Hausa wa asks for a person: “who?” or, in object position, “whom?” Canonical content questions place wa or a larger phrase containing it at the front. The clause that follows uses the TAM pattern associated with wh/focus structure, so the crucial contrast is not merely word order: compare plain Yaran sun kira Amina “The children called Amina” with object question Wa yaran suka kira? “Whom did the children call?” The complete morphology is tabulated in Relative Completive after Object Wh-Words.
All unlabelled forms on this page are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko does not mark tone or vowel length. Phrase-level intonation signals that an utterance is a question, but there is no single obligatory English-style final rise, and intonation cannot replace the wh-word or the required TAM form.
Subject wa: ask who performed the action
When wa is the subject, it fills the actor or experiencer gap. There is no separate noun subject between wa and the subject–TAM marker.
Wa ya buɗe ƙofar da safe?
Who opened the door in the morning?
Wa yake magana a waje?
Who is speaking outside?
Wa zai raka yara makaranta gobe?
Who will accompany the children to school tomorrow?
The completed question uses relative-completive ya; the ongoing question uses relative-continuative yake; the future question uses zai. Subject wa takes the conventional third-person masculine singular agreement seen here when the identity and gender of the answer are still unknown. This does not assert that the answer is male. A feminine answer is entirely natural:
—Wa ya kira da dare? —Amina ce ta kira.
—Who called at night? —It was Amina who called.
The answer changes to feminine ce ta because Amina is now identified. English has no equivalent subject–TAM paradigm: it uses who called? without a separate gender-neutral agreement choice of this kind.
Object wa: another participant is the subject
When wa is the object, the clause contains another subject. That subject may be visible only in its subject–TAM form or may be an overt name or noun phrase plus that marker.
Wa kuka gani a asibiti?
Whom did you all see at the hospital?
Wa kike jira a tashar mota?
Who are you waiting for at the motor park? (to one female)
Wa Bello ya kira bayan taron?
Whom did Bello call after the meeting?
In Wa kuka gani?, wa is the object and relative-completive kuka identifies “you all” as subject. In Wa kike jira?, relative-continuative kike agrees with one female addressee. In Wa Bello ya kira?, Bello is the overt subject and ya still supplies subject agreement and completive aspect.
The canonical pattern has an object gap after the verb. Do not repeat an ordinary object pronoun:
Wa yaran suka gayyata zuwa bikin?
Whom did the children invite to the celebration?
The questioned person is already represented by fronted wa. Adding postverbal shi or ta would not be simple agreement; it would disrupt the object-gap construction taught here.
Use visible plural forms to diagnose relative TAM
Some singular relative-completive forms look identical to the plain forms in ordinary boko: ya occurs in both Musa ya kira Amina and Wa Musa ya kira? The plural pairs make the syntax visible.
| Meaning | Plain statement | Object question |
|---|---|---|
| you (f.) saw / whom? | Kin ga Amina. | Wa kika gani? |
| we called / whom? | Mun kira Amina. | Wa muka kira? |
| you all invited / whom? | Kun gayyaci Amina. | Wa kuka gayyata? |
| they chose / whom? | Sun zaɓi Amina. | Wa suka zaɓa? |
| someone was called / whom? | An kira Amina. | Wa aka kira? |
These are relative kika, muka, kuka, suka, aka, not plain kin, mun, kun, sun, an. The relative label describes the information-structure paradigm; it does not mean that an English relative pronoun must appear.
Completed, ongoing, habitual, and negative questions
Choose aspect by how the situation is viewed. A completed event selects the relative completive; an ongoing or habitual situation selects the relative continuative.
Wa suka ziyarta jiya?
Whom did they visit yesterday? (completed event)
Wa suke ziyarta yanzu?
Whom are they visiting now? (ongoing event)
Wa kuke kira idan injin ya lalace?
Whom do you all call when the machine breaks down? (habitual procedure)
English tense labels are not enough. Relative-continuative suke/kuke can describe something happening now or a routine; relative-completive suka presents the visit as bounded.
Negative polarity has its own TAM forms. Do not build it by placing ba before an affirmative relative marker.
Wa ba ku gani a taron ba?
Whom did you all not see at the meeting?
Wa ba kwa kira idan akwai matsala?
Whom do you all not call when there is a problem?
The completed negative uses ba ku ... ba with closing ba. The negative continuative uses ba kwa ... without a final ba in the ordinary standard construction.
Wa inside a prepositional phrase
The questioned person may be a companion, source, addressee, or other participant introduced by a preposition. Front the whole prepositional phrase.
Da wa kika je kasuwa?
Who did you go to the market with? (to one female)
Daga wa kuka ji wannan labarin?
Who did you all hear this news from?
Da wa Amina take magana a waya?
Who is Amina speaking with on the phone?
English commonly strands the preposition at the end (who did you go with?). Standard Hausa transparently keeps phrases such as da wa and daga wa together at the front. The following clause still uses relative TAM: kika, kuka, take.
The verb ba “give” is a lexical exception in its pronoun recipients: say ta ba shi littafi “she gave him a book,” not ta ba masa littafi. With an open human question, a natural pattern is:
Wa ta ba littafin?
Who did she give the book to?
