One major class of Hausa continuative predicates uses a verbal noun ending in -wa, often called a weak verbal noun. Karanta “read,” for example, has karantawa when no direct object follows: Tana karantawa “She is reading.” The crucial complication is that -wa is normally absent when a direct object immediately follows: Tana karanta littafi “She is reading a book.” Compare this system with non--wa verbal nouns, which link objects differently.
All unlabelled forms are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko does not mark tone or vowel length. This page teaches the productive construction; detailed grade-specific stem and final-vowel alternations belong to the verb-grade and reference pages.
The subject–TAM marker still comes first
The verbal noun does not identify the subject or locate the viewpoint by itself. The plain continuative set supplies person and aspect.
| Person | Plain marker | No following direct object |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | ina | ina karantawa |
| 2nd masculine singular | kana | kana karantawa |
| 2nd feminine singular | kina | kina karantawa |
| 3rd masculine singular | yana | yana karantawa |
| 3rd feminine singular | tana | tana karantawa |
| 1st plural | muna | muna karantawa |
| 2nd plural | kuna | kuna karantawa |
| 3rd plural | suna | suna karantawa |
| impersonal | ana | ana karantawa |
Ina karantawa a ɗakin karatu.
I am reading in the library.
Yaran suna karantawa cikin natsuwa.
The children are reading quietly.
Ana karantawa a nan kowace safiya.
People read here every morning.
The overt noun yaran is followed by required plural suna. The noun phrase names the subject; the marker supplies agreement and continuative viewpoint.
Common -wa verbal nouns
The suffix attaches to the verb’s appropriate no-object form. The surface shape can vary, so the examples are vocabulary, not an invitation to create forms by spelling alone.
| Verb meaning | No-object verbal noun | Natural continuative chunk |
|---|---|---|
| read | karantawa | tana karantawa |
| pour | zubawa | yana zubawa |
| bring | kawowa | suna kawowa |
| catch | kamawa | ana kamawa |
| divide/distribute | rabawa | muna rabawa |
| wipe/polish | gogewa | kina gogewa |
Mai shagon yana zubawa a hankali kada ya ɓata ƙasa.
The shopkeeper is pouring carefully so that he does not dirty the floor.
Suna kawowa tun safe, amma kayan ba su ƙare ba.
They have been bringing things since morning, but the goods are not yet exhausted.
Kina gogewa ne ko kina shirin tafiya?
Are you cleaning, or are you getting ready to leave? (to one female)
The context can supply an understood object. Because no overt direct object immediately follows the verbal noun, -wa remains.
The label “weak -wa verbal noun” describes morphology, not whether a predicate is active or stative. The high-frequency examples on this page are dynamic events, so the continuative can present them as unfolding or recurrent. A verb’s lexical meaning—not the suffix -wa by itself—determines whether a context permits a state-like interpretation.
Drop -wa before a noun direct object
When an overt noun object immediately follows, a weak verbal noun normally gives way to the corresponding pre-object verbal form. It may look like the verb used in another TAM, but the preceding subject–TAM marker still makes the clause continuative.
| No following object | Following noun object | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| tana karantawa | tana karanta littafi | she is reading / a book |
| yana zubawa | yana zuba sukari | he is pouring / sugar |
| suna kawowa | suna kawo kaya | they are bringing / goods |
| ana kamawa | ana kama ɓarawo | someone is being caught / a thief |
| muna rabawa | muna raba abinci | we are distributing / food |
| kina gogewa | kina goge mota | you are polishing / a car |
Tana karanta saƙon da aka aiko mata.
She is reading the message that was sent to her.
Yana zuba sukari da yawa a cikin shayin.
He is putting too much sugar into the tea.
Suna kawo kujeru daga ɗakin aji.
They are bringing chairs from the classroom.
Muna raba ruwa ga mutanen da suke jira.
We are distributing water to the people who are waiting.
There is no genitive -n/-r linker in these weak-verbal-noun object frames. That contrasts with non--wa verbal nouns such as cin abinci “eating food” and sayen kaya “buying goods.”
Drop -wa before a direct-object pronoun too
A following direct-object pronoun triggers the same absence of -wa. The pronoun is the ordinary direct-object form selected by the verb, not a possessive suffix on the weak verbal noun.
Na miƙa wa Aisha littafin; tana karanta shi yanzu.
I handed Aisha the book; she is reading it now.
’Yan sanda suna kama su ɗaya bayan ɗaya.
The police are arresting them one by one.
Motar ta yi datti, don haka Musa yana goge ta.
The car got dirty, so Musa is wiping it.
Mun shirya kayan; yanzu muna raba su ga baƙi.
