Dalibai suna karatu cikin shiru.

Word by word:

• dalibai – students (dalibi = student, dalibai = students)
• su – they
• -na – continuous / habitual aspect marker
• suna (su + na) – they are (doing something)
• karatu – reading / studying (a verbal noun from karanta “to read”)
• cikin – in, inside (literally “inside of”)
• shiru – silence, quiet

So the literal structure is: Students they-are study/reading in silence.

The idea of are is built into suna.

In Hausa, you don’t use a separate verb like English to be with actions. Instead, you use a subject pronoun plus an aspect marker:

• su + na → suna = “they are (doing something)”
• ya + na → yana = “he is (doing something)”
• ta + na → tana = “she is (doing something)”

So suna karatu already means they are studying / they are reading. You don’t add an extra word for are.

Structurally, suna is a combination of:

• su = they (subject pronoun)
• -na = continuous / habitual aspect marker

In practice, learners can treat suna as the Hausa equivalent of “they are” before an action:

• suna tafiya – they are going / they go
• suna cin abinci – they are eating / they eat

So it behaves a bit like a fused pronoun + “be” + aspect unit.

Hausa does not form plurals by adding -s like English. Nouns usually have specific plural forms that you have to learn.

Here:

• dalibi = student (singular)
• dalibai = students (plural)

Other examples:

• yaro (boy) → yara (boys)
• littaafi (book) → littattafai (books)

So dalibai is already plural; you don’t add anything else to mark the plural.

Hausa often leaves definiteness (a / the) to context, but if you explicitly want the students, you typically add a definite ending:

• dalibai – students (general / non-specific)
• daliban – the students (specific group already known in context)

So you could say:

• Daliban suna karatu cikin shiru. – The students are studying in silence.

Both Dalibai suna… and Daliban suna… are grammatically correct; the difference is how specific the group is in context.

Suna karatu can mean either, depending on context:

• They are studying (right now) – present continuous
• They study / they usually study – habitual present

Hausa aspect is more about whether the action is ongoing/habitual versus completed, not strictly about English-style tense. Suna karatu tells you it’s non-completed / ongoing or characteristic, and context decides whether you translate it as are studying or study.

Formally, karatu is a verbal noun (“reading / studying”), from the verb karanta (“to read”).

The pattern is:

• suna (they-are, continuous aspect) + karatu (reading / study)

So structurally it’s like saying “they are (in a state of) study”. For learners, it’s fine to think of suna karatu as the standard way to say they are studying / they are reading.

Literally:

• ciki – inside
• -n – linking suffix (“of”)
• cikin shiru – inside (of) silence → in silence

So cikin shiru is an adverbial phrase meaning in silence / quietly.

You normally should not drop cikin here.

• suna karatu cikin shiru – they are studying in silence (natural)
• suna karatu shiru – sounds odd / unidiomatic in most contexts

If you just want to say they are quiet, you’d use a different structure (for example suna shiru), but that doesn’t mean studying in silence.

Dalibai suna shiru is grammatical, but it means something different:

• Dalibai suna karatu cikin shiru. – The students are studying in silence.
• Dalibai suna shiru. – The students are quiet / The students are being silent.

The second sentence does not say they are studying; it only describes their state (they are silent). To keep the idea of studying in silence, you need karatu and cikin shiru.

The normal, neutral word order is:

• Dalibai suna karatu cikin shiru.

You can sometimes move adverbial phrases (like cikin shiru) around for emphasis, but the version you suggested:

• Dalibai cikin shiru suna karatu

sounds unusual or marked, and is not the basic, learner-friendly pattern.

For clear, standard Hausa, keep:

Subject + “suna” + verb (or verbal noun) + extra details

→ Dalibai suna karatu cikin shiru.

You need to change both the noun and the pronoun:

• dalibai (students) → dalibi (student)
• suna (they are) → yana (he is) or tana (she is), depending on gender

Examples:

• Dalibi yana karatu cikin shiru. – The (male) student is studying in silence.
• Daliba tana karatu cikin shiru. – The (female) student is studying in silence.

(daliba is a common feminine form of dalibi.)

For the negative continuous with suna, Hausa normally uses ba sa for 3rd person plural.

So:

• Positive: Dalibai suna karatu cikin shiru.
• Negative: Dalibai ba sa karatu cikin shiru.

Breakdown of the negative:

• ba – negative marker
• sa – 3rd person plural negative continuous form (corresponds to positive suna)
• karatu cikin shiru – studying in silence

So ba sa here works like “are not (doing)”.

Not in exactly the same way. suke is generally used in relative or focus constructions, not as the basic continuous form.

Compare:

• Dalibai suna karatu cikin shiru. – The students are studying in silence. (neutral statement)
• Dalibai ne suke karatu cikin shiru. – It is the students who are studying in silence. (focused on “students”)
• Dalibai suna karatu ne cikin shiru. – It’s in silence that the students are studying. (focus on the manner)

As a beginner or intermediate learner, use suna for normal “are doing” sentences, and learn suke later in the context of focus/relative clauses.

No. In the plural, Hausa uses su / suna for they regardless of gender.

So:

• Dalibai suna karatu cikin shiru.

works for:

• all-male group
• all-female group
• mixed group

Gender only affects the 3rd person singular:

• yanaa karatu – he is studying
• tanaa karatu – she is studying

But in the plural, suna is used for everyone.

Approximate English-like pronunciations (not perfect, but helpful):

• dalibai – da-LEE-bai

  • da as in dad
  • li like lee
  • bai like English bye

• cikin – CHEE-keen (or CHI-kin, with a short i)

  • c in standard Hausa is a ch sound (as in church)
  • both i vowels are close to English ee but can be shorter

• shiru – SHEE-roo

  • shi like she
  • ru like roo in kangaroo, but with a tapped/rolled r if you can

Hausa stress is often fairly even compared to English; learners commonly put a bit more stress on the second syllable in dalibai (da-LEE-bai), which is acceptable.