A depictive secondary predicate describes the temporary state of a participant while the main event is happening: Musa came home tired; she ate the meat while it was hot. The state is not the main event, and the event does not cause that state. Tiredness holds during Musa’s return; heat holds during the eating.
Hausa uses several resources rather than one universal bare-adjective construction: a state phrase introduced by a, a stative form after an agreeing continuative marker, or a fuller simultaneous clause. The choice depends on the lexical item and on whether the state belongs to the subject or object. All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa).
Subject-oriented a-state phrases
A compact and common pattern places a + state expression after the main predicate:
Musa ya dawo gida a gajiye.
Musa came home tired.
Amina ta shigo ɗakin a fusace.
Amina entered the room angry.
Yaran sun iso makaranta a jiƙe.
The children arrived at school soaked.
The main clause supplies the subject and TAM. The a phrase describes that same subject during the event. Forms such as a gajiye “in a tired state,” a fusace “in an angry state,” a jiƙe “in a soaked state,” and a tsorace “in a frightened state” function adverbially here. They do not take English-style gender or number endings merely because the subject changes.
The relation is depictive, not manner in the narrow sense. Musa ya dawo a gajiye says what state Musa was in during his return; it does not describe “tiredly” as a special manner of locomotion.
A finite simultaneous predicate shows agreement overtly
Hausa can give the concurrent state or activity its own continuative marker:
Musa ya kwana yana aiki a ofis.
Musa spent the night working in the office.
Yaran sun shafe awa biyu suna jiran motar.
The children spent two hours waiting for the bus.
In the first example, masculine singular Musa is the understood subject of both ya kwana and yana aiki. In the second, plural yaran controls both sun and suna. The second predicate has real finite agreement; it is not a bare English participle.
This construction is especially useful when the secondary information is verbal or extended by its own complements:
Amina ta yi tafiyar tana riƙe da hannun ɗanta.
Amina made the journey holding her son's hand.
Feminine tana identifies Amina as the one holding the hand. If the intended controller were a masculine object, the agreement would change. Subject marking therefore helps resolve reference.
The relationship between the two predications can range from a classic temporary state to a simultaneous activity. The exact label matters less for learners than the structural fact: Hausa expresses the second predication with its own agreement when it is finite.
Object-oriented depictives
An object can be the participant whose state holds during the event. The matrix clause below has neutral S–TAM–V–O order:
Amina ta ɗauki jaririn yana barci.
Amina picked up the baby while he was asleep.
Amina is matrix subject, ta is its TAM marker, ɗauki is the verb, and jaririn is the object. Masculine singular yana in the following state clause points to jaririn, not Amina. This agreement makes the object-oriented interpretation available.
Ta ci naman yana da zafi.
She ate the meat while it was hot.
Again masculine yana agrees with nama. Eating does not make the meat hot; heat already holds during the eating. Compare the resultative:
Ta dafa naman har ya yi laushi.
She cooked the meat until it became tender.
The har clause presents tenderness as an attained endpoint. The simultaneous yana da zafi clause presents heat as background state. Hausa keeps the two meanings structurally distinct.
Bare adjectives can be structurally ambiguous
Hausa adjectives normally follow nouns inside the noun phrase. Consequently, a sequence such as the following does not transparently distinguish an object depictive from a restrictive modifier:
Ya ci naman ɗanye.
He ate the raw meat; in context, he ate the meat raw.
Ɗanye agrees with masculine nama, but the surface sequence can simply be the noun phrase naman ɗanye “the raw meat.” If the contrast between the object’s state during the event and some other state matters, a fuller clause is clearer:
Ya ci naman tun yana ɗanye, bai jira an dafa shi ba.
He ate the meat while it was still raw; he did not wait for it to be cooked.
There is no honest one-line rule making every post-object adjective a Hausa secondary predicate. Lexical convention, agreement, and discourse all matter. When ambiguity would mislead the listener, state the temporal relation explicitly.
Depictives differ from selected small clauses
An optional depictive adds background information. Remove a gajiye from Musa ya dawo gida a gajiye, and Musa ya dawo gida remains a complete return event. Some verbs, by contrast, select a complement describing an object:
Mun tarar da yaran suna barci.
We found the children sleeping.
With tarar da “find, come upon,” the children’s state helps complete what was found. Such selected object-plus-predicate patterns are treated more fully on the Small-Clause-Like Complements page. The boundary can be subtle, and pretending that every simultaneous clause has exactly the same syntax would hide a real analytical difficulty.
Negatives and questions
Negating the main completive clause normally places the depictive inside the scope of ba ... ba:
Musa bai dawo gida a gajiye ba.
Musa did not come home tired.
