Before a basic Hausa da-relative, the head noun normally appears in a joined -n/-r form: mutumin da ya zo “the man who came,” motar da muka saya “the car that we bought,” mutanen da suke jira “the people who are waiting.” This small ending is easy to overlook because English puts the before a noun and has no comparable suffix. In Hausa, however, the linked head is one of the main signals that a compact identifying relative clause is beginning.
All unlabelled forms are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary spelling joins the suffix to the noun and leaves da separate. Tone and vowel length are not marked in these ordinary boko examples. See the relative-clause overview for the whole construction.
The basic choice: -n or -r
The head noun itself determines the linker. The noun inside the relative clause does not.
| Head noun | Features | Before da | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| mutum | masculine singular | mutumin da... | the person who... |
| mota | feminine singular | motar da... | the car that... |
| mutane | plural | mutanen da... | the people who... |
| motoci | plural | motocin da... | the cars that... |
Masculine singular nouns normally use the -n series. Feminine singular nouns ending in -a normally use -r. Plural heads use -n, even when their singular is feminine.
Mutumin da ya kawo kayan yana bakin ƙofa.
The man who brought the goods is at the doorway.
Motar da kika gani ta Musa ce.
The car that you saw belongs to Musa. (addressing one female)
Motocin da suka iso suna filin ajiye motoci.
The cars that arrived are in the parking area.
Joined spelling is part of the grammar
For analysis, a teacher may separate mutumi-n or mota-r to show the boundary. That hyphen is not normal Hausa spelling. Write mutumin da and motar da, never mutumi n da, mota r da, or mota-r da.
Littafin da na aro yana kan tebur.
The book that I borrowed is on the table.
Jakar da take bakin kujera tawa ce.
The bag that is by the chair is mine.
The joined form is not always made by attaching a letter to an unchanged English-style dictionary form. Hausa noun stems and final vowels interact with definiteness/linking morphology: littafi → littafin, jaka → jakar, mutane → mutanen. Learn the citation form, gender, plural, and linked form together.
Final -a is a useful clue but not a perfect gender test. Masculine gida “house” gives gidan da..., not gidar da....
Gidan da muka ziyarta yana kusa da kasuwa.
The house that we visited is near the market.
There is no honest shortcut that predicts every Hausa noun’s gender or plural. A dictionary or a well-formed noun entry is the right tool when the paradigm is not familiar.
The linker and da have different jobs
The joined ending marks the head as identifiable in the discourse. Separate da introduces the clause that identifies or describes it.
Wani direba ya kira ni. Direban da ya kira zai zo da rana.
A driver called me. The driver who called will come in the afternoon.
In the first sentence, wani direba introduces a new, indefinite driver. In the second, direban retrieves an identifiable driver, and da ya kira tells the listener which one. This is why the basic restrictive pattern naturally uses a linked head.
The same linked noun form can occur without a relative clause:
Direban yana jira a waje.
The driver is waiting outside.
Here direban is simply a definite noun phrase. In direban da ya kira, the following da opens a relative clause. The surface suffix overlaps because both constructions present a recoverable referent.
The ending can also look like the short genitive linker:
Na ga motar Amina da motar da muka saya.
I saw Amina’s car and the car that we bought.
Motar Amina contains a possessor; motar da muka saya contains a relative clause. The written -r is identical, but the following structure distinguishes them. Do not translate every joined -n/-r mechanically as “the.”
Head agreement is separate from clause agreement
The head controls -n/-r, while the subject inside the relative clause controls the subject–TAM form.
Motar da yara suka wanke tana waje.
The car that the children washed is outside.
Feminine singular mota gives head form motar. Plural internal subject yara gives relative completive suka. The car does not make the clause marker feminine because it is the missing object, not the subject.
Now reverse the roles:
Yaran da suka wanke motar sun koma gida.
The children who washed the car have gone home.
