Yara suna tsaye a bakin ƙofa.

The children are standing at the doorway.

Breakdown of Yara suna tsaye a bakin ƙofa.

• ne: to be
• yaro: the child
• ƙofa: the door
• tsaya: to stand
• a bakin: at the side of

Questions & Answers about Yara suna tsaye a bakin ƙofa.

In Yara suna tsaye a bakin ƙofa., why is suna used when yara already means “children”? Isn’t that like saying “Children they are standing…”?

In Hausa, you normally keep both the noun subject and the pronoun+aspect marker.

• Yara = the lexical subject (“children”).
• suna = su (they) + na (continuous/progressive aspect marker).

So suna does two jobs: it shows the subject and marks the aspect (“are doing now”). This is standard Hausa structure and doesn’t sound redundant to native speakers. You wouldn’t normally drop suna here; Yara tsaye a bakin ƙofa would sound incomplete or very non‑standard.

What exactly does suna mean, and how is it formed?

suna is a combination of:

• su = “they” (3rd person plural pronoun)
• na = marker for progressive/continuous aspect (“be doing / be in a state”)

Together: suna ≈ “they are (currently / habitually)”.
You’ll see the same pattern with other persons:

• ina = I am …
• kana / kina = you (m/f) are …
• yana / tana = he / she is …
• muna = we are …
• suna = they are …

Is tsaye a verb or an adjective? How does suna tsaye work grammatically?

tsaye is a kind of verbal adjective / stative form meaning “standing, in a standing position.”

The pattern is:
subject + progressive marker + posture word

So Yara suna tsaye = “The children are (in the state of) standing.”
Other common posture words used the same way:

• zaune – sitting
• kwance – lying down

Example: Muna zaune = “We are sitting.”

What’s the difference between tsaye and the verb tsaya?

• tsaya is the basic verb “to stop / to stand (up).”
• tsaye is the resulting posture/state: “standing (upright).”

So:

• Yara sun tsaya. – The children (have) stopped/stood (up).
• Yara suna tsaye. – The children are standing (they are in a standing position).

The sentence you gave describes their current posture, not the action of standing up.

Could I say Yara sun tsaye instead of Yara suna tsaye?

No, sun tsaye is not correct.

• sun is a perfective marker (“have done / did”), and it needs a proper verb form like tsaya: sun tsaya.
• suna is the progressive/continuous marker that works well with a posture word like tsaye.

So your correct options are:

• Yara sun tsaya. – They (have) stopped/stood.
• Yara suna tsaye. – They are standing.

What does the preposition a mean here? Is it “at,” “in,” or “on”?

a is a very general locative preposition. It can mean “in, at, on” depending on context.

In this sentence, a bakin ƙofa is best understood as “at/by the doorway.”
The same a is used in:

• a gida – at home / in the house
• a kasuwa – at the market
• a tebur – on the table (context can also be “at the table”)

How is bakin ƙofa built, and what does baki normally mean?

bakin ƙofa is a genitive (possessive) construction:

• baki – “mouth, edge, rim.”
• ƙofa – “door.”
• baki + n + ƙofa → bakin ƙofa = “the mouth/edge of the door,” i.e. the doorway / threshold.

So a bakin ƙofa literally means “at the edge/mouth of the door,” which corresponds to “at the door” in natural English.

Why is it bakin ƙofa and not baki ƙofa?

In Hausa, when one noun modifies another (“X of Y”), you usually insert a linking consonant -n (after a vowel) or -r (after some consonants).

Here:

• baki ends in a vowel, so we add -n
• baki + n + ƙofa → bakin ƙofa

That -n is a genitive linker meaning “of.”

Does Yara mean “children” in general or specifically “the children”? There’s no word like “the” here.

Hausa doesn’t use a separate word for “the” like English does.

Yara can mean either:

• “children” in a general sense, or
• “the children” when the context is specific and known to both speaker and listener.

Definiteness is usually understood from context, not from a dedicated article.

What is the singular form of yara, and does it refer to boys or girls?

yara is a plural. The relevant singulars are:

• yaro – boy / child (usually male or unspecified)
• yarinya – girl

yara itself can refer to a mixed group or to children in general, not only boys. In many contexts, yara simply means “kids / children,” regardless of gender.

How would I negate this sentence? How do I say “The children are not standing at the door”?

One natural negative form is:

Yara ba sa tsaye a bakin ƙofa.

Structure:

• ba … sa … – negative frame for progressive/habitual with 3rd person plural.
• Yara ba sa tsaye – “The children are not standing.”
• a bakin ƙofa – “at the door.”

So: Yara ba sa tsaye a bakin ƙofa.

What is special about the consonant ƙ in ƙofa? How is it different from k?

Hausa distinguishes k and ƙ as two different sounds.

• k – a plain voiceless k (like English k).
• ƙ – an ejective / glottalized k; you pronounce it with a little “pop,” with extra closure in the throat.

Many learners approximate ƙ as a very “hard” k made a bit further back and more forcefully. Writing ƙ (often ƙ or k’ in some older texts) is important because it can distinguish different words.