Hausa uses wane with a masculine singular noun, wace with a feminine singular noun, and waɗanne with a plural noun to ask “which?”: wane littafi? “which book?”, wace mota? “which car?”, waɗanne takardu? “which documents?” The choice happens inside the noun phrase. When that phrase is fronted in a verbal question, the following clause also uses the focus-related TAM appropriate to its subject and viewpoint.
All unlabelled forms are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). The hooked ɗ in waɗanne is required. Ordinary boko does not show tone or vowel length, and question intonation cannot replace either interrogative agreement or the clause's TAM morphology.
The three-way agreement pattern
Choose the interrogative from the grammatical gender and number of the noun being selected.
| Noun class | Interrogative | Example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | wane | wane littafi? “which book?” |
| feminine singular | wace | wace mota? “which car?” |
| plural | waɗanne | waɗanne motoci? “which cars?” |
Wane littafi kake nema?
Which book are you looking for? (to one male)
Wace hanya muka bi jiya?
Which route did we take yesterday?
Waɗanne takardu za ku aika yau?
Which documents will you all send today?
There is no shortcut based on English which, which never agrees. Hausa noun gender is partly lexical, so some choices must be learned with the noun: masculine littafi selects wane; feminine hanya selects wace. Plural waɗanne is used regardless of the singular noun's gender.
Object questions: interrogative agreement and subject agreement are separate
When the “which” phrase is the object, another participant remains the subject. That subject—not the chosen object—controls the relative-TAM marker.
Wace mota suka saya a Kano?
Which car did they buy in Kano?
Wane rahoto Amina take dubawa yanzu?
Which report is Amina reviewing now?
Waɗanne saƙonni kuka aika wa manajan?
Which messages did you all send to the manager?
In Wace mota suka saya?, wace agrees with feminine mota, while plural suka agrees with “they.” In Wane rahoto Amina take dubawa?, wane agrees with masculine rahoto, while take agrees with feminine subject Amina. These are two independent decisions.
Completed object questions use the relative completive; open or habitual ones use the relative continuative:
| Meaning | Question | Marker |
|---|---|---|
| completed choice | Wane littafi kuka saya? | relative completive kuka |
| ongoing reading | Wane littafi kuke karantawa? | relative continuative kuke |
| future choice | Wane littafi za ku saya? | future za ku |
The future keeps za ku because it has no special relative counterpart. The broader completed pattern appears in Relative Completive after Object Wh-Words.
Subject questions: the chosen noun controls clause agreement too
When the “which” phrase is the subject, its noun determines both the interrogative form and the subject agreement in the following clause.
Wane direba ya kawo motar?
Which driver brought the car?
Wace yarinya ta sami makullin?
Which girl found the key?
Waɗanne ɗalibai suka ci jarrabawar?
Which students passed the examination?
Masculine singular direba selects wane ... ya; feminine singular yarinya selects wace ... ta; plural ɗalibai selects waɗanne ... suka. The relative form belongs to the wh/focus construction. With singular ya/ta, ordinary spelling does not show its difference from the plain completive.
Which place, route, or instrument
The interrogative noun phrase can sit inside a larger prepositional or adverbial phrase. Front the whole phrase in the canonical question.
A wane shago kuke sayen burodi?
At which shop do you all buy bread?
Ta wace hanya suka shiga garin?
By which route did they enter the town?
Da waɗanne kayan aiki aka gyara injin ɗin?
With which tools was the machine repaired?
The prepositions a, ta, da stay with the questioned phrase. English can strand a preposition at the end, but canonical Hausa makes the relationship clear at the front. The following kuke/suka/aka still follows relative syntax.
Which versus what and what kind
Use me when asking for an open identity, wane/wace/waɗanne + noun when selecting from a contextually relevant set, and wane/wace/waɗanne irin + noun when asking for a type or category.
Me kika saya?
What did you buy? (open identity)
Wace waya kika saya?
Which phone did you buy? (selection among phones)
Wace irin waya kika saya?
What kind of phone did you buy? (model or category)
“Which” therefore carries a presupposition: the listener can identify a limited set of candidates. If no set is available, me may be the more natural question. See Wane Iri: What Kind for the type construction.
Ne and ce in identification and focused answers
A short noun phrase is a natural (informal/conversational) answer. A full contrastive answer places the selected phrase first with ne for masculine singular or plural reference and ce for feminine singular reference, then uses a relative-TAM clause.
| Question | Short answer | Focused answer |
|---|---|---|
| Wane littafi kuka saya? | Littafin Hausa. | Littafin Hausa ne muka saya. |
| Wace mota suka gyara? | Farar motar. | Farar motar ce suka gyara. |
| Waɗanne takardu aka aika? | Takardun haraji. | Takardun haraji ne aka aika. |
Ne/ce are focus/copular particles, not ordinary verbs. They agree with the focused nominal expression, but they do not carry tense. The following muka/suka/aka supplies the verbal clause's subject and aspect.
