Learn Hardcore Hausa: Tebur yana tsakanin kujeru biyu.

Tebur – table (subject noun)
yana – he/it is (3rd person masculine singular, used for “is (currently)”)
tsakanin – between / in the middle of
kujeru – chairs (plural of kujera, “chair”)
biyu – two

So, very literally: “Table it-is between chairs two.”
Natural English: “The table is between two chairs.”

What exactly does yana mean here? Is it just the verb “to be”?

Yana is made of two parts historically: ya (he/it) + na (progressive/continuous marker). In modern usage it’s written together as yana.

In this kind of sentence, yana:

Shows the subject: 3rd person singular masculine (here, tebur, which is grammatically masculine).
Marks a current state or location (“is (currently) at/in/between …”).

So in practice, in location sentences like this, yana works very much like English “is”, even though grammatically it’s more like “he/it is (currently)”.

Why is yana used instead of yake in this sentence? Could I say Tebur yake tsakanin kujeru biyu?

In everyday Hausa, for simple statements about where something is right now, speakers strongly prefer yana:

Tebur yana tsakanin kujeru biyu. – The table is between two chairs.
Littafi yana kan tebur. – The book is on the table.

Yake (historically ya ke) is a different present‑tense/aspect form. You most often see yake:

In relative clauses:
- Mutumin da yake wurin shago – The man who is at the shop.
In certain focus or emphatic structures.

You might hear Tebur yake tsakanin kujeru biyu in some contexts or dialects, but for a neutral, simple sentence about location, yana is standard and sounds most natural. For a learner, it’s safest to treat “X yana [place]” as the default pattern for “X is (located) [place].”

Is there no separate word for “is” in this sentence? Where is the copula?

In Hausa, there isn’t one single verb that always corresponds to English “to be.” Instead, Hausa uses different strategies depending on what you’re saying:

Location / ongoing state
- Uses pronoun + aspect marker (like yana, tana, suna, etc.)
- Example: Tebur yana tsakanin kujeru biyu. – The table is between two chairs.
Equational / identifying sentences (X is Y)
- Often use the copula ne/ce:
  - Wannan tebur ne. – This is a table.
  - Wannan kujera ce. – This is a chair.

In Tebur yana tsakanin kujeru biyu, the function of “is” is effectively carried by yana, so there’s no separate little word that exactly equals English “is.”

Why is there no a (at/in) before tsakanin? Could I say yana a tsakanin kujeru biyu?

Tsakanin already behaves like a full preposition meaning “between,” so you don’t need a separate a (“at/in”) in front of it.

Normal: Tebur yana tsakanin kujeru biyu.
Also possible but less common/necessary in everyday speech: Tebur yana a tsakanin kujeru biyu.

Speakers often drop the extra a with spatial words that already express location, such as:

kan (on/top of) → Littafi yana kan tebur. – The book is on the table.
cikin (inside) → Littafi yana cikin jaka. – The book is in the bag.
tsakanin (between) → Tebur yana tsakanin kujeru biyu.

For you as a learner, without a is the most natural version here.

What does tsakanin literally mean, and how else can it be used?

Tsakanin literally comes from the idea of “the middle (of)”, and in modern Hausa it functions primarily as “between”.

Common uses:

Between two (or more) things:
- Tebur yana tsakanin kujeru biyu. – The table is between two chairs.
- Gida yana tsakanin masallaci da makaranta. – The house is between the mosque and the school.
Between people / among people:
- Tsakaninmu – between us
- Tsakanin malamai – among the teachers

So you can think of tsakanin X as “in the middle of / between X.”

Why is it kujeru biyu and not biyu kujeru? Where do numbers go in Hausa?

In Hausa, cardinal numbers (two, three, four…) usually come after the noun they count:

kujeru biyu – two chairs
gidaje uku – three houses
mutane hudu – four people

So the pattern is normally:

noun (in plural) + number

That’s why kujeru biyu (chairs two) is correct, not biyu kujeru (two chairs).
Biyu kujeru would be ungrammatical in standard Hausa.

Why is kujera (chair) plural kujeru? How is that plural formed?

Kujera (chair) is a common feminine noun ending in -a. A frequent plural pattern for such nouns is:

singular: ‑a
plural: ‑u

So:

kujera → kujeru – chair → chairs
mota → motoci (another pattern) – car → cars
shadafa → shadafu (for some dialect words)

Plurals in Hausa are not formed by adding “‑s” like in English; there are several patterns that must be learned with each noun. For kujera, the standard plural is kujeru.

How do I know that tebur is masculine, so that I should say yana and not tana?

Hausa has grammatical gender (masculine and feminine), and pronouns and certain forms agree with that gender:

Masculine: yana (he/it is)
Feminine: tana (she/it is)

Unfortunately, for many inanimate nouns like tebur (table), the gender is something you largely have to learn and memorize; it’s not always predictable just from the ending.

In usage:

Tebur yana tsakanin kujeru biyu. – The table (masc.) is between two chairs.
Kujera tana wajen taga. – The chair (fem.) is by the window.

So tebur behaves as a masculine noun, and it takes yana.
Tebur tana tsakanin kujeru biyu would sound wrong to native speakers.

Can I drop yana and just say Tebur tsakanin kujeru biyu?

Tebur tsakanin kujeru biyu is not a full normal sentence in standard Hausa; it sounds like a noun phrase, roughly “table between two chairs,” without a clear verb.

To make a proper sentence “The table is between two chairs,” you need something that plays the role of “is”, which here is yana:

Tebur yana tsakanin kujeru biyu. – Correct full sentence.

You might see or hear fragments without yana in headlines, labels, or very telegraphic speech, but for normal spoken or written Hausa, keep yana in this kind of sentence.

How do you pronounce tsakanin and kujeru?

Approximate pronunciations (using English‑friendly hints):

tsakanin – tsa-ka-nin
- ts: like the ts in English “cats” at the start of the word.
- a: like “a” in “father”.
- Final -nin: like “neen” but shorter and lighter.
kujeru – ku-je-ru
- ku: like “koo” in “cool” (shorter).
- je: like “je” in “jelly” (a soft j sound).
- ru: like “roo” in “kangaroo” (again short).

Stress in Hausa is relatively even, but you can lightly stress the first syllable: TSA-ka-nin, KU-je-ru.