An indirect-object relative identifies a recipient or beneficiary: mutumin da muka saya wa littafi “the man whom we bought a book for.” The person is not the direct object littafi; the postverbal marker wa preserves the “to/for” relation inside the relative clause. Hausa therefore treats this dependency differently from an ordinary direct-object gap.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko keeps ɓ, ɗ, ƙ, ’y and does not show tone or vowel length. Review the underlying recipient patterns on indirect objects with wa and ma.
The core wa-marked relative
With a full recipient noun in an independent clause, wa comes before that noun:
Mun saya wa Malam Kabiru littafi jiya.
We bought Malam Kabiru a book yesterday. (independent clause)
To make the recipient the relative head, place the linked head before da and leave wa in its normal postverbal relation:
Na haɗu da malamin da muka saya wa littafi jiya.
I met the teacher whom we bought a book for yesterday.
The structure is:
LINKED RECIPIENT HEAD + da + SUBJECT + RELATIVE TAM + VERB + wa + THEME
Here malamin is interpreted as the missing complement of wa, while littafi remains the direct object or theme. Relative-completive muka agrees with “we,” not with masculine malamin.
Ga macen da Aisha ta kawo wa magani daga asibiti.
Here is the woman for whom Aisha brought medicine from the hospital.
Mun gode wa iyalan da kuka aiko wa da kayan abinci.
We thanked the families to whom you all sent food supplies.
Feminine mace has linked macen; plural iyalai has iyalan. The same invariant da follows both. With aika, the theme is commonly introduced by da, giving aiko wa … da kayan abinci. Do not delete pieces of a verb’s normal argument frame merely because one participant has become the head.
Completed, ongoing, and future situations
The recipient relation does not decide aspect. Choose TAM from the way the whole situation is viewed.
| Viewpoint | Model relative | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| completed | mutanen da muka kawo wa ruwa | the people we brought water for |
| ongoing or habitual | mutanen da muke kawo wa ruwa | the people we bring/are bringing water for |
| future | mutanen da za mu kawo wa ruwa | the people we will bring water for |
| negative completed | mutanen da ba mu kawo wa ruwa ba | the people we did not bring water for |
Wannan shi ne asibitin da muke saya wa magunguna kowane wata.
This is the hospital for which we buy medicines every month.
Sun rubuta sunayen yaran da za a ba su tallafin karatu.
They wrote down the names of the children who will be awarded scholarships.
In the continuative example, relative muke contrasts with independent plain muna. Future za a has no separate relative form. The plural recipient su after ba resumes yaran; it is the exceptional bare recipient form selected by “give,” not part of clause negation.
Pronoun recipients and resumptive relatives
Outside extraction, wa + pronoun is normally expressed by a fused form: mini, maka, miki, masa, mata, mana, muku, musu.
Amina ta nuna masa hotunan bayan taro.
Amina showed him the photographs after the meeting.
In a tightly identifying relative, retaining wa without its noun complement is a productive pattern: mutumin da Amina ta nuna wa hotunan. Hausa can also use a resumptive recipient pronoun, especially where the discourse treats the referent as highly accessible or the dependency is heavier:
Na kira mutumin da Amina ta nuna masa hotunan bayan taro.
I called the man to whom Amina showed the photographs after the meeting.
Masculine masa points back to mutumin. With a feminine or plural antecedent, the resumptive changes:
Na gode wa macen da muka saya mata magani.
I thanked the woman for whom we bought medicine.
Sun ziyarci yaran da ƙungiyar take kawo musu littattafai.
They visited the children to whom the organization brings books.
Feminine mata resumes macen; plural musu resumes yaran. In the last sentence, feminine ƙungiyar controls relative-continuative take. The recipient pronoun does not control subject agreement.
There is genuine structural variation between a wa remnant and an agreeing resumptive in this domain. The safest production choices are to preserve bare wa in a short restrictive dependency and to use an agreeing recipient form where a resumptive relation is intended. Do not combine them as wa masa; masa already contains the indirect-object marking.
The exceptional verb ba “give”
The verb ba “give” does not use the ordinary fused ma- set for a pronominal recipient. It selects ni, ka, ki, shi, ta, mu, ku, su:
Shugaban ya ba shi takardar yabo.
The director gave him a commendation letter.
A recipient relative with explicit resumption must preserve that special frame:
Na taya mutumin da shugaban ya ba shi takardar yabo murna.
I congratulated the man whom the director gave a commendation letter to.
Mun gana da macen da aka ba ta sabon ofishi.