Depending on context, this may deny the return event or deny the combined description “return while tired.” If the intended claim is that he returned but was not tired, separate the assertions:
Musa ya dawo gida, amma bai gaji ba.
Musa came home, but he was not tired.
A polar question retains neutral order:
Musa ya dawo gida a gajiye?
Did Musa come home tired?
A content question can ask for the state explicitly:
A wane hali ne Musa ya dawo gida?
In what condition did Musa come home?
The question phrase a wane hali is fronted and followed by ne. Masculine singular relative and plain completive are both written ya, so the relative licensing is not visibly different in Musa ya dawo.
Focused reordering requires a discourse contrast
Neutral order places the subject-oriented state after the main event:
Musa ya bar ofis a fusace.
Musa left the office angry. (neutral)
If someone claims that Musa returned angry, the state can be contrasted at the left edge:
A fusace ne Musa ya bar ofis, ba a tsorace ba.
It was angry that Musa left the office, not frightened.
The fronted phrase is followed by ne and interpreted as focus. This is not stylistically free inversion. The postverbal order remains the neutral answer when no state is being corrected or contrasted.
With a finite simultaneous clause, agreement remains required even when other material is focused. One cannot move aiki to the front and simply discard yana; the second predication still needs its subject–TAM structure or a separately licensed nominalization.
A short discourse motivates the marked order
—Musa ya dawo gida a fusace ne? —A’a, a gajiye ne ya dawo, ba a fusace ba. Ya kwana yana aiki, shi ya sa bai yi magana da yawa ba. —Amina fa? —Ita ta dawo tana cikin farin ciki saboda ta gama aikinta.
—Did Musa come home angry? —No, he came home tired, not angry. He spent the night working, which is why he did not talk much. —What about Amina? —She came back happy because she had finished her work.
The first question establishes anger as the proposed state. The reply corrects it by focusing a gajiye. Yana aiki then supplies the simultaneous activity that explains the fatigue, while feminine tana in the final sentence identifies Amina as the bearer of happiness.
Common Mistakes
1. Treating a depictive as a caused result
❌ Ta ɗauki yaron har yana barci.
Wrong for ‘she picked up the boy while he was asleep’ — har incorrectly presents a limit relation.
✅ Ta ɗauki yaron yana barci.
She picked up the boy while he was asleep.
2. Omitting finite agreement from the simultaneous predicate
❌ Bello ya kwana karatu.
Incorrect for the intended ‘spent the night studying’ construction — the concurrent predicate lacks yana.
✅ Bello ya kwana yana karatu.
Bello spent the night studying.
3. Letting the matrix subject control an object-oriented state
❌ Hauwa ta ɗauki yaron tana barci.
Wrong if the boy was asleep — tana identifies Hauwa as the sleeper.
✅ Hauwa ta ɗauki yaron yana barci.
Hauwa picked up the boy while he was asleep.
4. Assuming a bare post-object adjective is always unambiguous
❌ Ya ci naman ɗanye, wato babu wata ma’ana dabam.
Incorrect claim — naman ɗanye can simply be the noun phrase ‘raw meat.’
✅ Ya ci naman tun yana ɗanye.
He ate the meat while it was still raw.
5. Fronting the state without focus marking
❌ A gajiye Musa ya dawo, ba a fusace ba.
Noncanonical for the explicit corrective focus intended here — ne is missing.
✅ A gajiye ne Musa ya dawo, ba a fusace ba.
It was tired that Musa returned, not angry.
Key Takeaways
- A depictive state holds during the main event; it is not caused by that event.
- Subject-oriented state phrases commonly use a gajiye, a fusace, a jiƙe, and similar forms.
- Finite simultaneous predicates carry their own agreement: ya kwana yana aiki.
- Object-oriented states are clarified by agreement: jaririn yana barci, naman yana da zafi.
- Focused reordering requires ne/ce and relative syntax; postverbal position is neutral.
Related Topics
- Resultative PredicationB2 — Express an attained state through lexical change-of-state verbs, causatives, and finite result clauses instead of copying English bare resultatives.
- Small-Clause-Like ComplementsB2 — Express object-plus-predicate meanings with Hausa frames such as a matsayin, a following agreeing clause, and causative sa.
- Temporary States and Resulting ConditionsA2 — Describe temporary experiences and present results with Hausa verbal, state-locative, and quality-noun predicates.
- Continuative with Stative PredicatesC1 — Use Hausa continuative forms for posture, residence, temporary condition, wanting, and experience while distinguishing state from ongoing action.
- Adverbial and Locative FocusB1 — Focus Hausa locations, times, paths, companions, reasons, and manners by fronting the whole phrase with stabilizing ne.