In the standard post-nominal patterns, Hausa does not normally put short nan/can or a restrictive da-relative directly after a bare common noun. The head appears in its joined -n/-r form: gidan nan “this/contextually salient house,” motar can “that car over there,” mutumin da ya kira “the man who called,” and motar da muka saya “the car that we bought.”
English encourages omission because this house and the house that we bought do not change the noun house. Hausa marks the head’s left relationship to the following dependent. The full constructions are taught on Linking before Demonstratives and Linking before Relative Clauses. This page repairs the recurring bare-head error without pretending that every written -n/-r has one identical syntactic function.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko joins the suffix to the noun and does not mark the tonal distinctions that grammatical analyses may associate with definite and genitive constructions.
The two target frames
The most useful production templates are:
- linked head + nan/can: littafin nan, jakar can, mutanen nan
- linked head + da + clause: littafin da na aro, jakar da kika bari, mutanen da suka zo
Gidan nan yana da ɗakuna shida, amma gidan can ya fi kusa da kasuwa.
This house has six rooms, but that house over there is closer to the market.
Motar can ta tare hanyar shiga asibitin.
That car over there blocked the hospital entrance.
Na gode wa mutumin da ya mayar mini da wayata.
I thanked the man who returned my phone to me.
Jakar da kika bari a bas tana ofishin direban.
The bag you left on the bus is in the driver’s office. (to one woman)
In gidan nan, the short demonstrative follows a linked head. In mutumin da..., separate da introduces the restrictive clause. The suffix belongs to the head noun, not to nan, can, or da.
Choose -n or -r from the head, not the following word
Masculine singular nouns normally belong to the -n series. Feminine singular nouns ending in -a normally use -r. Plurals use -n, regardless of the singular noun’s gender. The following nan/can/da does not select the suffix.
| Citation form | Features | Joined form | Demonstrative | Relative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gida | masculine singular | gidan | gidan nan | gidan da... |
| mota | feminine singular in -a | motar | motar nan | motar da... |
| mutane | plural | mutanen | mutanen can | mutanen da... |
| motoci | plural | motocin | motocin nan | motocin da... |
Motar nan ce za ta kai baƙin filin jirgin sama.
This is the car that will take the visitors to the airport.
Motocin da suka iso daga Kano suna buƙatar gyara.
The cars that arrived from Kano need repairs.
Mutanen can sun san inda aka gina sabuwar rijiyar.
Those people over there know where the new well was built.
Plural motoci does not preserve feminine singular -r. Once the noun is plural, use the plural -n series: motocin, followed by plural agreement such as suka/suna/sun.
The spelling is joined, but the surface form is not always mechanical
In grammatical analysis one may write gida + -n or mota + -r to reveal the pieces. Normal boko writes gidan and motar, never gida n, mota-r, or mota r. Vowel shortening and other phonological adjustments are not fully visible in unmarked spelling.
Some plural stems show an obvious boundary change:
| Plural citation form | Joined form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| malamai | malaman | malaman nan / malaman da... |
| littattafai | littattafan | littattafan can / littattafan da... |
| sunaye | sunayen | sunayen nan / sunayen da... |
Malaman da suka halarci bitar sun samu takardun shaida.
The teachers who attended the workshop received certificates.
Littattafan nan za su koma babban ɗakin karatu gobe.
These books will go back to the main library tomorrow.
Sunayen da ke ƙarshen jerin ba su cika ba.
The names at the end of the list are incomplete.
Forms such as malamain and littattafain wrongly paste n onto the full citation spelling. Learn the joined member of the paradigm and consult phonological adjustment at linker boundaries for the wider patterns.
Feminine does not always mean -r
The useful rule “feminine singular takes -r” is too broad. It works especially for feminine nouns ending in -a, such as mota → motar and jaka → jakar. Feminine mace “woman,” which does not end in -a, has the standard joined form macen before a demonstrative or restrictive relative.
Macen nan ita ce ta jagoranci binciken.
This woman is the one who led the investigation.