Short answers and clefted answers
A bare name is a natural (informal/conversational) answer when the intended role is obvious. A focused answer is clearer when correcting, contrasting, or completing a formal exchange.
| Question | Short answer | Full focused answer |
|---|---|---|
| Wa ya zo? | Musa. | Musa ne ya zo. |
| Wa Musa ya kira? | Amina. | Amina ce Musa ya kira. |
| Wa kuka gani? | Hauwa. | Hauwa ce muka gani. |
| Da wa kika je? | Da Zainab. | Da Zainab ne na je. |
In a subject answer, the relative clause agrees with the person identified: Musa ne ya, Amina ce ta. In an object answer such as Hauwa ce muka gani, ce agrees with focused feminine Hauwa, but muka agrees with the first-person plural subject “we.” These are two independent agreement decisions.
Ne/ce are focus/copular particles, not ordinary verbs. They do not carry tense. The following relative-TAM clause locates the event.
Information seeking versus correction
The simple question Wa ya kira? seeks a name. A correction question can present a candidate as already salient:
Musa ne ya kira, ko Audu ne?
Was it Musa who called, or was it Audu?
Ba Musa ba ne ya kira?
Wasn’t it Musa who called? (expectation-biased focus question)
The second question asks whether the focused identification “Musa” is wrong or unexpectedly doubtful. Its negative frame and context create the bias; question intonation alone does not. A direct correction can answer:
Ba Musa ba ne ya kira; Amina ce ta kira.
It was not Musa who called; it was Amina.
This answer preserves the calling event and corrects only the caller. By contrast, Musa bai kira ba denies Musa’s calling event without asserting that someone else called.
From one statement to subject and object questions
Start with Yaran sun kira Amina “The children called Amina.”
| Function | Form | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| neutral statement | Yaran sun kira Amina. | none |
| subject question | Wa ya kira Amina? | caller |
| object question | Wa yaran suka kira? | person called |
| clefted correction | Ba Musa ba ne ya kira Amina; yaran ne. | wrong proposed caller |
The object-question suka agrees with yaran. The subject question uses default ya after unknown human wa. The distinction is structural, not a matter of translating English who versus formal whom.
A natural dialogue
—Wa ya kawo wannan jakar? —Amina ce ta kawo ta. —Wa za ta ba jakar? —Za ta ba yayarta jakar. —Da wa ta zo? —Ta zo da Musa.
—Who brought this bag? —Amina brought it. —Who will she give the bag to? —She will give the bag to her older sister. —Who did she come with? —She came with Musa.
The dialogue moves through subject wa, the special recipient frame selected by ba “give,” and da wa. The answers repeat enough of the predicate to make each human role clear.
Practice
Identify the gap, then form the question.
- Musa ya kira Amina; ask for the caller → Wa ya kira Amina?
- Musa ya kira Amina; ask for the person called → Wa Musa ya kira?
- Kun ga likita; ask for the object → Wa kuka gani?
- Yaran suna jiran malaminsu; ask for the object → Wa yaran suke jira?
- Kin tafi da Zainab; ask for the companion → Da wa kika tafi?
Common Mistakes
1. Using a plain plural marker after fronted object wa
❌ Wa kun gani a asibiti?
Incorrect canonical object question; kun is plain completive.
✅ Wa kuka gani a asibiti?
Whom did you all see at the hospital?
2. Confusing subject and object gaps
❌ Wa Amina ya kira?
Incorrect if Amina is intended as the subject; agreement must be feminine ta.
✅ Wa Amina ta kira?
Whom did Amina call?
3. Dropping TAM after an overt noun subject
❌ Wa yaran jira?
Incorrect — the overt noun does not replace the subject–TAM marker.
✅ Wa yaran suke jira?
Whom are the children waiting for?
4. Repeating the fronted object
❌ Wa kuka gayyata shi?
Incorrect in the canonical object-gap question intended here.
✅ Wa kuka gayyata?
Whom did you all invite?
5. Treating ce as a tense-marked verb
❌ Amina ce kira.
Incorrect — ce focuses Amina but does not supply the clause’s subject–TAM marking.
✅ Amina ce ta kira.
It was Amina who called.
Key Takeaways
- Wa asks for a human participant; its role can be subject, object, recipient, or part of a prepositional phrase.
- Subject wa has no second lexical subject; object wa co-occurs with the real subject’s marker.
- Canonical affirmative content questions use relative TAM: kuka/suka for completed object questions and kuke/suke for ongoing or habitual ones.
- Negative questions use their own negative paradigms rather than ba + relative affirmative form.
- Focused answers use ne/ce plus a relative-TAM background; ne/ce are not ordinary verbs.
- Determine the gap and the real subject before translating English who.
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Start learning Hausa →Related Topics
- Relative Completive after Object Wh-WordsB2 — Use Hausa relative-completive subject markers after fronted object questions while preserving subject agreement and distinguishing subject questions.
- Relative Continuative after Object Wh-WordsB2 — Use Hausa nake, kake, kike, yake, take, muke, kuke, suke, and ake when a fronted wh-expression asks for an object in an ongoing, habitual, or state-like clause.
- Relative Completive in Focus ConstructionsB2 — Use the relative completive in explicit Hausa focus constructions while separating focus, polarity, aspect, and time reference.
- Relative Completive PronounsA2 — Use na, ka, kika, ya, ta, muka, kuka, suka, and aka for completed events in Hausa focus, question, and relative environments.
- Relative Continuative PronounsA2 — Use nake, kake, kike, yake, take, muke, kuke, suke, and ake for ongoing or habitual situations in focus, questions, and relative clauses.
- Subject Marking after an Overt NounA2 — Keep the required Hausa subject–TAM marker after names and full noun phrases, and make it agree with gender, number, and person.