Ni ina ajiye buroshi na a bandaki.

I keep my toothbrush in the bathroom.

Breakdown of Ni ina ajiye buroshi na a bandaki.

• ni: I
• ne: to be
• a: in
• bandaki: the bathroom
• na: my
• buroshi: the toothbrush
• ajiye: to keep

Questions & Answers about Ni ina ajiye buroshi na a bandaki.

Why does the sentence use both Ni and ina? Isn’t that like saying “I I keep my brush in the bathroom”?

Ni means “I (me)”, and ina here is the present‑tense verb form for “I am / I do”.
In Hausa, you can often drop Ni and just say Ina ajiye buroshi na a bandaki, which is correct and normal.
Keeping Ni adds emphasis or contrast, like “Me, I keep my brush in the bathroom (maybe others don’t).”

Could I say “Ina ajiye buroshina a bandaki” instead of “buroshi na”? Which is better?

Yes, Ina ajiye buroshina a bandaki is actually the more typical written form.

• buroshi na = buroshina (my brush)
  The attached form (buroshina) is very common and sounds smooth and natural.
  The separated form (buroshi na) is also used, especially in speech, but many textbooks and formal writing prefer the attached form.

Why is na placed after buroshi? In English it’s “my brush”, not “brush my”.

In Hausa, the possessive pronoun usually comes after the noun:

• buroshi na = brush my = my brush
  Other examples:
• mota ta = my car
• littafi na = my book
  So noun + possessive is the normal order in Hausa.

I’ve seen na used in many ways. Here, is na the same as the past tense marker “na”?

No, it’s a different “na”:

• In Ni ina ajiye buroshi na a bandaki, na is a possessive pronoun = my.
• There is also a verbal “na” used in past tense or other constructions (Na je = I went).
  They look the same in writing, but you tell them apart by position and meaning:
• After a noun → usually possessive (buroshi na = my brush)
• Before/with a verb as subject → usually tense/subject (Na je = I went).

What exactly does ajiyè / ajiye mean here? Is it “put”, “keep”, or “store”?

ajiyè / ajiye basically means “to keep, store, put away, place somewhere for later use.”
In this sentence it means “I keep / I store my brush in the bathroom”, not just a one‑time action of putting it there.
Context often decides whether it feels more like “keep” or “put aside”.

Does ina ajiye mean “I am putting (right now)” or “I (normally) keep”?

Ina ajiye can express both present continuous and habitual present, depending on context.
Here, with no time expression, it naturally reads as habitual:

• Ni ina ajiye buroshi na a bandaki ≈ I keep my brush in the bathroom (that’s where it lives).
  If you wanted to be very clearly habitual, you could also say Nakan ajiye buroshina a bandaki, but ina ajiye is commonly used this way too.

What does a do before bandaki? Is it like the English word “in” or “at”?

Yes. a is a general locative preposition, usually translated as “in, at, on” depending on the noun and context.
So a bandaki means “in/at the bathroom.”
You can think of it as the basic “location marker.”

I’ve seen a cikin bandaki as well. What is the difference between a bandaki and a cikin bandaki?

• a bandaki = in/at the bathroom (general location)
• a cikin bandaki = inside the bathroom, a bit more explicit about being inside.
  In many everyday contexts, a bandaki is enough and sounds very natural. a cikin bandaki adds a slight nuance of “inside (the room), not outside.”

Is the spelling bandaki correct, or should it be banɗaki with that special letter ɗ?

The more standard spelling in modern Hausa is banɗaki (with ɗ).
The letter ɗ represents a specific implosive ‘d’ sound that is different from a plain d.
In informal writing or when people don’t have the special character, you may see bandaki, but banɗaki is the proper orthography.

Can I change the word order and say Ni ina ajiye a bandaki buroshi na?

That word order is not natural in Hausa.
The default pattern is:
Subject – Verb – Object – Place
So: Ni ina ajiye buroshi na a bandaki (I keep my brush in the bathroom).
Moving a bandaki in between the verb and the object usually sounds wrong or, at best, very marked and odd.

How would the meaning change if I leave out na and say Ni ina ajiye buroshi a bandaki?

Without na, buroshi is no longer clearly “my brush”. It becomes “a brush / brushes” in general:

• Ni ina ajiye buroshi a bandaki ≈ I keep a brush / brushes in the bathroom.
  If you want to say clearly my brush, you need na (or the attached form buroshina).

Why doesn’t Hausa use a word like “the” in “the bathroom” here?

Hausa generally doesn’t have separate words for “the” and “a/an” like English does.
Definiteness (whether something is “the bathroom” vs “a bathroom”) is mostly understood from context.
So a bandaki can mean “in the bathroom” or “in a bathroom”; listeners work out which one you mean from the situation.