A future relative clause identifies a person, thing, place, or time through a prospective situation: baƙin da za su zo gobe “the guests who will come tomorrow,” motar da za mu saya “the car that we will buy.” Unlike the completive and continuative, the za future has no special relative paradigm. Relative structure remains visible in the linked head, invariant da, word order, and the gap or resumptive relation.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Standard writing fuses zan and zai but writes za ka, za ki, za ta, za mu, za ku, za su, za a separately.
The meanings and independent-clause forms of this construction are covered on future with za: core uses.
The future paradigm stays the same
| Subject inside the relative clause | Future form | Model phrase |
|---|---|---|
| I | zan | aikin da zan yi |
| you, one male | za ka | aikin da za ka yi |
| you, one female | za ki | aikin da za ki yi |
| he | zai | aikin da zai yi |
| she | za ta | aikin da za ta yi |
| we | za mu | aikin da za mu yi |
| you, plural | za ku | aikin da za ku yi |
| they | za su | aikin da za su yi |
| unspecified actor | za a | aikin da za a yi |
Do not search for future equivalents of relative-completive muka/suka or relative-continuative muke/suke. Hausa uses the ordinary agreeing future forms inside the relative construction.
Ga littafin da zan karanta a jirgi.
Here is the book that I will read on the plane.
Wannan shi ne aikin da za ku fara gobe.
This is the work that you all will begin tomorrow.
Subject relatives: masculine, feminine, and plural
When the linked head is the understood subject inside the relative clause, its gender and number determine future agreement.
Mutumin da zai jagoranci taron ya iso.
The man who will chair the meeting has arrived.
Macen da za ta yi jawabi tana ofishin shugaban.
The woman who will give a speech is in the director’s office.
Ɗaliban da za su rubuta jarabawar suna jira a waje.
The students who will take the examination are waiting outside.
Masculine singular mutumin controls fused zai. Feminine singular macen controls separate za ta, and plural ɗaliban controls za su. The relative marker da remains invariant.
The linked head is still required in the compact restrictive pattern. Compare mutumin da zai zo “the man who will come” with free wanda zai zo “the one who will come.” Do not create mutum da zai zo or wanda da zai zo.
Object relatives: the internal subject controls agreement
When the linked head is the missing direct object, the subject inside the relative clause determines the future form.
Na ga motar da Amina za ta saya.
I saw the car that Amina will buy.
Sun kawo takardun da za mu duba gobe.
They brought the documents that we will examine tomorrow.
Ga kujerun da za a gyara kafin taron.
Here are the chairs that will be repaired before the meeting.
Feminine Amina controls za ta in the first example. “We” controls za mu in the second. Impersonal za a leaves the repairer unnamed in the third and can receive an English passive translation.
The direct object normally leaves a gap after the verb. In motar da Amina za ta saya, do not append ta to repeat the car. In kujerun da za a gyara, za a marks an unspecified subject; it is not a suffix attached to the object.
Compare an independent future clause
Baƙin za su iso gobe da safe.
The guests will arrive tomorrow morning. (independent future assertion)
Baƙin da za su iso gobe da safe sun tabbatar da tafiyarsu.
The guests who will arrive tomorrow morning have confirmed their trip. (future relative clause)
The future complex za su is identical in both. In the second sentence, linked baƙin da and the subject relation make the clause relative. This contrasts with completive sun/suka and continuative suna/suke, whose plain and relative paradigms differ overtly.
Now compare viewpoints inside the same relative frame:
| Viewpoint | Hausa phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| completed | baƙin da suka iso | the guests who arrived |
| open/ongoing | baƙin da suke isowa | the guests who are arriving / regularly arrive |
| prospective | baƙin da za su iso | the guests who will arrive |
The presence of da does not license swapping among these forms. Choose the viewpoint that matches the intended situation.
Plans, predictions, and future states
The same future relative can express a plan, prediction, commitment, or expected state; context supplies the nuance.
Mun tanadi ɗakin da likitan zai yi amfani da shi gobe.
We prepared the room that the doctor will use tomorrow.
Ina neman mutumin da zai san abin da za mu yi.
I am looking for a man who will know what we will do.
In the first sentence, the room is resumed as shi after the selected expression yi amfani da “use.” This is not a simple direct-object frame: da belongs to the expression, so its complement must remain overt. In the second, future zai san describes an expected future state; English does not use a progressive.
Some scheduled future situations can also be viewed from inside with the relative continuative:
Waɗannan su ne ma’aikatan da suke aiki gobe da dare.
