English already, still, and yet all compare one time with an expectation about another. Hausa makes the comparison with several expressions, especially tuni “already; long before now,” har yanzu “still; up to now,” and tukuna “yet; as yet; first/for now.” The choice depends less on an English dictionary match than on the direction of change.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko preserves ɗ and ƙ without marking tone or vowel length. These time expressions do not replace Hausa TAM: the subject–TAM form still presents the event as complete, ongoing, negative, or projected.
Three different views of a change
The most useful contrast is conceptual:
| Expression | Speaker's view | Frequent environment |
|---|---|---|
| tuni | the expected change has already happened, often earlier than relevant | completed event or established result |
| har yanzu | the old situation continues up to the current reference point | positive continuation or a delayed change under negation |
| tukuna | the expected event has not happened as of the reference point | clause-final negative or short “not yet” answer |
Bello ya tafi tuni; ba za ka same shi a ofis ba.
Bello has already left; you will not find him at the office. (to one male)
Bello yana ofis har yanzu; taron bai ƙare ba.
Bello is still at the office; the meeting has not ended.
Bello bai tafi ba tukuna; yana jiran direba.
Bello has not left yet; he is waiting for the driver.
The first sentence looks past the change of leaving. The second keeps Bello's presence in force. The third stands before the anticipated departure. English can use still in “Bello still hasn't left,” but Hausa can present that delayed change either broadly with har yanzu or more compactly with final tukuna.
Tuni presents an accomplished change
With a completed event, tuni says that the event is no longer pending. It often also implies “by then” or “long since,” so it can sound stronger than English already.
Mun gama lissafin tuni, amma ba mu aika rahoton ba.
We finished the calculation long ago, but we have not sent the report.
Da muka isa tashar, motar ta tashi tuni.
When we reached the motor park, the vehicle had already left.
Tuni Aisha ta san cewa an canja ranar taron.
Aisha already knew that the meeting date had been changed.
Later position keeps tuni close to the accomplished event. Initial Tuni... gives the prior completion wider discourse prominence, often when correcting someone who treats the matter as new. It does not itself force focus syntax.
Hausa also has the verbal construction riga + a matching completive clause for “have already done,” as in ya riga ya tafi and plural sun riga sun tafi. That construction packages anteriority through a verb; tuni is the time adverb at issue here. They may reinforce each other, but learners do not need both in every sentence.
Likita ta riga ta duba sakamakon; ta kira mara lafiyar tuni.
The doctor has already checked the result; she called the patient some time ago.
The repetition is meaningful in this context: ta riga ta duba settles the completed checking, while tuni locates the call well before the current discussion. Mechanical doubling in a short neutral sentence can be heavy.
Har yanzu keeps a situation open
Har yanzu literally builds an “up to now” perspective. With a positive continuative or state, it corresponds naturally to English still.
Ruwan sama yana sauka har yanzu.
The rain is still falling.
Har yanzu Hauwa tana aiki a asibitin nan.
Hauwa still works at this hospital.
Ƙofar tana a rufe har yanzu, duk da cewa ma’aikata sun iso.
The door is still closed, even though the employees have arrived.
Final position presents persistence as part of the new report. Initial position makes the continuing time span the frame for what follows. Neither placement automatically means contrastive “even now,” though voice and context can give it that force.
With a negative clause, har yanzu says that a hoped-for or expected change remains unrealized:
Har yanzu ba a gyara famfon ba; ruwa yana ɗiga.
The tap still has not been repaired; water is dripping.
Direban bai kira mu ba har yanzu.
The driver has not called us yet / still has not called us.
English chooses yet or still according to style and emphasis. Hausa har yanzu profiles the whole continuing delay. The complete negative frame and its TAM morphology remain essential.
Tukuna marks “not yet”—and sometimes “first”
In the most learner-safe pattern, tukuna follows a negative clause and marks nonattainment up to the reference point.
Ba mu ci abinci ba tukuna; muna jiran baƙi.
We have not eaten yet; we are waiting for the guests.
Ba a yanke shawara ba tukuna.
No decision has been made yet.
—An buɗe bankin? —A’a, ba a buɗe shi ba tukuna.
—Has the bank opened? —No, it has not opened yet.
As a short answer, Tukuna means “not yet” when the omitted negative proposition is recoverable.
—Kin aika saƙon? —Tukuna; sai na sake duba lambar.
—Have you sent the message? —Not yet; I need to check the number again. (to one female)
Tukuna also appears in affirmative directives and sequences with the related meaning “first; for the moment.” It then delays the next step rather than negating the first one.
Ka saurari bayanin tukuna, sannan ka yi tambaya.
Listen to the explanation first, then ask a question. (to one male)
Mu jira a nan tukuna har sai ruwan ya lafa.
Let us wait here for now until the rain eases.
