Ni ina da buri in zama injiniya ko lauya.

I have an ambition to become an engineer or a lawyer.

Breakdown of Ni ina da buri in zama injiniya ko lauya.

• ni: I
• da: to have
• ko: or
• zama: to become
• buri: the ambition
• injiniya: the engineer
• lauya: the lawyer

Questions & Answers about Ni ina da buri in zama injiniya ko lauya.

Why do we have both Ni and ina here? Don’t they both mean I?

They are two different kinds of pronouns:

• ni = independent (emphatic) pronoun: I / me
• ina = subject pronoun for the ongoing / present tense: I (am)

In this sentence:

• Ni adds emphasis: “As for me / I personally…”
• ina da buri is the normal clause: “I have an ambition…”

So:

• Ni ina da buri in zama injiniya ko lauya.
  = “I (as for me) have the ambition to become an engineer or a lawyer.”

You can also correctly say:

• Ina da buri in zama injiniya ko lauya.

The meaning is the same; the first just emphasizes I a bit more.

Could I drop Ni and only say Ina da buri in zama injiniya ko lauya?

Yes, that is completely correct and actually more common in everyday speech:

• Ina da buri in zama injiniya ko lauya.

Adding Ni at the beginning makes the sentence slightly more emphatic or contrastive, like:

• “I’m the one who has the ambition to become an engineer or a lawyer (not someone else).”

So:

• With Ni = emphasis / contrast.
• Without Ni = neutral statement.

How does ina da mean “I have”? Literally it looks like “I am with”.

You’re right about the literal meaning:

• ina = I am (present / continuous)
• da = with

Together ina da literally is “I am with …”, but Hausa uses this structure to express possession, so it functions like English “I have …”.

Examples:

• Ina da kudi. = I have money. (literally: I am with money.)
• Ina da mota. = I have a car.
• Ina da buri. = I have an ambition / goal.

So in the sentence:

• Ni ina da buri… = I have an ambition…

What exactly does buri mean? Is it like wish, dream, or goal?

buri covers several English ideas:

• ambition
• goal / aim
• strong wish / aspiration
• dream (for the future)

It usually implies something serious and long‑term, not just a casual wish.

Compare:

• Ina son in ci abinci.
  I want to eat (now). – everyday want, using so/son.

• Ina da buri in zama injiniya.
  I have the ambition / dream to become an engineer. – a life goal, using buri.

So buri here is best understood as “ambition / long‑term goal / dream for the future.”

What does in before zama do? Isn’t in usually “if”?

This in is not “if” in the usual conditional sense.
Here, in introduces a subjunctive / “to do” clause after verbs or nouns of desire, plan, ambition, etc.

Pattern for 1st person singular:

• ina son in tafi = I want to go
• ina da buri in zama = I have the ambition to become
• ina ƙoƙari in koyi Hausa = I am trying to learn Hausa

So in:

• ina da buri in zama injiniya

in zama = “that I become / to become.”

It’s similar to English using “to” before a verb in this type of sentence, but grammatically it’s more like a subjunctive complementizer, not a preposition.

Why is the verb zama used for “to become”? I’ve also seen it mean “to sit”.

zama is a very flexible verb. Its main uses include:

1. to become / turn into / be (as a role or status)

   • Na zama likita. = I became a doctor.
   • Ta zama shugaba. = She became a leader.

2. to sit / take a seat / settle down

   • Zauna! (imperative from zama) = Sit down!

In the sentence:

• in zama injiniya ko lauya

the meaning is clearly “become / be (as a profession)”, not “sit”.
Context (professions, roles) pushes the sense of “become / be”.

So in zama injiniya = “to become an engineer / to be an engineer (as a profession).”

Why don’t we say “to become an engineer” with any word for “a/an”? There’s just injiniya.

Hausa does not have articles like a/an or the as separate little words.
The noun injiniya alone can mean:

• an engineer
• the engineer
• simply engineer (in the job-title sense)

The exact English translation depends on context.

