A negative relative clause identifies someone or something through a situation that does not hold: mutumin da bai zo ba “the man who did not come,” injinan da ba sa aiki “the machines that do not work.” Hausa does not normally negate an affirmative relative marker mechanically. Polarity selects a negative TAM series, while the linked head, invariant da, and a gap or resumptive element keep the larger construction relative.
All unlabelled forms are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko uses ɓ, ɗ, ƙ, ’y but does not mark tone or vowel length. The full negative paradigms are surveyed on negative subject-pronoun sets.
Negation changes the TAM frame, not the head
The compact restrictive frame still begins with a linked head plus da:
LINKED HEAD + da + NEGATIVE SUBJECT–TAM + PREDICATE (+ closing ba)
Mutumin da bai kawo katinsa ba yana jiranmu a ƙofa.
The man who did not bring his card is waiting for us at the gate.
Macen da ba ta sami saƙon ba ta kira ofishin.
The woman who did not receive the message called the office.
Ma’aikatan da ba su halarci taron ba za su karanta rahoton.
The employees who did not attend the meeting will read the report.
Masculine mutum appears as mutumin, feminine mace has the special linked form macen, and plural ma’aikata appears as ma’aikatan. Negation does not remove these linkers, and it does not make da agree. The head’s gender and number matter for a subject relative, but an object relative takes its agreement from the subject inside the clause.
Negative completive: a denied bounded event
Use the negative completive when the relative property is a completed event that failed to happen or a result that was not achieved. It normally has an opening negative subject form and a closing ba.
| Subject | Positive relative completive | Negative completive |
|---|---|---|
| I | na | ban … ba |
| you, one male | ka | ba ka … ba |
| you, one female | kika | ba ki … ba |
| he | ya | bai … ba |
| she | ta | ba ta … ba |
| we / you all / they | muka / kuka / suka | ba mu / ba ku / ba su … ba |
| unspecified actor | aka | ba a … ba |
Na ware takardun da ba mu aika jiya ba.
I set aside the documents that we did not send yesterday.
Ki duba ƙofofin da ba a rufe ba.
Check the doors that were not closed. (addressing one female)
The object heads takardun and ƙofofin leave gaps after aika and rufe. They do not control ba mu or ba a: “we” controls the first marker, while the second has an unspecified actor. Positive muka/aka cannot remain as ba muka or ba aka in this ordinary negative construction.
Compare an independent denial with a relative:
Baƙin ba su kawo katinsu ba.
The visitors did not bring their cards. (independent negative clause)
Jami’in ya kira baƙin da ba su kawo katinsu ba.
The officer called the visitors who did not bring their cards. (negative relative clause)
The inner negative string ba su kawo katinsu ba is identical. The second sentence is relative because it follows linked baƙin da and identifies a subset of visitors. Negative morphology neutralizes the affirmative contrast sun/suka, but it does not erase relative syntax.
Negative continuative: an absent activity or habit
Use the negative continuative for an action not in progress, a habit that does not hold, or an absent state-like property. Its standard forms include ba na, ba ka, ba kya, ba ya, ba ta, ba ma, ba kwa, ba sa, ba a, normally without a clause-final ba.
Ga injinan da ba sa aiki yanzu.
Here are the machines that are not working now.
Muna neman direban da ba ya shan taba.
We are looking for a driver who does not smoke.
Wannan ita ce hanyar da ba ma bi da dare.
This is the road that we do not take at night.
The plural negative forms are especially important: ba ma, ba kwa, and ba sa, not ba muke, ba kuke, or ba suke. In the object relative hanyar da ba ma bi, the feminine head hanyar is the missing object; first-person plural ba ma still means “we do not.”
The continuative predicate may have its verbal-noun shape:
Na dawo da littafin da ba kya karantawa yanzu.
I returned the book that you are not reading now. (addressing one female)
Negative ba kya karantawa has no final negative ba. By contrast, completed littafin da ba ki karanta ba means “the book that you did not read” and closes with ba. This difference is structural, not optional punctuation.
Negative future relatives retain za
A future denial surrounds the ordinary agreeing za form with ba … ba. Hausa has no special relative future series.
Mun soke tarurrukan da ba za mu iya halarta ba.
We cancelled the meetings that we will not be able to attend.
Ɗaliban da ba za su rubuta jarabawar gobe ba sun sanar da malaminsu.
The students who will not take the examination tomorrow informed their teacher.
Do not replace ba za su … ba with ba su … ba: the latter is negative completive and normally denies a completed event. Do not use ba sa … for a one-off future cancellation either; that form naturally describes an open situation or regular schedule.
Subject, object, location, and possession
In a subject relative, the linked head controls the negative subject form:
Macen da ba ta aiki ranar Asabar tana son musayar lokacin aikinta.
The woman who does not work on Saturdays wants to exchange her shift.
In an object relative, the internal subject controls it:
Na sayi kayan da ’yan kasuwar ba su sayar jiya ba.
I bought the goods that the traders did not sell yesterday.
Oblique and possessor relations can retain resumptive material. The following locative phrase contains -sa, which refers back to masculine shagon:
Mun rufe shagon da ba a yin gyara a cikinsa.
We closed the shop in which repairs are not carried out.
A possessor is resumed on the possessed noun:
Na taimaka wa mutanen da gidajensu ba su sami ruwa ba.
I helped the people whose houses did not get water.
Plural -nsu links gidajensu to mutanen. The inner subject is plural gidajensu, so it controls ba su. English whose hides these two agreement decisions; Hausa expresses possession and clause agreement separately.
Restrictive and discourse-continuing readings
Ma’aikatan da ba su zo ba restricts the reference to employees who failed to come. With an already identified name, agreeing wanda/wadda/waɗanda can add a parenthetical continuation (careful speech and writing):
Hauwa, wadda ba ta halarci taron ba, ta karanta bayanan daga baya.
Hauwa, who did not attend the meeting, read the notes later. (careful speech or writing)
The negative clause itself uses the ordinary negative series. Appositive relative clauses show speaker and register variation in affirmative TAM, but negation again removes much of the visible plain–relative opposition. The commas signal a discourse continuation, not a different negative paradigm.
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping a positive relative marker after ba
❌ mutanen da ba suka iso ba
Incorrect standard negative completive—positive relative suka cannot remain after ba.
✅ mutanen da ba su iso ba
The people who did not arrive.
2. Adding a closing ba to the negative continuative
❌ injinan da ba sa aiki ba yanzu
Incorrect for the intended ordinary negative continuative—the final ba is not part of this frame.
✅ injinan da ba sa aiki yanzu
The machines that are not working now.
3. Omitting the head noun’s joined linker
❌ mota da ba za mu saya ba
Incorrect compact restrictive pattern—feminine mota needs joined -r.
✅ motar da ba za mu saya ba
The car that we will not buy.
4. Making da agree with a feminine head
❌ macen dar ba ta kira ba
Incorrect—relative da is invariant.
✅ macen da ba ta kira ba
The woman who did not call.
5. Repeating a direct object after the verb
❌ wasiƙar da ba mu aika ta ba
Incorrect canonical direct-object relative—the final ta repeats the object head.
✅ wasiƙar da ba mu aika ba
The letter that we did not send.
Key Takeaways
- Keep linked head + da even though negative TAM often looks the same in relative and independent clauses.
- Negative completive uses ban / ba ka / ba ki / bai / ba ta / ba mu / ba ku / ba su / ba a … ba.
- Negative continuative uses ba na / ba ka / ba kya / ba ya / ba ta / ba ma / ba kwa / ba sa / ba a, normally without final ba.
- Negative future retains za inside ba … ba.
- Subject heads control agreement; object heads leave a gap and do not control the internal subject marker.
- Locations and possessors can retain resumptive pronouns or suffixes without becoming redundant direct-object doubling.
Now practice Hausa
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Hausa →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.
- Negative Subject Pronoun SetsA2 — Distinguish Hausa negative completive, continuative, future, potential, and subjunctive subject patterns instead of applying one universal ba rule.