This use explains why “yet” is not an adequate one-word definition. The common thread is an interim boundary: the next relevant development lies beyond it.
Position and scope
Tukuna normally follows the clause it limits. Har yanzu is comfortable both initially and later. Tuni can occur in either position, with initial placement giving the earlier completion broader prominence.
Har yanzu ma’aikatan suna tantance takardun.
The employees are still checking the documents. (continuing-time frame)
Ma’aikatan suna tantance takardun har yanzu.
The employees are still checking the documents. (continuation reported after the activity)
These two sentences can describe the same situation. The information flow differs; Hausa does not require every time modifier to be sentence-final.
Explicit contrastive focus is a separate construction. A fronted time expression plus ne selects that time against alternatives, and the following completive or continuative uses relative TAM where the forms differ.
Tun bara ne muka gama aikin, kuma tuni aka biya mu.
It was as far back as last year that we finished the work, and we were paid long ago.
Plural muka is relative completive after the explicitly focused time phrase tun bara ne. By contrast, initial Tuni mun gama aikin is an ordinary temporal frame with plain mun; learners should not insert ne after every fronted adverb. See adverbial and locative focus for the full contrast.
Expressive dialogue versus restrained report
An ideophone can depict the sudden endpoint that changes what remains true. In the established tsaya cak, cak evokes an abrupt, complete stop and is especially vivid in (informal) dialogue or (literary) narration.
—Har yanzu motar tana tafiya? —A’a, ta tsaya cak tuni a kusa da gada.
—Is the vehicle still moving? —No, it already stopped dead near the bridge. (informal, vivid)
The time words track continuation and anteriority; cak performs the abrupt stopping. It is not another word for “already.” A speaker may give cak sharp phrase-final prominence, but standard spelling does not add improvised accents.
A restrained (formal) incident report would remove the performance and state the chronology explicitly:
Motar ta daina tafiya kafin ƙarfe tara, kuma har yanzu ba a kammala gyaranta ba.
The vehicle ceased moving before nine o’clock, and its repair has still not been completed. (formal, restrained)
Common Mistakes
1. Using tuni for a change that has not happened
❌ Bai zo ba tuni.
Incorrect for ‘he has not arrived yet’—tuni normally presents the change as already accomplished.
✅ Bai zo ba tukuna; jirginsa ya makara.
He has not arrived yet; his flight was delayed.
2. Dropping the second ba from a negative clause
❌ Har yanzu ba a biya ma’aikatan.
Incomplete neutral negative frame in the intended standard construction.
✅ Har yanzu ba a biya ma’aikatan ba.
The employees still have not been paid.
3. Treating tukuna as an English-style pre-verbal adverb
❌ Tukuna mun aika rahoton ba.
Incorrect word order and negative framing for ‘we have not sent the report yet.’
✅ Ba mu aika rahoton ba tukuna.
We have not sent the report yet.
4. Assuming initial har yanzu must be emphatic focus
❌ Har yanzu ne yana aiki a Kano.
Unnecessary focus particle if the intended meaning is merely ‘he still works in Kano.’
✅ Har yanzu yana aiki a Kano, amma zai koma Kaduna baɗi.
He still works in Kano, but he will move to Kaduna next year.
5. Using cak as a movable synonym of already
❌ Cak mun gama rahoton.
Incorrect—cak does not generally mean ‘already’ and cannot be freely fronted.
✅ Mun gama rahoton tuni, amma injin bugawa ya tsaya cak.
We finished the report long ago, but the printer stopped dead.
Key Takeaways
- Tuni looks back on an accomplished change and can imply “long ago/already by then.”
- Har yanzu extends a state or delay up to the current reference point.
- Clause-final tukuna is the learner-safe “not yet”; in directives it can mean “first/for now.”
- These expressions cooperate with, but never replace, completive, continuative, and negative TAM forms.
- Initial placement can be neutral framing. Explicit time focus adds ne and licenses relative TAM.
- Expressive cak depicts an abrupt stop; it does not encode temporal “already.”
Related Topics
- Time Adverbs and Clause PositionA2 — Place Hausa time words and phrases where they can anchor, schedule, or contrast an event without changing its aspect.
- Completive versus English Present PerfectA2 — Translate Hausa completives by context rather than equating them mechanically with either the English simple past or present perfect.
- Completive with Result StatesC1 — Interpret Hausa completives whose completed event establishes a current or reference-time result without reducing the construction to an English perfect tense.
- Negative CompletiveA2 — Use Hausa's person-marked ba ... ba completive paradigm to deny a completed event or realized state.
- Adverbial and Locative FocusB1 — Focus Hausa locations, times, paths, companions, reasons, and manners by fronting the whole phrase with stabilizing ne.
- Ideophones of Suddenness and ImpactB1 — Use selective Hausa ideophones such as farat, firit, wuf, cak, ɗim, and zundum to depict abrupt changes and bounded impacts.