Yara suna son hawa keke bayan sun gama aiki a gona.

to be

Breakdown of Yara suna son hawa keke bayan sun gama aiki a gona.

• a: at
• yaro: the child
• aiki: the work

Questions & Answers about Yara suna son hawa keke bayan sun gama aiki a gona.

What does suna in “Yara suna son …” mean, and how is it different from just su?

Su is the bare pronoun “they”.
Suna is actually su + na, where na here is an aspect marker showing an ongoing or habitual action (imperfective).

So:

• Yara suna son hawa keke … = The children *like / usually like riding a bicycle …
  If you said just *Yara su son …, it would be ungrammatical; you normally need the aspect marker (suna, sun, suka, etc.) before the verb so.

Why is it “suna son” and not “suna so”? What is that -n doing?

In Hausa, when so (to like / to want) takes a noun or a verbal noun as its object, it normally adds a linking -n (a kind of genitive linker).

• so + -n + hawa keke → son hawa keke

You can think of son here as “liking of”:

• suna son hawa keke ≈ “they have liking of riding a bicycle.”

So suna son … is the regular pattern before a noun/nominalized verb, while bare suna so … is used more when what follows is a full clause, e.g. suna so su hau keke (“they want to ride a bicycle”).