Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ma'aikata suna gina sabon bene kusa da makarantar firamare. - Workers are building a new floor/building near the primary school.

Hausa	Literal meaning	Notes
Ma'aikata	workers	plural noun (people who work)
suna	they are	3rd person plural, progressive marker
gina	building / to build	main verb
sabon	new	adjective new, form used before a masculine noun
bene	building / floor / storey	here: building (often multi‑storey)
kusa da	near / close to	preposition phrase near to
makarantar firamare	primary school	literally: school of primary

So a more literal rendering would be:
“The workers are building a new building near the primary school.”

What is the singular of Ma'aikata, and how is the plural formed?

Ma'aikata = workers (plural).
The singular is ma'aikaci = a worker.

Pattern (simplified):

ma'aikaci → ma'aikata
worker → workers

So:

Ma'aikaci yana gina sabon bene…
A worker is building a new building…
Ma'aikata suna gina sabon bene…
Workers are building a new building…

How do you pronounce Ma'aikata, and what is the apostrophe for?

Ma'aikata is pronounced roughly:

ma-ʔai-ka-ta (mah–[glottal stop]–eye–kah–tah)

The apostrophe ' in Hausa normally marks a glottal stop or separation between vowels.
Here it keeps ma + aiki from fusing into something like mai.

So:

Without the apostrophe you might try to say something like maikata in one smooth syllable.
With the apostrophe, you clearly separate the vowels: ma + ' + aikata.

When you say it, briefly “catch” your breath between ma and ai: ma [stop] ai.

What exactly is the function of suna in this sentence?

Suna does two things at once:

It carries the subject pronoun su = they.
It carries the progressive / continuous aspect marker na.

So suna gina literally corresponds to “they are building” (not just “they build” in general, and not “they built”).

Compare:

Suna gina sabon bene.
They are building a new building (right now / currently).
Sun gina sabon bene.
They built / have built a new building (it’s already done).
Za su gina sabon bene.
They will build a new building.

Why is the verb form gina, and not something like suke gina?

The main verb here is in its bare (dictionary) form: gina = to build / building.

In Hausa, for the progressive you typically use:

subject + na
- verb
  or the contracted forms: suna gina, yana gina, ina gina, etc.

Suke gina is also possible, but it’s more associated with relative/contrastive contexts, often with –ke:

Ma'aikatan da suke gina sabon bene…
The workers who are building the new building…

In a simple main clause describing what is happening now, suna gina is the normal, straightforward choice:

Ma'aikata suna gina…
The workers are building…

Why does sabon come before bene, and what is the -n at the end of sabon?

In many cases, Hausa adjectives come after the noun, e.g.:

gida babba – big house
mutum mai ƙarfi – a strong person

But some adjectives, especially ones like sab(o) “new” and tsoho “old”, often appear before the noun with a linking -n / -r:

sabon gida – new house
tsohon gida – old house

In this sentence:

sabo (new) + -n (linker) + bene (building)
→ sabon bene – new building

The -n works like a linker meaning roughly “new-of building”, but in English we just say “new building”.

Note: If the noun were feminine, you would see sabuwa instead, e.g.:

sabuwa mota – new car (feminine noun mota)

Does sabon bene mean “new building” or “new floor/storey”? What does bene really mean?

Bene can mean:

A (multi‑storey) building
A floor / storey of a building

Which meaning you get depends on context.

Here, sabon bene kusa da makarantar firamare is most naturally understood as:

“a new building near the primary school”,

because we’re talking about something located near the school, not specifically which floor of a building.

If you wanted to be very clear that you mean floor/storey, you might clarify with context, e.g.:

Suna gina sabon bene na biyu.
They are building a new second floor.

What is the difference between bene and gida?

Roughly:

gida
– house, home, dwelling
– often any kind of home, not necessarily multi‑storey
bene
– multi‑storey building
– or a storey / floor of such a building

So:

sabuwar gida – a new house / home
sabon bene – a new building (often imagined as something more like an office block, school building, etc.)

What does kusa da mean exactly, and can I use just kusa?

kusa da means “near / close to”.

kusa = near, close
da = with/to (here, part of the prepositional phrase)

In location phrases, Hausa very often uses kusa da together:

Gidana yana kusa da kasuwa.
My house is near the market.

In your sentence:

kusa da makarantar firamare
= near the primary school

You can see kusa alone in some contexts (e.g. as an adverb: Come close! = Zo kusa!), but when you say “near something”, you normally use kusa da + [noun].

Why is it makarantar firamare with -r, not just makaranta firamare?

This is the Hausa genitive / linker construction, used for “X of Y”, “Y‑school”, etc.

makaranta – school
firamare – primary (as in primary school)

To say “primary school” (literally, “school of primary”), Hausa attaches a linker -n / -r to the first noun:

makarantar firamare
= school‑(of) primary
= primary school

The form of the linker depends on the final sound of the noun:

gida → gidan malam – the teacher’s house
makaranta → makarantar firamare – primary school
wuri → wurin aiki – place of work

So makarantar firamare is a fixed, natural way of saying “primary school.”

Is firamare a Hausa word or a borrowing, and can it stand alone?

Firamare is a loanword, ultimately from English “primary” (via colonial education vocabulary).

In makarantar firamare, it functions like “primary” as an adjective describing the kind of school.
It can also stand on its own in context to mean primary school as an institution, e.g.:
- Ya na aiki a firamare.
  He works at a primary school.

But the fully explicit phrase is makarantar firamare.

How would I say the same idea in the past or future instead of the present “are building”?

Use different aspect/tense markers with gina:

Present / progressive (your sentence)
- Ma'aikata suna gina sabon bene kusa da makarantar firamare.
  The workers are building a new building near the primary school.
Past / completed (they built / have built)
- Ma'aikata sun gina sabon bene kusa da makarantar firamare.
  The workers built / have built a new building near the primary school.
Future
- Ma'aikata za su gina sabon bene kusa da makarantar firamare.
  The workers will build a new building near the primary school.

So the main changes are in suna → sun / za su; gina itself stays the same.

How do I make this sentence negative: “The workers are not building a new building near the primary school”?

A natural negative for this progressive pattern is:

Ma'aikata ba sa gina sabon bene kusa da makarantar firamare.
The workers are not building a new building near the primary school.

Key points:

suna gina (they are building)
→ ba sa gina (they are not building / they don’t build)

You often see ba … ba bracketing longer sentences, but in this very common progressive/habitual negative, the final ba is often dropped in everyday speech:

Full form (more formal/emphatic):
Ma'aikata ba sa gina sabon bene kusa da makarantar firamare ba.
Common, shorter spoken form:
Ma'aikata ba sa gina sabon bene kusa da makarantar firamare.

Can I drop Ma'aikata and just say Suna gina sabon bene kusa da makarantar firamare?

Yes, that’s grammatical:

Suna gina sabon bene kusa da makarantar firamare.
They are building a new building near the primary school.

Hausa, like English, allows you to omit the full noun subject if it is already clear from context.
However:

If you want to introduce who is doing the action, you should keep Ma'aikata.
Once it is clear you are talking about the workers, you can continue with just suna…, suke…, etc.

So:

First mention:
Ma'aikata suna gina sabon bene kusa da makarantar firamare.
Later in the conversation, you could just say:
Suna kusan gamawa. – They are almost finished.