Ba wannan motar ba ce suka saya; waccan ce suka saya.
It was not this car that they bought; it was that one.
This correction preserves the buying event and replaces the selected object.
Presupposition and rejecting the offered set
Wace mota kuka saya? ordinarily assumes that the addressees bought one of the relevant cars. If they bought none, say so.
—Wace mota kuka saya? —Ba mu sayi kowace mota ba; mun yanke shawarar jira.
—Which car did you all buy? —We did not buy any car; we decided to wait.
An open information request does not propose one member. A correction question does:
Wannan motar ce kuka saya, ko waccan?
Was it this car that you bought, or that one?
The demonstratives and the focus frame offer alternatives. Question intonation contributes attitude, but the morphology and structure identify what is being corrected.
One statement, different questions
Start with ’Yan kasuwar sun sayi farar mota “The traders bought the white car.”
| Function | Question or correction |
|---|---|
| subject question | Wa ya sayi farar motar? |
| object question | Me ’yan kasuwar suka saya? |
| which-object question | Wace mota ’yan kasuwar suka saya? |
| clefted correction | Ba baƙar motar ba ce suka saya; farar motar ce. |
The open object question asks what was bought; the wace mota question limits the answer to cars. Both use relative suka because the fronted object is the information focus.
A natural dialogue
—Waɗanne takardu kuke nema? —Takardun haraji. —Wane fayil yake ɗauke da su? —Fayil ɗin shuɗi. —Na ɗauka jan fayil ɗin ne. —A’a, ba jan fayil ɗin ba ne; shuɗin ne yake ɗauke da su.
—Which documents are you all looking for? —The tax documents. —Which file contains them? —The blue file. —I thought it was the red one. —No, it is not the red file; the blue one contains them.
The dialogue shifts from plural waɗanne to masculine singular wane, then uses ne ... yake in a correction. The loanword fayil is treated as masculine here, so feminine wace ... take would be the wrong agreement chain.
Practice
- Masculine littafi, completed object → Wane littafi kuka saya?
- Feminine mota, ongoing object → Wace mota kuke gyarawa?
- Plural takardu, impersonal completed clause → Waɗanne takardu aka aika?
- Feminine subject yarinya → Wace yarinya ta kira?
Common Mistakes
1. Using wane for every noun
❌ Wane mota kuka saya?
Incorrect — mota is feminine singular.
✅ Wace mota kuka saya?
Which car did you all buy?
2. Omitting hooked ɗ in the plural
❌ Wadanne takardu kuka aika?
Incorrect standard spelling; the plural interrogative contains ɗ.
✅ Waɗanne takardu kuka aika?
Which documents did you all send?
3. Keeping plain TAM after a fronted object
❌ Wane littafi kun saya?
Incorrect canonical object question; kun is plain completive.
✅ Wane littafi kuka saya?
Which book did you all buy?
4. Making TAM agree with the questioned object
❌ Wace sabuwar mota Musa take gyarawa?
Incorrect — feminine mota is the object; masculine Musa controls subject agreement.
✅ Wace sabuwar mota Musa yake gyarawa?
Which new car is Musa repairing?
5. Using which when no candidate set is relevant
❌ Wane abu ya faru?
Awkward if the speaker has no relevant set of possible events or things in mind.
✅ Me ya faru?
What happened? (open information question)
Key Takeaways
- Use wane with masculine singular nouns, wace with feminine singular nouns, and waɗanne with plurals.
- In an object question, interrogative agreement follows the object noun, while TAM agreement follows the clause's subject.
- In a subject question, the selected noun controls both the interrogative form and subject agreement.
- Canonical fronted completed and open questions use relative completive and relative continuative respectively.
- Me asks openly “what?”, the wane series selects from a set, and wane/wace/waɗanne irin asks for a type.
- Focused answers use agreeing ne/ce plus a complete relative-TAM background.
Related Topics
- me: Asking WhatA2 — Use me in Hausa subject, object, and identification questions while selecting relative TAM from the clause’s information structure.
- Wane Iri: What KindB1 — Ask and answer ‘what kind?’ with gender- and number-sensitive wane/wace/waɗanne plus linked irin and an overt or recoverable noun.
- 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.
- Gender Agreement beyond the NounA1 — Learn how a Hausa noun's gender controls copulas, demonstratives, definite forms, and genitive linkers across the noun phrase.