Many frequent Hausa predicates use a continuative verbal noun that does not end in -wa: gani “seeing,” ci “eating,” sha “drinking,” saye “buying,” and tambaya “asking.” Grammarians often call these strong verbal nouns. Their noun-like behavior explains forms such as ganin Amina “seeing Amina” and ganinta “seeing her.”
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko does not show tone or vowel length. “Non--wa” names a morphological class, not a tense: the subject–TAM marker before the verbal noun still carries person, aspect, and polarity.
For the contrasting productive pattern, see continuative verbal nouns in -wa.
The subject–TAM marker comes first
The same non--wa verbal noun follows every person of the plain continuative. Only the preverbal marker changes.
| Person | Plain continuative | With cin abinci |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | ina | ina cin abinci |
| 2nd masculine singular | kana | kana cin abinci |
| 2nd feminine singular | kina | kina cin abinci |
| 3rd masculine singular | yana | yana cin abinci |
| 3rd feminine singular | tana | tana cin abinci |
| 1st plural | muna | muna cin abinci |
| 2nd plural | kuna | kuna cin abinci |
| 3rd plural | suna | suna cin abinci |
| impersonal | ana | ana cin abinci |
Ina shan ruwa yanzu.
I am drinking water now.
Kina sayen kayan miya a kasuwar nan?
Are you buying cooking ingredients at this market? (to one female)
Yara suna kallon wasan a falo.
The children are watching the match in the living room.
An overt noun subject does not replace the marker. Yara suna, for example, contains both the lexical subject and the required third-person plural subject–TAM form.
Learn the strong form with its linker gender
There is no universal ending that produces every non--wa verbal noun. The most useful strategy is to learn three connected forms: the form without a following object, the linked form before a noun object, and the form with a pronominal object.
| No following object | Before a noun object | With “him/it” |
|---|---|---|
| gani “seeing” | ganin Musa | ganinsa |
| ci “eating” | cin tuwo | cinsa |
| sha “drinking” | shan magani | shansa |
| saye “buying” | sayen littafi | sayensa |
| jira “waiting for” | jiran Musa | jiransa |
| tambaya “asking” | tambayar Musa | tambayarsa |
Most strong verbal nouns in this table take masculine -n. Feminine tambaya takes -r. The linker agrees with the verbal noun, not with the object: compare tambayar Musa and tambayar Amina, but ganin Musa and ganin Amina.
Tana tambayar likita game da maganin.
She is asking the doctor about the medicine.
Muna jiran Amina a bakin ƙofa.
We are waiting for Amina at the doorway.
Suna sayen sabbin kujeru domin ofishin.
They are buying new chairs for the office.
These -n/-r forms are not English possessives, although the morphology is the same genitive linking used in possession. The relation here is semantic objecthood: Amina is the person seen or awaited, not the owner of an act.
Continuative meaning comes from the construction
The continuative views an active event from within or presents it as a routine. A time phrase decides whether natural English uses a progressive, simple present, past progressive, or future progressive.
Yanzu Bello yana sayen tikiti a tashar mota.
Bello is buying a ticket at the bus station now.
Bello yana sayen tikiti a nan duk ranar Litinin.
Bello buys a ticket here every Monday.
Jiya da ƙarfe tara Bello yana jiran bas.
Yesterday at nine Bello was waiting for a bus.
Gobe da wannan lokaci Bello yana shan magani a asibiti.
At this time tomorrow Bello will be taking medicine at the hospital.
Nothing in yana itself means exclusively “present.” It supplies masculine singular agreement and a continuative viewpoint; yanzu, duk ranar Litinin, jiya, and gobe locate that viewpoint in time.
The same construction can yield a state-like English translation. Perception gani often corresponds to English see or can see, not be seeing.
Daga nan ina ganin kogin sosai.
From here I can see the river clearly.
Ba ta ganin rubutun saboda duhu.
She cannot see the writing because of the darkness.
This does not make ina ganin a separate present-tense idiom. Lexical meaning and context determine whether the open viewpoint is understood as an unfolding activity, a repeated event, or a state.
Plain, relative, and negative patterns
Neutral affirmative clauses use ina, kana, kina, yana, tana, muna, kuna, suna, ana. Focus, constituent questions, and relative clauses use nake, kake, kike, yake, take, muke, kuke, suke, ake. The verbal noun remains strong in both sets.
