Yara suna wasa a ƙasa a harabar makaranta.

The children are playing on the ground in the school yard.

Breakdown of Yara suna wasa a ƙasa a harabar makaranta.

• ne: to be
• a: at
• yaro: the child
• wasa: to play

Questions & Answers about Yara suna wasa a ƙasa a harabar makaranta.

What exactly does suna mean here, and why do we need it?

Suna is a combination of:

• su = they (3rd person plural pronoun)
• na = a marker often used for progressive/ongoing actions

Written together as suna, it functions like “they are” before a verb or verbal noun.

So:

• Yara suna wasa ≈ The children are playing

You can’t normally say *Yara wasa a ƙasa… in standard Hausa; you need something like suna (or another appropriate tense/aspect form) to show that “playing” is the action they are doing.

Why is it suna wasa and not suna yi wasa or suna yin wasa?