Macen da ta kira da safe ta sake dawowa.
The woman who called in the morning came back again.
Do not write macer nan or macer da.... The following feminine agreement ita/ta confirms that macen has not become masculine merely because its surface linker is -n.
There is also a lexical relationship form matar Audu “Audu’s wife.” When mata has the meaning “wife,” matar nan “this wife” and matar da... “the wife who...” can therefore be grammatical. They are wrong only as automatic replacements for ordinary mace “woman,” whose forms here are macen nan and macen da.... Learn the noun and intended meaning together.
Matar Audu ta kawo mana abinci bayan taron.
Audu’s wife brought us food after the meeting.
The same spelling can serve different constructions
The written edge -n/-r appears in several related but non-identical environments. Do not call all of them “the demonstrative linker.”
| Form | What follows | Construction | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| motar | nothing | standalone definite/previous-reference form | the car in question |
| motar Amina | noun possessor | short genitive/construct linker | Amina’s car |
| motar nan | short demonstrative | post-nominal demonstrative phrase | this/contextually salient car |
| motar da Amina ta saya | da + clause | restrictive relative | the car that Amina bought |
Na ga wata mota a wajen taro; motar tana ɗauke da lambar jihar Kebbi.
I saw a car at the meeting venue; the car had a Kebbi State registration number.
Motar Amina tana wajen makaniki tun jiya.
Amina’s car has been at the mechanic’s since yesterday.
The surface spelling motar recurs, but the syntax differs. Grammatical descriptions may also distinguish tonal behavior that ordinary boko does not show. Treating every -n/-r as the English article “the” hides these contrasts and leads to bad word-for-word translations.
Post-nominal and pre-nominal demonstratives are different frames
Short nan/can follows the joined head. Full demonstratives precede a plain noun in the basic frame:
Wannan gida yana da rijiyar kansa.
This house has its own well.
Waccan mota ta wuce mu a kan hanya.
That car passed us on the road.
Waɗannan takardu suna buƙatar sa hannun shugaba.
These documents need the chairperson’s signature.
Compare neutral wannan gida with gidan nan, and waccan mota with motar can. A preposed demonstrative can also precede an independently definite, discourse-given noun: wannan gidan may mean “this previously mentioned house,” and waccan motar may similarly single out an already established car. Do not add that marked definiteness automatically when the intended basic phrase is simply “this house,” and do not omit the linker in gida nan.
The spoken deictic system distinguishes more than a simple English this/that split through tone and context. Ordinary boko writes nan/can without those tone patterns. That fact affects interpretation, not the requirement that the preceding common noun be in its joined form.
Restrictive da is not every possible relative expression
The target repair applies to the compact restrictive pattern linked common-noun head + da + clause. Hausa also has agreeing relative forms wanda, wadda, waɗanda, and proper names or appositive relatives can enter other structures. Do not append -n/-r blindly before every clause containing da.
Yaran da suka taimaka mana sun koma makaranta.
The children who helped us returned to school.
Amina, wadda ta jagoranci kwamitin, ta gabatar da rahoton.
Amina, who chaired the committee, presented the report.
The first has the restrictive linked head yaran da.... The second is an appositive comment after a proper name and uses agreeing wadda. These are not spelling variants of one template.
A meaning-changing near miss
What follows the joined noun decides whether the phrase expresses ownership or identifies a referent through a clause.
Mun sayar da motar Amina bayan ta sayi wata sabuwa.
We sold Amina’s car after she bought a new one. (Amina is the possessor)
Mun sayar da motar da Amina ta saya bara.
We sold the car that Amina bought last year. (the relative clause identifies the car)
Both begin with motar, but Amina alone is a possessor, while da Amina ta saya is a relative clause. Omitting da changes the grammatical relationship and the meaning.
A four-step repair
- Decide whether you have a post-nominal demonstrative, restrictive da-relative, possessor, or standalone definite.
- Retrieve the head’s gender, number, and actual joined form.