Tana shan shayi a ofis.
She drinks tea at the office. (neutral statement)
Me take sha a ofis?
What does she drink at the office?
Shayi ne take sha a ofis.
Tea is what she drinks at the office.
In Me take sha?, the questioned object is not sitting after the verbal noun, so there is no local noun to trigger linked shan. Relative take is licensed by the constituent question; it is not a past-tense marker.
The ordinary negative continuative uses ba na, ba ka, ba kya, ba ya, ba ta, ba ma, ba kwa, ba sa, ba a plus the verbal noun, normally without a closing ba.
Ba na shan kofi da dare.
I do not drink coffee at night.
Ba sa sayen nama a wannan shagon.
They do not buy meat at this shop.
Ba a tambayar baƙi game da albashinsu.
Guests are not asked about their salary.
Continuative versus completive
Do not change only the lexical word and leave the subject–TAM complex untouched. Compare the whole constructions:
Amina ta sayi riga jiya.
Amina bought a gown yesterday. (completive)
Amina tana sayen riga yanzu.
Amina is buying a gown now. (continuative)
Na ga Audu da safe.
I saw Audu in the morning. (completive)
Ina ganin Audu a bakin hanya yanzu.
I can see Audu by the roadside now. (continuative)
The completive selects an ordinary finite verb such as sayi or ga. The continuative selects saye or gani, and a following noun object triggers sayen or ganin. Grade-specific stem alternations must be learned with the verb; they are not free stylistic variants.
Practice
Complete these with the appropriate form: (1) Musa yana _ ruwa “Musa is drinking water”; (2) Ina _ Amina “I can see Amina”; (3) Me kike _? “What are you buying?”; (4) Ba ma _ nama “We do not eat meat.” Answers: shan, ganin, saye, cin. Then change sentence (2) to “I can see her”: Ina ganinta.
Common Mistakes
1. Adding -wa mechanically to every continuative predicate.
❌ Yana ganiwa motar.
Incorrect — gani is a non--wa verbal noun.
✅ Yana ganin motar.
He can see the car.
2. Omitting the linker before a local noun object.
❌ Muna sha ruwa yanzu.
Incorrect in the standard strong-verbal-noun construction.
✅ Muna shan ruwa yanzu.
We are drinking water now.
3. Choosing the linker from the object’s gender.
❌ Tana tambayan Musa.
Incorrect — feminine tambaya requires linker -r.
✅ Tana tambayar Musa.
She is asking Musa.
4. Dropping the subject–TAM complex after a noun subject.
❌ Yara cin abinci a waje.
Incorrect — the finite clause lacks a continuative marker.
✅ Yara suna cin abinci a waje.
The children are eating outside.
5. Treating a relative form as a past tense.
❌ Me tana sha?
Incorrect in a standard constituent question; plain tana is not selected here.
✅ Me take sha?
What is she drinking?
Key Takeaways
- Non--wa or strong verbal nouns include frequent forms such as gani, ci, sha, saye, jira, and feminine tambaya.
- A following noun object triggers the verbal noun’s own -n or -r linker: ganin Amina, tambayar Musa.
- Pronominal objects use possessive-type forms such as ganinta and tambayarsa.
- Plain, relative, and negative subject–TAM forms occur before the same verbal-noun construction.
- Time and lexical meaning determine the natural English tense; the Hausa continuative is not simply an English present progressive.
Related Topics
- Continuative with -wa Verbal NounsA2 — Form the Hausa continuative with weak -wa verbal nouns and remove -wa when a direct object follows.
- Genitive Linking before Noun ObjectsA2 — Attach -n or -r to a strong continuative verbal noun before its local noun object, choosing the linker from the verbal noun’s gender.
- Possessive Object Forms in the ContinuativeA2 — Use joined possessive-type pronouns as the objects of strong continuative verbal nouns, as in ganinka, ganinta, and tambayarsu.
- Continuative PronounsA2 — Use ina, kana, kina, yana, tana, muna, kuna, suna, and ana for ongoing, habitual, and state-like situations in neutral Hausa clauses.
- 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.
- Verbal Nouns and Grade MembershipA2 — Use Hausa verb grades to anticipate verbal-noun patterns while learning the strong, weak, and sometimes multiple forms each lexical verb actually permits.