The affirmative plain-completive marker for a third-person plural subject is sun. It comes before the predicate and combines two jobs in one form: it refers to “they” and presents the situation as complete or established. Thus Sun tafi can mean “They left” or “They have left,” while stative Sun sani normally means “They know.”
All unlabelled forms on this page are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko writes sun without tone or vowel-length marks. Do not confuse it with independent su “they/them,” relative-completive suka, or negative-completive ba su … ba.
Sun in the complete plain-completive paradigm
| Person | Marker | With zo “come” |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | na | na zo |
| 2nd masculine singular | ka | ka zo |
| 2nd feminine singular | kin | kin zo |
| 3rd masculine singular | ya | ya zo |
| 3rd feminine singular | ta | ta zo |
| 1st plural | mun | mun zo |
| 2nd plural | kun | kun zo |
| 3rd plural | sun | sun zo |
| impersonal | an | an zo |
The final n is part of the plain-completive marker. It is not an object suffix and it is not optional. Compare the following natural reports:
Sun zo da wuri.
They came early.
Sun gama aikin tuni.
They have already finished the work.
Sun karɓi saƙonki.
They received your message. (addressing one female)
English chooses simple past or present perfect according to context. Hausa sun contributes plural agreement and completive viewpoint; it does not encode that English tense contrast by itself.
An overt plural subject is followed by sun
A noun phrase can identify who “they” are, but it does not replace the subject–TAM marker. The order is plural subject + sun + predicate.
Yaran sun koma gida.
The children went back home.
Ma’aikatan sun rufe shagon.
The workers closed the shop.
Amina da Hauwa sun shirya abincin.
Amina and Hauwa prepared the food.
In the last example, two coordinated singular names form a plural subject, so the marker is sun, not feminine singular ta. The same agreement applies to a mixed-gender group.
Musa da Zainab sun isa lafiya.
Musa and Zainab arrived safely.
Active verbs normally describe a completed event
With an active predicate—leaving, buying, opening, calling—the completive views the event as a bounded whole.
Jiya sun sayi sabuwar mota.
Yesterday they bought a new car.
Sun buɗe ƙofar domin iska ta shiga.
They opened the door so that air could come in.
Da safe sun kira likita.
In the morning they called a doctor.
The lexical verb does not acquire an English-style past ending. Person, number, and aspect are concentrated before it in sun. Changing only sayi or buɗe cannot create a finite Hausa clause.
Time phrases locate the completed event more precisely:
Sun tashi da ƙarfe shida jiya.
They left at six o'clock yesterday.
Yanzu sun gama taron.
They have finished the meeting now.
Zuwa gobe da safe, sun kammala aikin.
By tomorrow morning, they will have completed the work.
The last example has future time but retains the completive because the event is viewed as complete by a future deadline. A dedicated page explains completive events in future-time contexts.
Stative predicates can give a present interpretation
With a state such as knowledge, ability, memory, or comparison, sun presents that state as established at the reference time. English often uses the simple present.
Sun san inda ofishin yake.
They know where the office is.
Sun iya tuƙi da kyau.
They know how to drive well.
Sun fi mu ƙwarewa a wannan aikin.
They are more skilled than we are at this work.
It would be misleading to define sun as “they did.” The translation arises from the interaction between completive viewpoint, the lexical predicate, and the time context. Some state-like verbs, especially present so “want/like” and many uses of ji “feel/hear,” commonly prefer the continuative: Suna son shayi “They like tea.”
Independent su adds contrast
Plain sun already contains third-person plural subject agreement. Independent su is used when the group is contrasted, corrected, or made an explicit topic.
Sun kawo kujerun.
They brought the chairs. (neutral report)
Su sun kawo kujerun; mu mun kawo tebura.
They brought the chairs; we brought the tables. (contrastive topic)
Independent su cannot replace sun. In su sun, the two forms have different grammatical functions. In a standard focus construction with ne, however, Hausa selects the relative completive:
Su ne suka kawo kujerun.
They are the ones who brought the chairs.
