Linking before Relative Clauses | Hausa Grammar

A basic Hausa restrictive relative clause has the pattern linked head noun + da + clause: mutumin da ya kira “the man who called,” motar da muka saya “the car that we bought,” and yaran da suka zo “the children who came.” The -n/-r on the head and the separate word da do different jobs. The suffix presents an identifiable head; da opens the clause that tells the listener which one.

This page focuses on the noun phrase before the relative clause. The relative subject–TAM paradigms and extraction patterns are treated on the dedicated relative-clause pages. All examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko spelling does not mark tone or vowel length.

For what happens inside the modifying clause, continue with subject relative clauses and object relative clauses.

The core pattern

The head noun comes first. Its joined form is selected by the head noun's own gender and number, not by any noun inside the relative clause.

Head	Features	Before da	Meaning
mutum	masculine singular	mutumin da...	the person who/that...
mota	feminine singular in -a	motar da...	the car that...
mutane	plural	mutanen da...	the people who...
motoci	plural	motocin da...	the cars that...

Na ga mutumin da ya kawo mana kayan.

I saw the man who brought us the goods.

Motar da muka saya bara har yanzu tana aiki.

The car that we bought last year still works.

In grammatical analysis only, these can be segmented as mutumi-n da and mota-r da. Normal spelling is always mutumin da and motar da: join the suffix to the noun, but leave da as its own word.

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Read the construction from left to right: mutumin establishes “the identifiable man”; da ya kira narrows that referent to “who called.” English puts “the” before the noun and “who/that” after it. Hausa marks both edges of the head noun phrase.

Masculine, feminine, and plural heads

Masculine singular nouns normally use the -n series. Feminine singular nouns ending in -a use -r. Plurals use -n, regardless of the singular noun's gender.

Littafin da na aro daga ɗakin karatu ya ɓace.

The book that I borrowed from the library is missing.

Jakar da kika bari a mota tana nan.

The bag that you left in the car is here.

Littattafan da kika nema suna kan tebur.

The books you were looking for are on the table.

Motocin da suka bar Kano sun iso yanzu.

The cars that left Kano have now arrived.

The plural is lexical: littafi → littattafai, mota → motoci, and mutum → mutane. The relative construction does not create the plural. It takes the plural form you have already learned and puts that form into its linked -n shape: littattafan, motocin, mutanen.

This is why a useful noun entry is a mini-paradigm:

Citation form	Gender	Plural	Definite/linked singular	Linked plural
littafi	masculine	littattafai	littafin	littattafan
mota	feminine	motoci	motar	motocin
mutum	masculine	mutane	mutumin	mutanen

Do not guess gender from English meaning. “Car” has no grammatical gender in English, but mota is feminine in Hausa. Do not guess from final -a alone either: masculine gida “house” gives gidan da..., not gidar da....

Why the head is marked

The short suffix is often called a definite article, but “previous-reference marker” captures its discourse job more precisely. A restrictive relative clause normally helps identify a referent from a relevant set: not any man, but the man who called. The suffixed head signals that search for an identifiable referent before da supplies the identifying information.

Wani mutum ya kira ni da safe. Mutumin da ya kira ya ce zai dawo.

A man called me in the morning. The man who called said he would come back.

The first wani mutum introduces someone new and indefinite. The second mutumin retrieves him, and da ya kira confirms which man is meant. Hausa therefore does not mechanically translate English “a” and “the”; it organizes reference through the whole discourse.

The same joined surface form can appear without a relative clause:

Mutumin yana jira a waje.

The man is waiting outside.

Here mutumin is a complete definite noun phrase. In mutumin da ya kira, the same written form stands immediately before a restrictive modifier. That overlap is not accidental: both uses make the head identifiable.

This is not the genitive linker

Compare two phrases with the same written noun form:

Phrase	Construction	Interpretation
motar Amina	short genitive linker	Amina's car
motar da muka saya	marked head + relative clause	the car that we bought
motar	standalone previous-reference form	the car in question

Muna jiran motar Amina, ba motar da muka gani jiya ba.

We are waiting for Amina's car, not the car that we saw yesterday.

In motar Amina, the following noun is a possessor. In motar da..., da introduces a clause. Ordinary boko makes the -r look identical, but syntax tells you which construction you have. Their tonal behavior is not fully identical either; the writing system normally leaves that distinction unmarked.

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Do not translate every joined -n/-r as “the.” Look at what follows. A possessor gives a genitive phrase; da + clause gives a relative construction; phrase-final -n/-r can mark the referent itself as previously established.

Da and the agreeing relative pronouns

The da in this construction does not change for masculine, feminine, or plural heads. Hausa also has agreeing relative forms wanda, wadda, and waɗanda. Those forms can introduce headed relatives, and they are especially important in free relatives and looser or appositive constructions. With an immediately adjacent, tightly restrictive clause, linked noun + da is the compact pattern taught here.

Yaran da suka buga ƙofa sun tafi.

The children who knocked on the door have left.

Notice that yaran is plural, while da remains unchanged. Plural agreement appears inside the clause in suka. The spelling does not show the special relative tone pattern of that subject–TAM form; learn it with the relative paradigms rather than trying to pronounce it as ordinary English stress.

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The noun's suffix and the clause's subject–TAM form are two separate agreement decisions. Yaran takes plural -n as the head; suka agrees with the plural subject inside the relative clause.

Common Mistakes

1. Leaving a simple da-relative after a bare common-noun head.

❌ mutum da ya kira ni

Incorrect in the standard linked-head pattern — the masculine head needs its joined form.

✅ mutumin da ya kira ni

The man who called me.

2. Choosing -n for a feminine noun merely because da follows.

❌ motan da muka saya

Incorrect — mota is feminine singular and takes -r.

✅ motar da muka saya

The car that we bought.

3. Keeping feminine -r after the noun becomes plural.

❌ motocir da suka iso

Incorrect — plurals use the -n series.

✅ motocin da suka iso

The cars that arrived.

4. Inventing a plural with English -s.

❌ motas da muka saya

Incorrect — Hausa plurals are lexical, not made with English -s.

✅ motocin da muka saya

The cars that we bought.

5. Writing an analytical boundary in ordinary boko.

❌ mota-r da muka saya

Incorrect spelling — hyphens belong only in explicit grammatical analysis.

✅ motar da muka saya

The car that we bought.

The reliable workflow is: learn the noun's gender and plural, choose the linked singular or plural form, write it joined, then add the separate da and the correctly formed relative clause.

Key Takeaways

The compact restrictive pattern is linked head + da + clause: mutumin da..., motar da..., motocin da....
The head's gender and number select -n/-r; da itself does not agree.
The surface form before da overlaps with standalone definites, but a genitive possessor and a relative clause are different syntactic dependents.
Learn each noun's gender, plural, and joined forms together rather than appending a guessed consonant.

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