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?