English can intensify almost any adjective by adding very, extremely, or huge. Hausa has equally productive phrases with sosai and ƙwarai, but it also has a special lexical class traditionally called augmentative adjectives. Forms such as fankameme “impressively broad or massive” and sangameme “huge (of a living being)” combine degree, size, shape, and the speaker’s vivid reaction in a single word.
These words are systematic, but they are not freely invented. Each has a masculine singular, a feminine singular, and a common plural, and many have expressive sounds or reduplication. They are most natural in (informal) description and (literary) narration; a neutral (formal) report usually prefers a precise measurement or sosai. This page uses Nigerian Standard Hausa spelling without tone or vowel-length marks.
For the productive alternative, review Very with sosai and ƙwarai; for fixed sound-symbolic partners, see Degree Ideophones with Property Words.
Productive intensity versus a lexical augmentative
With an ordinary property expression, sosai “very” and ƙwarai “very indeed” raise the degree without changing the property word. They are invariant.
Ginin yana da faɗi sosai.
The building is very broad/spacious.
Sabuwar kasuwar tana da girma ƙwarai.
The new market is extremely large.
An augmentative chooses a more vivid lexical picture:
Wani fankamemen gini ne ya mamaye tsakiyar kasuwar.
An imposing, massively broad building dominates the center of the market.
Here fankameme does more than place faɗi “breadth” high on a scale. It depicts an object whose breadth or bulk is striking. English often hides this distinction by translating both structures with very big.
The agreement paradigms are part of the word
Augmentatives behave like agreeing adjectival words. Two useful paradigms are shown below. The first describes impressive breadth or bulk; the second is restricted to large living beings.
| Meaning | Masculine singular | Feminine singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| very broad, imposing | fankameme | fankamemiya | fankama-fankama |
| huge (living being) | sangameme | sangamemiya | sangam-sangam |
The plural is not formed by attaching English-like -s. It uses a special reduplicated pattern. Nor should learners manufacture a feminine by replacing the last vowel with -a: the feminine forms above contain -miya.
Ginin fankameme ne, kuma yana da ɗakuna da yawa.
The building is imposing and very broad, and it has many rooms.
Makarantar fankamemiya ce, amma ɗalibanta ba su da yawa.
The school is an imposing large one, but it does not have many pupils.
Gine-ginen fankama-fankama ne; ana ganinsu daga nesa.
The buildings are massive and imposing; they can be seen from far away.
Dokin sangameme ne, amma yana da sauƙin hawa.
The horse is huge, but it is easy to ride.
Saniyar sangamemiya ce; ta fi sauran girma.
The cow is huge; it is bigger than the others.
Wasu dawakai sangam-sangam sun fito daga turken.
Some huge horses came out of the enclosure.
The agreement reflects the grammatical gender and number of the head noun, not the sex that an English speaker imagines. Gini is masculine, makaranta feminine, and the plural takes the common plural adjective.
Attributive position requires the linked form
When the augmentative comes before a noun, it carries the same genitive linker found on ordinary pre-nominal adjectives: masculine -n, feminine -r, and plural -n. The whole agreeing adjective precedes the head noun.
Sun gina wani fankamemen ɗaki domin taron.
They built an impressively large hall for the meeting.
Mun shiga wata fankamemiyar kasuwa a birnin.
We entered a huge, sprawling market in the city.
Fankama-fankaman gine-ginen sun rufe hanyar kallon tsauni.
The imposing buildings blocked the view of the hill.
Wani sangamemen rago ya tsere daga garke.
A huge ram escaped from the flock.
The post-nominal order is also possible with adjectival words, especially in vivid description, but it does not take that pre-nominal linker:
A ƙofar gidan an ɗaure wani rago sangameme.
A huge ram was tethered at the entrance to the house.
The choice is not the same as English, where an adjective normally has to precede the noun. Hausa pre-nominal position exposes agreement through the linked form; post-nominal position can sound like a descriptive afterthought.
Predicative use chooses ne or ce
As a nominal-style adjective predicate, an augmentative combines with the focus copula. Use ne with a masculine or plural predicate and ce with a feminine singular predicate.
Sabon babban ɗakin fankameme ne ƙwarai.
The new main hall is extraordinarily broad and imposing.
Motar ɗaukar kaya fankamemiya ce; ba za ta shiga ƙaramar ƙofar ba.
The truck is enormously broad; it will not fit through the small gate.
Sababbin rumfunan fankama-fankama ne.
The new stalls are massive and imposing.
Do not place yana da before an agreeing augmentative as though every property were a possessed noun. Compare the three distinct strategies:
Dokin sangameme ne.
The horse is huge. (augmentative adjective + ne)
Dokin yana da girma sosai.
The horse is very large. (possessed quality noun)
Dokin ya yi girma sosai.