These are the employees who will be working tomorrow night. (scheduled open situation)
Use za su karɓi baƙi when presenting the reception prospectively; use suke karɓar baƙi when viewing it as the activity scheduled for that future time. This is a viewpoint choice, not a formal-versus-informal difference.
Locative and possessive relations
A locative relative can retain a prepositional phrase that resumes its head:
Sun nuna mana gidan da za mu zauna a cikinsa.
They showed us the house in which we will stay.
Masculine -sa in a cikinsa points back to gidan and makes the locative relation explicit. Conventional place heads may also allow gap-like gidan da za mu zauna, but gidan is not thereby a direct object of zauna “stay/live.”
Possessive relations also use a resumptive suffix:
Mun kira mutumin da za mu gyara motarsa gobe.
We called the man whose car we will repair tomorrow.
The masculine suffix -sa on feminine motarsa resumes mutumin; “we” controls za mu. English whose packages both relations in one word, while Hausa keeps the ordinary possessed noun.
Restrictive and appositive future relatives
A restrictive future relative selects a referent by a future property: ma’aikatan da za su yi aiki gobe identifies the employees scheduled to work. An already identified referent can instead take a parenthetical continuation with an agreeing relative form:
Hauwa, wadda za ta jagoranci taron gobe, tana son ganin rahoton yau.
Hauwa, who will chair tomorrow’s meeting, wants to see the report today. (neutral careful writing)
The appositive does not distinguish Hauwa from other people named Hauwa in the immediate phrase; it adds information about her. An independent sentence Hauwa za ta jagoranci taron gobe uses the same future form, which confirms that future TAM itself does not encode relative status.
Negative future relatives
Negation surrounds the future predicate with ba ... ba while the linked head and da retain the relative structure.
Na ware takardun da ba za mu aika yau ba.
I set aside the documents that we will not send today.
Ma’aikatan da ba za su yi aiki gobe ba sun riga sun tafi.
The employees who will not work tomorrow have already left.
Preserve the agreeing future forms za mu/za su inside the negative frame. Do not replace them with negative completive ba mu/ba su ... ba, which would describe a noncompleted event rather than a future nonoccurrence.
Common Mistakes
1. Substituting relative completive for future
❌ baƙin da suka iso gobe
Incorrect for the intended ‘guests who will arrive tomorrow’—suka is completive.
✅ baƙin da za su iso gobe
The guests who will arrive tomorrow.
2. Dropping person agreement after a noun
❌ macen da za yi jawabi
Incorrect standard future—the feminine subject marker is missing.
✅ macen da za ta yi jawabi
The woman who will give a speech.
3. Omitting the head’s joined linker
❌ mota da za mu saya
Incorrect compact restrictive frame—feminine mota needs joined -r.
✅ motar da za mu saya
The car that we will buy.
4. Making da agree with the head
❌ ɗaliban waɗanda za su rubuta jarabawar
Incorrect as the compact restrictive pattern intended here—use invariant da after the linked head.
✅ ɗaliban da za su rubuta jarabawar
The students who will take the examination.
5. Repeating a direct object
❌ takardun da za mu duba su gobe
Incorrect canonical direct-object relative—the final su repeats the gap.
✅ takardun da za mu duba gobe
The documents that we will examine tomorrow.
Key Takeaways
- Future relative clauses use the ordinary future series: zan, za ka, za ki, zai, za ta, za mu, za ku, za su, za a.
- Hausa has no special relative future parallel to completive sun/suka or continuative suna/suke.
- The linked head, invariant da, and interpreted gap or resumptive relation identify the relative construction.
- A subject head controls future agreement; an object head does not—the internal subject controls it.
- Direct objects normally leave gaps, while selected prepositions, locations, and possessors can require resumptive pronouns or suffixes.
- Negative future relatives keep za inside ba ... ba.
Related Topics
- Relative Clauses with da: OverviewA2 — Build basic Hausa relative clauses with a linked noun head, invariant da, and the appropriate relative TAM form.
- Subject Relative ClausesA2 — Form Hausa relatives in which the linked noun head is understood as the subject of the modifying clause.
- Object Relative ClausesA2 — Build Hausa relatives whose linked noun head is understood as the missing object of the modifying clause.
- Relative Completive inside Relative ClausesB1 — Build completed Hausa relative clauses with linked heads, invariant da, the relative-completive paradigm, and appropriate gaps or resumptives.
- Relative Continuative inside Relative ClausesB1 — Use the relative-continuative series in Hausa relative clauses that express ongoing actions, habits, and state-like properties.
- Future with za: Core UsesB1 — Use the Hausa za future for intentions, predictions, commitments, and situations later than a contextually relevant time.