Plural yara gives both head form yaran and plural relative marker suka, but for different reasons: -n belongs to the plural head, while suka agrees with that head as the understood subject inside the clause.
Relative TAM still matters
The linker does not license a plain subject–TAM form. Canonical affirmative relatives select the relative series.
Ma’aikata sun buɗe shagon da safe.
The employees opened the shop in the morning. (independent clause; plain completive)
Ma’aikatan da suka buɗe shagon suna hutawa.
The employees who opened the shop are resting. (relative completive)
Ma’aikata suna aiki da dare.
Employees work at night. (independent clause; plain continuative)
Ma’aikatan da suke aiki da dare sun iso.
The employees who work at night have arrived. (relative continuative)
The visible changes sun → suka and suna → suke are as important as ma’aikata → ma’aikatan. A phrase with da but the wrong TAM remains malformed in the core standard pattern.
Direct gaps and possessive resumption
A direct-object head normally leaves no object pronoun in the relative clause:
Takardar da Amina ta rubuta tana nan.
The document that Amina wrote is here.
There is no ta object after rubuta; the written ta before the verb is the feminine relative-completive marker agreeing with Amina. By contrast, a possessor relation is expressed inside the clause:
Na kira mutumin da ɗansa ya sami aiki.
I called the man whose son got a job.
Masculine -sa in ɗansa resumes the possessor mutumin. The head still takes -n, da stays invariant, and ya agrees with subject ɗansa. These layers are independent.
Restrictive and appositive uses
The compact linked-head pattern is strongest in an identifying, restrictive use: likitan da ya duba yaron selects the doctor who examined the child. When a unique name receives a parenthetical addition, agreeing wanda/wadda/waɗanda is natural (careful speech and writing):
Amina, wadda ta rubuta rahoton, za ta yi jawabi.
Amina, who wrote the report, will give a speech. (careful speech or writing)
Do not attach -r to the name as though every English who required a linked common-noun head. The strict difference between restrictive and discourse-continuing relatives is an advanced topic; at A2, master linked common noun + da first.
Common Mistakes
1. Leaving the head bare
❌ littafi da na aro
Incorrect in the basic linked-head construction.
✅ littafin da na aro
The book that I borrowed.
2. Using -n with a feminine singular in -a
❌ Na ɗauki rigan da kika saya.
Incorrect — riga is feminine singular.
✅ Na ɗauki rigar da kika saya.
I took the dress that you bought. (addressing one female)
3. Keeping -r after pluralization
❌ Na ga motocir da kuka gyara.
Incorrect — plural motoci uses the -n series.
✅ Na ga motocin da kuka gyara.
I saw the cars that you all repaired.
4. Writing the linker separately or with a hyphen
❌ mota-r da ta lalace
Incorrect ordinary boko spelling.
✅ motar da ta lalace
The car that broke down.
5. Choosing the clause marker from the head object
❌ jakar da Bello ta ɗauka
Incorrect — Bello is the masculine subject inside the clause.
✅ jakar da Bello ya ɗauka
The bag that Bello took.
Key Takeaways
- Use joined -n/-r on the ordinary common-noun head before compact relative da.
- Masculine singular and plural heads normally use -n; feminine singular heads in -a normally use -r.
- Write mutumin da, motar da, mutanen da with no space or hyphen inside the linked head.
- Choose the head linker separately from the subject–TAM agreement inside the clause.
- The linker, invariant da, and relative TAM jointly identify the construction.
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 Clauses with Plain Noun HeadsA2 — Use ordinary lexical nouns such as mutum, mota, and yara as linked heads before Hausa da-relative clauses.
- Linking before Relative ClausesA2 — How a Hausa head noun takes its joined n/r form before a restrictive relative clause introduced by da.
- Definite Suffixes -n and -r: OverviewA2 — How Hausa uses joined -n and -r forms for recoverable reference and noun linking, with the crucial gender, number, and sound-pattern asymmetries.