:

Baba na tsoho ne amma yana aiki a banki.

it is best understood as:

“My father is old, but he works at a bank (that’s his job).”

The same form is also used for currently ongoing actions, so context decides whether you hear it as right now or generally / habitually.

Why do we use yana aiki and not something like ya aiki?

Hausa typically does not say “ya aiki” to mean “he works.” Instead, it uses:

a subject marker (ya)
- an aspect marker (na for progressive/imperfective)
- a verbal noun (aiki – “work”)

This combination gives yana aiki.

Patterns you’ll see a lot:

yana aiki = he is working / he works
ina magana = I am speaking / I speak
kana wasa = you (m.sg) are playing / you play

So na is an important part of the verb phrase; ya alone with the noun aiki would be ungrammatical in this meaning.

What is the difference between yana aiki and yake aiki?

They look similar but are used in different structures.

Yana aiki
- Main-clause progressive/imperfective form.
- Used for simple statements:
  - Yana aiki a banki. = He works / is working at a bank.
Yake aiki
- Relative / focus form, not a simple bare statement.
- Typically appears when something is focused or in a relative clause:
  - Shi ne yake aiki a banki. = He is the one who works at a bank.
  - Mutumin da yake aiki a banki… = The man who works at the bank…

So in a plain sentence like yours, yana aiki is the correct choice. Yake aiki usually needs something before it (like shi ne or mutumin da) to be grammatical.

In yana, is the y- a pronoun meaning “he”? Why do we need it if we already know we’re talking about “my father”?

Yes. In yana, the y- comes from the 3rd person masculine subject marker (ya, “he”).

Hausa always marks the subject of the verb in the verb phrase itself, even if the subject has already been mentioned.

So we have:

Baba na = my father (full noun phrase)
yana aiki = he (3sg.m) is working / works

Putting them together:

Baba na yana aiki. = My father, he works.

This may feel redundant to an English speaker, but in Hausa it is normal and required:

Ali yana zuwa. = Ali, he is coming.
’Ya’yana suna wasa. = My children, they are playing.

You cannot just say na aiki after Baba na; you must include ya- (giving yana) to mark “he” as the subject of the verb.

What does the preposition a mean in a banki? Is it “in” or “at”?

The preposition a is quite flexible; it often covers the meanings of “in”, “at”, and sometimes “on”, depending on context.

In a banki:

a banki = at (the) bank / in a bank

Other examples:

a gida = at home / in the house
a Kano = in Kano / at Kano
a makaranta = at school

English makes a stronger distinction between in and at, but Hausa a can usually do both. The exact English translation depends on what sounds more natural in English in each context.

Why is it just a banki and not something like “at the bank” or “at a bank” in Hausa? How is definiteness shown?

Hausa does not have articles like English “the” and “a/an”. A bare noun like banki can be understood as either:

“a bank” (indefinite)
or “the bank” (definite),

depending entirely on context.

In yana aiki a banki:

It could mean “He works at a bank.” (just some bank)
Or “He works at the bank.” (a particular bank already known in the conversation).

To make things more clearly definite or specific, Hausa can use other devices (like -n/-r + another noun, nan, wancan, etc.), but for a simple job description a banki is fine and naturally vague in the same way English can be.

How would the sentence change if we were talking about my mother instead of my father?

You would need to change:

The noun for “father” to “mother.”
The adjective to its feminine form.
The ne/ce particle to the feminine ce.
The verb’s subject marker to feminine (ta → tana).

A natural version:

Mahaifiyata tsohuwa ce amma tana aiki a banki.
- Mahaifiyata = my mother
- tsohuwa = old (fem., old woman)
- ce = feminine copular particle
- tana aiki = she works / she is working
- a banki = at a bank

So:

Baba na tsoho ne amma yana aiki a banki.
= My father is old but he works at a bank.

becomes:

Mahaifiyata tsohuwa ce amma tana aiki a banki.
= My mother is old but she works at a bank.

Is the word order Baba na tsoho ne fixed, or could it be Baba na ne tsoho?

For this kind of description, the normal and natural word order is:

Subject + description + ne/ce
→ Baba na tsoho ne.

Putting ne before the adjective, like Baba na ne tsoho, is not normal and would sound wrong or at least very odd in this simple sentence.

So, for adjectives describing a noun in this pattern, keep:

Baba na tsoho ne.
Littafina sabo ne. = My book is new.
Motarka sabuwa ce. = Your car is new.

Subject → adjective → ne/ce is the pattern to follow here.