Hukumar tana duba fasfo.

The base noun is hukuma. The form hukumar adds Hausa’s postposed determiner for a feminine noun, so it often means the authority / the agency rather than just authority / an agency.

So:

• hukuma = authority, agency, government office
• hukumar = the authority, the agency

This -r ending is very common with feminine nouns.

Tana is the subject-marking form used with a third-person feminine singular subject in the imperfective/progressive.

Since hukuma is grammatically feminine and singular, Hausa uses tana:

• hukumar tana... = the authority is...

If the noun were grammatically masculine, you would usually expect yana instead.

Not exactly in the English sense. It is the form used for a feminine singular subject, but Hausa grammatical gender does not always match natural sex.

So with a non-human noun like hukuma, tana is best understood as:

• it is
• or more literally, feminine singular subject + imperfective/progressive

So even though the form is the same one used for she, here it refers to the authority.

Because Hausa has grammatical gender, not just natural gender.

That means nouns belong to gender classes, and agreement follows the noun’s class. A thing does not have to be biologically female to take feminine agreement.

So hukuma is grammatically feminine, and that is why the sentence uses tana.

No separate word like English is appears here.

In tana duba, the form tana already carries the subject agreement and the present/imperfective idea. So together:

• tana duba = is checking / checks

English splits this meaning across multiple words, but Hausa often packs it into the subject marker plus the verb.

The order is:

Subject + subject/TAM marker + verb + object

So here:

• Hukumar = subject
• tana = subject agreement + imperfective/progressive marker
• duba = verb
• fasfo = object

This is a very common Hausa sentence pattern.

Duba has a broad meaning range, including:

• look at
• examine
• inspect
• check

In a context like passports, check or inspect is the most natural English meaning. So the exact translation depends on context, even though the Hausa verb stays the same.

Because duba can take a direct object.

So Hausa says:

• duba fasfo

literally as check/look at passport

English sometimes needs an extra word, depending on the translation you choose, but Hausa does not need one here.

It can mean either, depending on context.

The Hausa imperfective can cover:

• an action happening now: is checking
• a regular or repeated action: checks

So without more context, both are possible. Many beginner translations choose is checking, but checks may also be correct in the right situation.

By itself, fasfo is the noun passport. In simple Hausa sentences, context often helps you decide whether English should use passport or passports.

So if the meaning shown to you was singular, that is fine; if it was plural, that can also make sense in context. With loanwords like fasfo, learners should first focus on recognizing the noun, and then let context guide the number.

A simple learner-friendly approximation is:

hu-ku-mar ta-na du-ba fas-fo

You can say it with clear syllables:

• hu
• ku
• mar
• ta
• na
• du
• ba
• fas
• fo

A few tips:

• The r in hukumar is usually light.
• Hausa pronunciation is generally quite regular.
• Clear vowels and syllables matter more than trying to force English-style stress.

A good beginner goal is just to pronounce each syllable cleanly and evenly.