So:

• in zama injiniya = to become an engineer
• in zama lauya = to become a lawyer

There is no special article; Hausa just uses the bare noun.

Why isn’t there a ni before injiniya, like “in zama ni injiniya”?

In Hausa, when you talk about what you become / what your profession is, you normally just put the profession directly after zama (or after the “be” verb), without a pronoun like ni.

So you say:

• Na zama injiniya. = I became an engineer.
• In zama injiniya. = (for me) to become an engineer.
• Ya zama lauya. = He became a lawyer.

You would not say:

• ✗ in zama ni injiniya (unnatural / wrong here)

The subject is already expressed by in (1st person) before zama, so adding ni again in front of injiniya is redundant and ungrammatical in this structure.

What exactly does ko mean here between injiniya and lauya?

In this sentence, ko is the normal conjunction meaning “or”.

• injiniya ko lauya = an engineer or a lawyer

Some common uses of ko:

1. Or (in statements and questions)

   • Kana son shayi ko kofi? = Do you want tea or coffee?
   • Injiniya ko lauya. = An engineer or a lawyer.

2. Either … or … (just putting ko between the options)

   • Zan tafi gobe ko jibi. = I will go either tomorrow or the day after.

3. With other words it can take extra meanings (like ko da = even if), but in your sentence it’s simply “or.”

You could slightly vary it:

• injiniya ko kuma lauya = an engineer or else a lawyer (a bit more contrastive), but injiniya ko lauya is the most straightforward.

How would this sentence look for other people, like “He has the ambition to become…” or “We have the ambition to become…”?

The structure is the same; you mainly change the subject pronoun before da buri and before zama.

1. I have the ambition to become…

   • Ina da buri in zama injiniya ko lauya.

2. You (sg.) have the ambition to become…

   • Kana da buri ka zama injiniya ko lauya. (to a man)
   • Kina da buri ki zama injiniya ko lauya. (to a woman)

3. He has the ambition to become…

   • Yana da buri ya zama injiniya ko lauya.

4. She has the ambition to become…

   • Tana da buri ta zama injiniya ko lauya.

5. We have the ambition to become…

   • Muna da buri mu zama injiniyoyi ko lauyoyi.
     (note plural injiniyoyi, lauyoyi if you clearly mean many engineers/lawyers)

6. They have the ambition to become…

   • Suna da buri su zama injiniyoyi ko lauyoyi.

Notice the pattern:

• subject (X) da buri
• followed by matching X again in the subjunctive: in / ka / ki / ya / ta / mu / ku / su zama…

Are injiniya and lauya gendered words? Do they change for male vs. female?

In modern standard Hausa:

• injiniya = engineer (male or female)
• lauya = lawyer (male or female)

The form of the noun itself does not change for gender in normal usage.
If you want to be explicit about gender, you usually add words like:

• namiji = male
• mace = female

For example:

• In zama injiniyar mace. = (with extra context) to become a female engineer.
  (Here injiniya may take a feminine agreement in some contexts, but colloquially people often just say injiniya and rely on context.)

In everyday speech, injiniya and lauya are treated as gender‑neutral job titles.

Is there any pronunciation advice for ni ina da buri in zama injiniya ko lauya?

A few tips:

• ni – short “nee” (no final vowel lengthening).
• ina – EE-na (stress usually on the first syllable, i as in “machine”).
• buri – BOO-ree (u as in “put” or “book”, r is tapped/flapped).
• in – short, like English “in”, but very light.
• zama – ZA-ma (z as in “zoo”; a as in “father”).
• injiniya – roughly in-JI-ni-ya:
  • the j is like English j in “jam”
  • four syllables: in–ji–ni–ya.
• lauya – LAU-ya:
  • lau is like English “low” but with a bit of “laow” quality; it’s a diphthong.
  • stress on the first syllable: LAU‑ya.

Said smoothly, the sentence flows as:

Ni ina da buri in zama injiniya ko lauya.
nee EE-na da BOO-ree in ZA-ma in-JI-ni-ya ko LAU-ya.