Hausa uses the relative continuative when a canonical restrictive relative clause presents an action as ongoing, a practice as habitual, or a property as state-like: macen da take jira “the woman who is waiting,” mutanen da suke zuwa kullum “the people who come every day,” and abin da muke so “what we want.” The relative construction selects the -ke series; time and lexical meaning determine the most natural English translation.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). The compact restrictive frame uses a linked head noun plus invariant da. Ordinary boko does not mark tone or vowel length.
The full distribution of the paradigm is introduced on relative continuative in relative clauses.
Structure and viewpoint
The core pattern is:
LINKED HEAD + da + (INTERNAL SUBJECT) + RELATIVE CONTINUATIVE + PREDICATE
Mutumin da yake magana da mai gadi maƙwabcinmu ne.
The man who is talking with the guard is our neighbor.
Macen da take jiran ma’aikacin banki ta zauna a gaba.
The woman who is waiting for the bank employee sat at the front.
Yaran da suke wasa a tsakar gida ’ya’yan maƙwabci ne.
The children who are playing in the courtyard are the neighbor’s children.
The linked heads are masculine mutumin, feminine macen, and plural yaran. The relative clauses present their activities from inside, without an endpoint. Masculine yake, feminine take, and plural suke agree with the subject understood in each clause.
The complete relative-continuative series
| Subject inside the relative clause | Relative form | Model phrase |
|---|---|---|
| I | nake | abin da nake nema |
| you, one male | kake | abin da kake nema |
| you, one female | kike | abin da kike nema |
| he | yake | mutumin da yake aiki |
| she | take | macen da take aiki |
| we | muke | abin da muke nema |
| you, plural | kuke | abin da kuke nema |
| they | suke | mutanen da suke aiki |
| unspecified actor | ake | wurin da ake aiki |
Every full form visibly differs from the plain ina, kana, kina, yana, tana, muna, kuna, suna, ana series. Learn the complete forms rather than replacing a final syllable mechanically in unfamiliar constructions.
Subject relatives
When the head is the understood subject, its gender and number control the marker.
Direban da yake jiran fasinjoji yana gefen titi.
The driver who is waiting for passengers is by the road.
Ma’aikaciyar da take amsa wayoyi ta fita cin abinci.
The employee who answers the phones has gone out to eat.
’Yan kasuwar da suke sayar da kayan miya sun koma gida.
The traders who sell cooking ingredients have gone home.
The first clause is ongoing, the second can describe an assigned habitual duty, and the third describes a regular occupation. Hausa uses the same relative-continuative series for all three. English alternates between progressive is waiting and simple-present answers/sell.
State-like predicates also occur:
Ka tambayi mutumin da yake son sayen motar.
Ask the man who wants to buy the car. (addressing one male)
Yake son means “who wants,” not normally “who is wanting.” The continuative viewpoint is broader than the English progressive.
Object relatives and predicate shape
When the head is the missing object, a separate subject inside the clause controls agreement.
Ga na’urar da Zainab take gyarawa.
Here is the machine that Zainab is repairing.
Na sami rahoton da Musa yake nema.
I found the report that Musa is looking for.
Waɗannan su ne kayan da ma’aikatan suke shiryawa domin jigilar gobe.
These are the goods that the workers are preparing for tomorrow’s shipment.
Feminine Zainab controls take, masculine Musa controls yake, and plural ma’aikatan controls suke. The head’s grammatical gender does not control the marker in an object relative.
Many continuative predicates have verbal-noun forms whose shape responds to a following direct object. Compare neutral Amina tana gyara mota with relative motar da Amina take gyarawa. Because the object has been extracted, no noun object immediately follows, and gyarawa appears. This is a property of the verbal noun and its object environment, not a universal instruction to add -wa to every verb.
Na ɗauko littafin da kike karantawa.
I brought the book that you are reading. (addressing one female)
The direct object is a gap after karantawa. Adding a final object pronoun would ordinarily repeat it.
Plain versus relative continuative
Injiniyoyin suna gyara janareton yanzu.
The engineers are repairing the generator now. (plain independent report)
Na ga janareton da injiniyoyin suke gyarawa yanzu.
I saw the generator that the engineers are repairing now. (relative clause)
Plain suna makes the open repair event the main assertion. Relative suke embeds that open proposition as the property identifying janareton. English uses are repairing in both, so translation alone does not reveal the Hausa contrast.
The same opposition appears with a first-person plural subject:
Muna neman sabon ofishi.
We are looking for a new office. (plain independent clause)
Wannan shi ne ofishin da muke nema.
This is the office that we are looking for. (relative clause)
Time does not come from -ke
Relative continuative can be located in past, present, or future time by the surrounding clause and adverbs.
Jiya na haɗu da mutanen da suke jiranmu a tashar.
Yesterday I met the people who were waiting for us at the station.
Waɗannan su ne direbobin da suke jigilar baƙi gobe da safe.