- Write that joined form as one word; apply lexical boundary changes such as malamai → malaman.
- Add nan/can, da + clause, or the possessor as a separate dependent, then check clause agreement independently.
Ƙofofin da aka gyara a bara sun sake lalacewa.
The doors that were repaired last year have deteriorated again.
Here the lexical plural is ƙofofi, the plural joined form is ƙofofin, and da aka gyara is an impersonal relative clause. Each decision has its own source.
Self-correction in conversation
—Wane littafi kake nema? —Littafi nan... afuwa, littafin nan mai shuɗin murfi. —Wanda yake kan tebur? —Eh, littafin da Maryam ta kawo jiya.
—Which book are you looking for? —This book... sorry, this book with the blue cover. —The one on the table? —Yes, the book that Maryam brought yesterday.
The speaker repairs bare littafi nan to littafin nan, then correctly uses the same joined noun before restrictive da.
Common Mistakes
1. Leaving a bare noun before nan
❌ Gida nan yana da sabbin tagogi.
Incorrect in the standard post-nominal demonstrative frame.
✅ Gidan nan yana da sabbin tagogi.
This house has new windows.
2. Leaving a bare head before a restrictive da-relative
❌ Mutum da ya kawo kunshin yana jira.
Incorrect in the standard linked-head restrictive pattern.
✅ Mutumin da ya kawo kunshin yana jira.
The man who brought the parcel is waiting.
3. Choosing -n for a feminine -a noun
❌ Motan can ta Aisha ce.
Incorrect—feminine singular mota takes the -r series.
✅ Motar can ta Aisha ce.
That car over there belongs to Aisha.
4. Preserving feminine -r after pluralization
❌ Motocir da suka iso sun yi ƙura.
Incorrect—plural motoci uses the plural -n series.
✅ Motocin da suka iso sun yi ƙura.
The cars that arrived are dusty.
5. Appending n without the lexical boundary adjustment
❌ Malamain nan za su sa ido kan jarabawar.
Incorrect—the joined plural of malamai is malaman.
✅ Malaman nan za su sa ido kan jarabawar.
These teachers will supervise the examination.
6. Generalizing matar from the wife relationship expression
❌ Matar nan ce ta ga abin da ya faru.
Incorrect for ordinary ‘this woman’—do not extend matar Audu to every use of mace.
✅ Macen nan ce ta ga abin da ya faru.
This woman is the one who saw what happened.
Key Takeaways
- Use a joined head before post-nominal nan/can and restrictive da: gidan nan, motar can, mutumin da..., motar da....
- Select the form from the head: masculine singular and plural generally use -n; feminine -a nouns generally use -r, but forms such as mace → macen must be learned.
- Write the suffix joined and learn boundary shapes such as malamai → malaman and littattafai → littattafan.
- Standalone definites, genitive/construct phrases, demonstrative phrases, and relative heads can share a written surface form without being one syntactic construction.
- Keep lexical matar Audu “Audu’s wife” distinct from ordinary macen nan / macen da....
Now practice Hausa
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Start learning Hausa →Related Topics
- Linking before DemonstrativesA2 — Form Hausa post-nominal demonstratives with a linked noun before nan or can, and contrast them with full demonstratives before a bare noun.
- Linking before Relative ClausesA2 — How a Hausa head noun takes its joined n/r form before a restrictive relative clause introduced by da.
- Demonstrative Position after the Linked NounA1 — Build Hausa post-nominal demonstratives with a linked noun plus nan or can, and keep them distinct from full pre-nominal and standalone forms.
- The Head Noun's -n/-r LinkerA2 — Choose and spell the joined -n/-r form that a Hausa noun head takes before a basic da-relative clause.
- Phonological Adjustment at Linker BoundariesA2 — How vowel shortening, diphthong reduction, epenthesis, and consonant assimilation shape Hausa n/r linkers in speech and spelling.
- Linking before PossessorsA2 — Build Hausa possessive noun phrases with a head-controlled n/r linker before names, noun phrases, and bound possessive pronouns.