The horse has grown very large. (yi presents a resulting condition)
The English translations overlap, but the Hausa packaging differs. The first classifies the horse with an expressive adjective; the second attributes much size to it; the third presents size as a result or development.
Not every expressive form is an augmentative adjective
Hausa has several neighboring resources. A fixed ideophone such as ful in sabo ful “brand-new” is invariant. It does not supply masculine, feminine, and plural paradigms of its own. An ordinary adjective plus sosai is productive. A full augmentative paradigm agrees.
Wayar sabuwa ce ful.
The phone is brand-new. (fixed ideophone; ful is invariant)
Wayoyin sababbi ne sosai.
The phones are very new. (productive sosai)
Gine-ginen fankama-fankama ne.
The buildings are imposing and massive. (augmentative plural)
This difference matters because expressive sound symbolism tempts learners to treat every vivid form as interchangeable. It is not. Ful does not become fula for a feminine noun, and sangameme cannot describe a building: its lexical meaning selects living beings.
A natural judgment in context
A: Wane ɗaki za mu yi amfani da shi? B: Mu ɗauki fankamemen ɗakin nan; ya fi sauran faɗi, kuma baƙi za su zauna cikin sauƙi.
A: Which hall shall we use? B: Let’s take this imposing large hall; it is broader than the others, and the guests will sit comfortably.
The augmentative provides the speaker’s vivid first assessment. The following ya fi sauran faɗi supplies an explicit comparison on the neutral scale “breadth.” Combining them is natural because the two expressions do different work.
Practice
Choose the strategy that matches the intended force.
Kasuwar tana da girma sosai.
The market is very large. (neutral productive degree)
Wata fankamemiyar kasuwa ce aka buɗe kusa da tashar.
An imposing, sprawling market was opened near the station. (expressive feminine augmentative)
Shanun sangam-sangam ne, amma ba su da hatsari.
The cattle are huge, but they are not dangerous. (plural of a living-being augmentative)
Common Mistakes
1. Using one form for every gender and number
❌ Wata fankameme kasuwa ce.
Incorrect — a feminine singular head requires the feminine linked form before the noun.
✅ Wata fankamemiyar kasuwa ce.
It is a huge, sprawling market.
2. Inventing a regular-looking plural
❌ Gine-ginen fankameme ne.
Incorrect for the intended agreeing plural — fankameme is masculine singular.
✅ Waɗannan gine-ginen fankama-fankama ne.
These buildings are massive and imposing.
3. Dropping the linker before the noun
❌ Sun gina wani fankameme ɗaki.
Incorrect — a pre-nominal masculine adjective requires the linked form.
✅ Sun gina wani fankamemen ɗaki.
They built an impressively large hall.
4. Treating a restricted word as a general translation of huge
❌ Wani sangamemen gini ne.
Incorrect in the intended standard use — sangameme selects a large living being, not a building.
✅ Wani fankamemen gini ne.
It is an imposing, massively broad building.
5. Mixing adjective and possession frames
❌ Dokin yana da sangameme.
Incorrect — sangameme is used as an agreeing adjective, not as the possessed quality noun after yana da.
✅ Dokin sangameme ne.
The horse is huge.
Key Takeaways
- Sosai and ƙwarai productively intensify many expressions; augmentatives are special lexical adjectives.
- Augmentatives agree: fankameme / fankamemiya / fankama-fankama and sangameme / sangamemiya / sangam-sangam.
- Pre-nominal forms take the appropriate linker; predicates use ne/ce.
- Sangameme is restricted to living beings, while fankameme depicts striking breadth or bulk.
- Keep adjective, yana da
- quality noun, and yi
- resulting condition as distinct Hausa strategies even when English translates all three with be + adjective.
- quality noun, and yi
Now practice Hausa
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Start learning Hausa →Related Topics
- How Hausa Expresses PropertiesA1 — Choose among true adjectives, mai or masu phrases, quality nouns, and verbal expressions when describing people and things in Hausa.
- Masculine and Feminine Adjective FormsA1 — Match Hausa singular adjectives to masculine and feminine nouns in linked attributive phrases and in predicates with ne and ce.
- Very with sosai and ƙwaraiB1 — Intensify Hausa adjective, quality-noun, yi, and verbal predicates with sosai and ƙwarai.
- Degree Ideophones with Property WordsB1 — Use fixed Hausa ideophone collocations such as fari fat, baƙi ƙirin, ja wur, sabo ful, and gaji tikis without treating them as a productive word for ‘very.’
- Too and Excessive with yi yawaB1 — Judge a degree excessive with quality-noun phrases plus yi yawa, and distinguish excess from neutral intensity.
- Contextual Comparison without an Overt StandardB1 — Use Hausa fi when the comparison set is already recoverable, and understand why ya fi kyau can mean ‘it is better’ or ‘it is best’ without an expressed benchmark.