These are the drivers who will be transporting visitors tomorrow morning.
The first suke is translated as past progressive because of jiya; the second has future-time interpretation because of gobe da safe. Neither form is itself a past or future tense.
Reduced ke after an overt subject
In Standard Hausa, a full third-person relative-continuative form may be reduced to invariant ke when an overt noun makes the subject recoverable.
Ga mai gadin da ke jiranmu a bakin ƙofa.
Here is the guard who is waiting for us at the doorway.
Matan da ke sayar da kayan lambu sun rufe rumfunansu.
The women who sell vegetables have closed their stalls.
Full da yake/da suke is also standard. Reduced ke does not display masculine, feminine, or plural agreement, so full forms are often clearer for learners and in a long clause with several possible referents. Do not confuse reduced relative ke with plain na or omit the TAM element entirely.
Locative and possessive relatives
A locative relation can be expressed by a prepositional phrase that resumes the head:
Shagon da muke aiki a cikinsa yana kusa da kasuwa.
The shop in which we work is near the market.
Masculine -sa in a cikinsa refers back to shagon. With a place noun and a conventional location meaning, Hausa may also permit a gap-like locative pattern, but retaining a cikinsa makes the relation explicit and natural here.
A possessor is resumed on the possessed noun:
Macen da ɗanta yake karatu a Zariya malama ce.
The woman whose son studies in Zaria is a teacher.
Masculine ɗanta “her son” contains feminine possessor -ta referring to macen; the son is the inner subject and controls yake. This differs from a direct-object gap.
Restrictive and appositive uses
Macen da take koyar da ajin restricts a set: it identifies the woman through an open property. After an already identified name, agreeing wadda can add a parenthetical continuation:
Hauwa, wadda take koyar da ajin, za ta zo da yamma.
Hauwa, who teaches the class, will come in the evening. (neutral careful writing)
Relative take is a valid appositive variant here, while some speakers also allow plain Hauwa, wadda tana koyar da ajin.... Appositives do not uniformly require the relative form.
The commas represent a pause; the relative does not distinguish one Hauwa from several. In an independent neutral report, use plain TAM: Hauwa tana koyar da ajin. Embedding that fact as a canonical relative changes tana to take.
Negation uses the negative continuative
Negative relatives do not keep affirmative -ke forms.
Ba na son fanfon da ba ya aiki yadda ya kamata.
I do not want the pump that does not work properly.
Ga direbobin da ba sa zuwa aiki ranar Lahadi.
Here are the drivers who do not come to work on Sundays.
Use ba ya/ba sa, not ba yake/ba suke. Negative continuative normally lacks a final closing ba; the first example’s opening Ba na negates the main verb “want,” independently of inner ba ya aiki.
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping plain continuative in a restrictive relative
❌ ɗaliban da suna karatu a ɗakin karatu
Incorrect canonical relative—suna is plain continuative.
✅ ɗaliban da suke karatu a ɗakin karatu
The students who are studying in the library.
2. Omitting the linked head form
❌ mace da take jiran likita
Incorrect compact restrictive frame—the feminine head needs its linked form.
✅ macen da take jiran likita
The woman who is waiting for the doctor.
3. Agreeing with an object head
❌ rahoton da Hauwa yake dubawa
Incorrect—feminine Hauwa is the internal subject.
✅ rahoton da Hauwa take dubawa
The report that Hauwa is examining.
4. Repeating a direct object
❌ littafin da kike karantawa shi
Incorrect canonical object relative—the final shi repeats the gap.
✅ littafin da kike karantawa
The book that you are reading. (addressing one female)
5. Negating an affirmative relative form
❌ ma’aikatan da ba suke yin aiki da dare
Incorrect standard negative-continuative marking.
✅ ma’aikatan da ba sa yin aiki da dare
The employees who do not work at night.
Key Takeaways
- Canonical affirmative open relatives use nake, kake, kike, yake, take, muke, kuke, suke, ake.
- The linked head and invariant da establish the restrictive frame; the relative marker agrees with the subject inside it.
- Relative continuative covers ongoing actions, habits, and state-like properties in past, present, or future contexts.
- Object heads normally leave a gap and may affect verbal-noun shape; possessive and locative relations can use resumptives.
- Reduced ke is possible after a recoverable overt subject, but full forms keep agreement visible.
- Under negation, choose ba ta/ba sa and the rest of the negative series rather than combining ba with -ke.
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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.
- The Head Noun's -n/-r LinkerA2 — Choose and spell the joined -n/-r form that a Hausa noun head takes before a basic da-relative clause.
- 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 Continuative: Complete Person ParadigmB1 — Master nake, kake, kike, yake, take, muke, kuke, suke, and ake in focused, questioned, and relative continuative clauses.
- Relative Continuative in Relative ClausesB2 — Use Hausa relative-continuative forms in clauses that identify a person, thing, place, or time through an open, habitual, or state-like property.