Ƙungiyoyin suna fafatawa, amma tazarar maki ɗaya ce.

to be

Breakdown of Ƙungiyoyin suna fafatawa, amma tazarar maki ɗaya ce.

• su: they
• amma: but
• ɗaya: one

Questions & Answers about Ƙungiyoyin suna fafatawa, amma tazarar maki ɗaya ce.

Why is ƙungiyoyin not just ƙungiyoyi?

Ƙungiya means group or team. Its plural is ƙungiyoyi = teams.

The form ƙungiyoyin adds a final ending that often makes the noun more specific, so here it means the teams rather than just teams in general.

So:

• ƙungiyoyi = teams
• ƙungiyoyin = the teams

That is why the sentence starts with Ƙungiyoyin suna fafatawa = The teams are competing.

What does suna mean here?

Here suna is the 3rd person plural imperfective subject form. For a learner, the easiest way to think about it is:

• su = they
• suna = they are / they do

In this sentence, it introduces an ongoing action:

• suna fafatawa = they are competing

It is not exactly the same as English are, but in many sentences it works that way in translation.

Why is the verb fafatawa in that form?

Fafatawa is the form Hausa commonly uses for the action competing / contesting / battling, especially after forms like suna.

So instead of thinking of it as a directly conjugated English-style verb, it is better to learn the whole pattern: