Possessor Relatives | Hausa Grammar

Hausa normally expresses English whose by placing an ordinary possessed noun inside the relative clause: mutumin da motarsa ta lalace “the man whose car broke down,” literally organized as “the man [his car broke down].” The relative head is resumed by a possessive suffix; it does not leave a bare possessor gap.

All unlabelled forms are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko preserves ɓ, ɗ, ƙ, ’y but does not mark tone or vowel length. Possessive forms must be learned with the gender and number of the possessed noun as well as the person of the possessor.

The underlying suffix shapes are developed on possessive pronouns after masculine and plural nouns and possessive pronouns after feminine nouns.

The two noun phrases do different jobs

A possessor relative contains an outer head and an inner possessed noun:

LINKED POSSESSOR HEAD + da + POSSESSED NOUN–POSS.SUFFIX + TAM + PREDICATE

Mutumin da motarsa ta lalace ya kira mai gyara.

The man whose car broke down called the mechanic.

Macen da ɗanta ya sami aiki tana zaune kusa da mu.

The woman whose son got a job lives near us.

Mutanen da gidajensu suka rushe sun sami taimako.

The people whose houses collapsed received assistance.

The outer heads are masculine mutumin, feminine macen, and plural mutanen. The possessor elements are -sa, -ta, -su. Their attached forms also contain the -n/-r linker selected by the possessed noun: mota-r-sa → motarsa, ɗa-n-ta → ɗanta, and gidaje-n-su → gidajensu.

Clause agreement follows the inner possessed noun. Feminine mota controls ta; masculine ɗa controls ya; plural gidaje controls suka. English whose makes only the possessor relation obvious, so this independent agreement decision takes practice.

💡

Ask two questions: “Who owns it?” chooses the possessive suffix; “What performs the inner predicate?” chooses the subject–TAM marker.

Masculine, feminine, and plural possessors

The relative head’s grammatical gender or number determines the possessor suffix that refers back to it.

These are two independent choices: the relative head determines the person, gender, or number of the possessor element, while the possessed noun determines whether the linker is -n or -r.

Relative head	Resumed on feminine mota	Resumed on masculine gida
mutumin, male	motarsa	gidansa
macen, female	motarta	gidanta
mutanen, plural	motarsu	gidansu

Na san macen da motarta take yawan lalacewa.

I know the woman whose car frequently breaks down.

Mun ziyarci iyalan da gidansu yake bayan makaranta.

We visited the family whose house is behind the school.

An kira direbobin da motocinsu ba su da fitilu.

The drivers whose vehicles have no lights were called.

In the first example, feminine motarta controls relative-continuative take. In the second, masculine gidansu controls yake even though the possessor is a collective family. In the third, plural motocinsu controls possessive-negative ba su da. The possessor’s number cannot replace agreement with the possessed noun.

💡

Do not read the first suffix you see as clause agreement. In motarsa ta lalace, -sa identifies the male owner, but ta agrees with feminine mota.

Do not confuse macen “the woman” with special matar in the meaning “wife/possessed woman,” as in matar Audu “Audu’s wife.” In a restrictive head meaning simply “the woman whose…,” use macen da....

The possessed noun as subject

The most transparent pattern makes the possessed noun the subject of the inner clause. Choose relative completive or continuative from its viewpoint.

Na kira manajan da wayarsa ta ɓace a kasuwa.

I called the manager whose phone went missing at the market.

Ga ɗalibar da rubutunta yake da sauƙin karantawa.

Here is the student whose handwriting is easy to read.

Mun taimaka wa yaran da iyayensu suke fama da rashin lafiya.

We helped the children whose parents are struggling with illness.

Completed ta ɓace presents the disappearance as bounded. Relative-continuative yake describes a stable property of masculine rubutu, while plural iyayensu controls suke. The entire inner subject appears before the TAM marker, exactly as an overt noun subject does elsewhere in Hausa.

The possessed noun as object

The resumptive possessed noun can instead be the object inside the relative. Then a separate subject controls TAM.

Na haɗu da mutumin da muka sayi motarsa bara.

I met the man whose car we bought last year.

Sun kira macen da Amina take kula da ’ya’yanta.

They called the woman whose children Amina looks after.

Waɗannan su ne manoman da gwamnati za ta gyara rijiyoyinsu.

These are the farmers whose wells the government will repair.