Plain sun versus relative suka
Neutral statements and ordinary yes/no questions use plain sun. Constituent questions, focus constructions, and relative clauses select relative-completive suka.
Sun saya wa yara littattafai.
They bought books for the children. (plain neutral report)
Sun saya wa yara littattafai?
Did they buy books for the children? (plain yes/no question)
Me suka saya wa yara?
What did they buy for the children? (relative completive)
Mutanen da suka taimaka mana sun tafi.
The people who helped us have left. (relative suka inside the modifying clause)
The form suka is not “more past” than sun. Both can describe completed events. Syntax and information structure choose between them; see plain and relative TAM forms.
Negative completive is ba su … ba
The third-person plural negative completive is discontinuous: ba su + predicate + ba. The affirmative final n does not remain.
Ba su zo taron ba.
They did not come to the meeting.
Ba su gama aikin ba.
They did not finish the work.
Ba su san amsar ba.
They do not know the answer.
The active examples receive past event translations; stative san receives a present translation. Contrast negative continuative ba sa …, used for ongoing or habitual meaning:
Ba sa aiki ranar Lahadi.
They do not work on Sunday.
Practice: choose the whole frame
Complete each idea mentally before reading the answer: neutral completed “the guests arrived,” focused “the guests are the ones who arrived,” and negative “the guests did not arrive.”
Baƙin sun iso.
The guests arrived. (plain completive)
Baƙin ne suka iso.
The guests are the ones who arrived. (relative completive after focus)
Baƙin ba su iso ba.
The guests did not arrive. (negative completive)
The lexical predicate iso stays recognizable, while the preverbal complex changes to express clause type and polarity.
Common Mistakes
1. Dropping sun after an overt noun subject.
❌ Yaran gama aikin.
Incorrect — the plural noun does not replace the subject–TAM marker.
✅ Yaran sun gama aikin.
The children finished the work.
2. Using independent su as if it were a finite marker.
❌ Su tafi jiya.
Incorrect for a neutral completive clause; su alone is an independent pronoun.
✅ Sun tafi jiya.
They left yesterday.
3. Using suka in a context-free neutral report.
❌ Suka buɗe shagon da safe.
Incorrect as the intended standalone neutral report; suka needs a relative or focused environment.
✅ Sun buɗe shagon da safe.
They opened the shop in the morning.
4. Keeping sun inside the negative frame.
❌ Ba sun zo ba.
Incorrect — the negative-completive subject form is ba su.
✅ Ba su zo ba.
They did not come.
5. Translating every sun as English past.
❌ Sun san hanyar.
Incorrect if automatically understood as ‘They knew the way’; without a past anchor, this normally states current knowledge.
✅ Sun san hanyar.
They know the way.
Key Takeaways
- Third-person plural plain completive is sun + predicate.
- A plural noun or coordinated subject is still followed by sun.
- Active predicates usually yield completed-event readings; stative predicates can yield present established-state readings.
- Neutral sun contrasts with relative suka and negative ba su … ba.
- Time context can make sun translate as simple past, present perfect, present state, past perfect, or future perfect.
Related Topics
- The Hausa Subject–TAM ComplexA1 — Understand the preverbal Hausa forms that express subject agreement together with tense, aspect, mood, and polarity.
- Active and Stative Verb InterpretationsA1 — See how a verb's action or state meaning changes the time interpretation of Hausa completive and continuative constructions.
- Plain and Relative TAM FormsA1 — Choose plain Hausa completive and continuative forms for neutral clauses, and relative forms for focus, constituent questions, and relative clauses.
- Plain Completive: Second Person Plural (kun)A2 — Use kun for plural or respectfully plural address in neutral completive clauses and distinguish it from ku, kuka, kuna, and possessive -ku.
- Plain Completive: Impersonal (an)A2 — Use impersonal an to present a completed event while leaving its human or generic agent unexpressed.
- Completive Meaning with Active VerbsA2 — Understand how Hausa plain-completive markers present actions, processes, and changes as bounded wholes rather than simply marking past tense.