We met the woman who was given a new office.
Use shi/ta, not masa/mata, after ba. In focus and content questions, a bare recipient gap is also possible—Wa ta ba littafin? “Who did she give the book to?”—but a resumptive relative such as mutumin da ta ba shi littafi keeps the selected recipient role transparent.
This exception is lexical and must be learned. Do not generalize it to saya masa “buy for him,” nuna masa “show him,” or kawo masa “bring for him.”
Keep direct and indirect objects apart
One clause may contain both a recipient relation and a direct-object gap:
Ga littafin da muka saya wa ɗalibar.
Here is the book that we bought for the student.
Here littafin is the missing direct object, while overt wa ɗalibar remains. Compare the recipient-headed version:
Ga ɗalibar da muka saya wa littafi.
Here is the student for whom we bought a book.
The lexical material is nearly identical, but the gap differs. English word order can obscure the contrast; Hausa wa makes the recipient role visible. Subject muka stays the same because “we” perform both actions.
Possessive and locative material inside the relative
An indirect-object relative can contain other relations without changing its own role:
Na san mutumin da muka aika wa takardunsa zuwa sabon ofishinsa.
I know the man for whom we sent his documents to his new office.
The suffixes -sa in takardunsa and ofishinsa refer to the same masculine head, while retained wa marks him as recipient. This redundancy is meaningful: possession, location, and recipient status are separate relations.
Restrictive and appositive uses
Mutumin da muka saya wa littafi restricts the reference: it tells the listener which man is intended. An already identified name can receive an appositive continuation with agreeing wanda/wadda (careful speech and writing):
Bello, wanda muke aika masa da rahoto kowane mako, zai yi ritaya.
Bello, to whom we send a report every week, will retire. (careful speech or writing)
The appositive adds information about known Bello rather than selecting him from a set. Relative muke is valid here; some speakers permit plain TAM in appositive relatives. The resumptive masa preserves the recipient relation in either variant.
Common Mistakes
1. Deleting wa with a regular marked recipient
❌ mutumin da muka saya littafi
Incorrect for the intended ‘man for whom we bought a book’—without wa, the recipient relation is not marked.
✅ mutumin da muka saya wa littafi
The man for whom we bought a book.
2. Using a plain completive inside the relative
❌ iyalan da mun kawo wa ruwa
Incorrect canonical completed relative—mun is plain completive.
✅ iyalan da muka kawo wa ruwa
The families for whom we brought water.
3. Adding wa before a fused recipient pronoun
❌ macen da muka saya wa mata magani
Incorrect—mata already expresses ‘for her’; wa must not be doubled.
✅ macen da muka saya mata magani
The woman for whom we bought medicine.
4. Using masa after ba “give”
❌ mutumin da muka ba masa littafi
Incorrect Nigerian Standard recipient frame for ba ‘give’.
✅ mutumin da muka ba shi littafi
The man whom we gave a book to.
5. Omitting the head’s linker
❌ mace da muka nuna wa hanyar
Incorrect compact restrictive pattern—mace requires linked macen.
✅ macen da muka nuna wa hanyar
The woman to whom we showed the way.
Key Takeaways
- A regular full-noun recipient is marked with wa; when that recipient becomes the head, wa can remain after the verb.
- Resumptive recipients use mini/maka/miki/masa/mata/mana/muku/musu and never take another wa.
- The verb ba “give” exceptionally selects ni/ka/ki/shi/ta/mu/ku/su, not the fused ma- forms.
- Relative TAM agrees with the clause’s subject, not with the recipient head.
- A direct-object head leaves a direct-object gap; a recipient head preserves its distinct recipient relation.
- Keep the joined head linker and invariant da regardless of masculine, feminine, or plural reference.
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.
- Object Relative ClausesA2 — Build Hausa relatives whose linked noun head is understood as the missing object of the modifying clause.
- Resumptive Pronouns in RelativesB1 — Know when a Hausa relative leaves a gap and when a pronoun or possessive suffix must preserve the head noun's grammatical relation.
- Indirect Objects with wa and ma-A2 — Mark noun recipients with wa, use the fused ma- series for pronominal recipients, and keep the recipient next to the verb before the theme.
- Benefactive ObjectsA2 — Express who benefits from an action with wa plus a noun or the fused ma- pronoun series, and keep the beneficiary before the theme.
- Double-Object ConstructionsA2 — Distinguish Hausa’s restricted bare two-object verbs from ordinary recipients marked by wa or the fused ma- pronouns.