In muka sayi motarsa, “we” controls relative-completive muka. Feminine Amina controls take in the second example, and feminine gwamnati controls future za ta in the third. The forms motarsa, ’ya’yanta, rijiyoyinsu resume the outer possessor heads; they are not redundant copies of a direct-object head.

Compare a simple object relative:

Na ga motar da muka saya bara.

I saw the car that we bought last year. (direct-object head)

Here motar itself is the outer head and a gap follows saya. In mutumin da muka sayi motarsa, the head is the car’s owner, so the entire possessed object must remain inside the clause.

Possession combined with location

Possessive resumption can occur inside a locative phrase:

Na san mutumin da muke yin taro a ofishinsa.

I know the man in whose office we hold meetings.

Mun ziyarci macen da ’ya’yanta suke karatu a garinta.

We visited the woman whose children study in her town.

In the first sentence, ofishinsa both names the location and resumes the male owner. In the second, ’ya’yanta resumes the woman as parent, while garinta resumes her again as the town’s relevant possessor; plural children control suke. Hausa can state these relations overtly where English uses one initial whose.

Plain clause versus possessor relative

Motar Musa ta lalace a kan hanya.

Musa’s car broke down on the road. (independent clause)

Musa shi ne mutumin da motarsa ta lalace a kan hanya.

Musa is the man whose car broke down on the road. (possessor relative)

The independent clause names Musa with a full genitive phrase. The relative replaces that name inside the clause with masculine -sa and places linked mutumin da outside. In plural forms, affirmative completive suka or continuative suke also makes the relative TAM environment visible.

Negation

Negative polarity chooses its own TAM forms; the possessive suffix remains unchanged.

An tantance mutanen da takardunsu ba su cika ba.

The people whose documents were incomplete were screened.

Ba mu ɗauki direban da lasisinsa ba ya aiki ba.

We did not hire the driver whose licence is not valid.

Plural takardunsu controls negative completive ba su … ba in the first sentence. Masculine lasisinsa controls negative continuative ba ya, normally without an inner final ba. The outer main clause in the second sentence independently has its own completed negative closing ba.

Restrictive and appositive readings

Mutumin da motarsa ta lalace identifies a man through his car. An already known referent may instead take an appositive wanda/wadda/waɗanda clause (careful speech and writing):

Amina, wadda ’yarta take karatu a Zariya, za ta zo gobe.

Amina, whose daughter studies in Zaria, will come tomorrow. (careful speech or writing)

Feminine -ta on ’yarta resumes Amina, while the feminine daughter controls relative take. The appositive adds parenthetical information rather than selecting one Amina. Some speakers allow plain TAM in appositive relatives, but the possessive resumption itself remains necessary.

Common Mistakes

1. Copying English whose as an invariant word

❌ mutumin da whose mota ta lalace

Incorrect code-mixed structure—Hausa expresses the possessor on the noun.

✅ ga mutumin da motarsa ta lalace

Here is the man whose car broke down.

2. Leaving a bare possessor gap

❌ macen da ɗa ya sami aiki

Incorrect for the intended ‘woman whose son’; the son must carry her possessive suffix.

✅ macen da ɗanta ya sami aiki

The woman whose son got a job.

3. Making TAM agree with the outer possessor

❌ mutumin da motarsa ya lalace

Incorrect—feminine motarsa is the inner subject.

✅ mutumin da motarsa ta lalace

The man whose car broke down.

4. Using matar for an ordinary woman head

❌ matar da ɗanta yake karatu

Wrong for the intended ordinary ‘the woman whose son studies’; matar has the special wife/possessed-woman use.

✅ macen da ɗanta yake karatu

The woman whose son studies.

5. Omitting the plural possessor suffix

❌ mutanen da gidaje suka rushe

Incorrect for ‘people whose houses’; no form resumes the owners.

✅ mutanen da gidajensu suka rushe

The people whose houses collapsed.

Key Takeaways

Hausa expresses whose through a possessed noun inside the relative clause, not through an invariant relative pronoun.
Masculine, feminine, and plural heads select possessor elements -sa, -ta, -su; the full attached form also contains the possessed noun’s -n/-r linker, as in gidansa/motarsa, gidanta/motarta, and gidansu/motarsu.
The possessed noun controls subject agreement when it is the inner subject; the outer possessor does not.
If the possessed noun is an object, the separate inner subject controls relative TAM.
Possessive resumption can occur inside a locative phrase such as a ofishinsa.
Keep ordinary macen “the woman” distinct from special matar Audu “Audu’s wife.”

Now practice Hausa

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Hausa →