We prepared the supplies; now we are distributing them to the guests.
This behavior differs sharply from a strong, non--wa verbal noun such as gani, whose pronominal object can be possessive in form: yana ganinta “he sees/is seeing her.” Do not transfer that pattern to weak -wa forms.
Fronted or omitted objects leave -wa visible
The conditioning factor is not simply “the verb has a transitive meaning.” The -wa form is used when no direct object follows it in its ordinary postverbal position. A constituent question fronts the object, so -wa appears:
Me kake karantawa yanzu?
What are you reading now? (to one male)
Wane littafi take karantawa a ajin?
Which book is she reading in class?
Likewise, an object represented outside the predicate can leave the no-following-object form:
Ga littafin da Amina take karantawa.
Here is the book that Amina is reading.
This is why the shortcut “transitive verb means no -wa” is wrong. What matters on this page is whether the direct object follows the weak verbal noun. More advanced pages explain how grade and clause structure interact with this alternation.
Time and aspect remain in the preverbal complex
Weak verbal-noun morphology does not itself mean present time. Compare the same continuative construction in different time frames:
Jiya da dare tana karantawa lokacin da wutar ta ɗauke.
Last night she was reading when the electricity went out.
Yanzu tana karanta rahoton a ofis.
She is reading the report in the office now.
Gobe da wannan lokaci tana karantawa a gaban kwamitin.
At this time tomorrow she will be reading before the committee.
The adverbial frame supplies past, present, or future location. The continuative keeps the situation open around that reference time.
Compare a bounded event:
Ta karanta rahoton jiya.
She read the report yesterday. (completive)
Tana karanta rahoton yanzu.
She is reading the report now. (continuative)
The surface predicate karanta rahoton appears in both, but ta versus tana changes the TAM viewpoint. This is a clear case where a learner cannot identify TAM from the lexical word alone.
Relative and negative constructions
Focus, constituent questions, and relative clauses use the relative continuative set, as already seen in kake/take karantawa. A neutral yes/no question keeps the plain set.
Kuna goge motocin yanzu?
Are you all cleaning the vehicles now?
Waɗanne motoci kuke gogewa yanzu?
Which vehicles are you all cleaning now?
The negative continuative replaces the affirmative marker; it does not change the object-conditioned principle.
Ba ta karantawa da dare.
She does not read at night.
Ba ta karanta jarida da safe.
She does not read a newspaper in the morning.
The first example has no following direct object, so karantawa remains. The second has jarida, so -wa is absent. Negative continuative ba ta normally has no closing ba.
-wa is not the separate word wa
Verbal-noun -wa is written as part of the word: karantawa, zubawa, rabawa. The recipient or beneficiary marker wa is a separate word, as in Ta saya wa Musa abinci “She bought food for Musa.” The two morphemes are grammatically distinct despite their identical spelling.
Tana saya wa mahaifiyarta magani.
She is buying medicine for her mother.
In this sentence, separate wa marks the beneficiary. It is not a verbal-noun ending.
Practice
Choose the correct member of each pair: (1) Tana karantawa / karanta littafi “she is reading a book”; (2) Suna kawowa / kawo su “they are bringing them”; (3) Me kake karanta / karantawa? “what are you reading?”; (4) Ba ya zubawa / zuba sukari “he does not pour sugar.” Answers: karanta littafi, kawo su, karantawa, zuba sukari. State the distributional reason for each answer rather than memorizing the sentence alone.
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping -wa before a noun direct object.
❌ Suna karantawa littafi a aji.
Incorrect — a following direct object removes -wa in this weak verbal-noun pattern.
✅ Suna karanta littafi a aji.
They are reading a book in class.
2. Adding a genitive linker to a weak verbal-noun object frame.
❌ Yana zuban sukari a shayi.
Incorrect — this weak pattern does not use the non-wa genitive linker.
✅ Yana zuba sukari a shayi.
He is putting sugar in the tea.
3. Using a possessive object with a weak verbal noun.
❌ Tana gogenta yanzu.
Incorrect for ‘she is wiping it’ in this weak pattern.
✅ Tana goge ta yanzu.
She is wiping it now.
4. Removing -wa in a fronted-object question.
❌ Me kake karanta yanzu?
Incorrect in the standard relative continuative question — no direct object follows the predicate.
✅ Me kake karantawa yanzu?
What are you reading now? (to one male)
5. Dropping the subject–TAM marker after a noun.
❌ Dalibai karanta littattafai yanzu.
Incorrect — the finite continuative marker is missing.
✅ Dalibai suna karanta littattafai yanzu.
Students are reading books now.
Key Takeaways
- Weak verbal nouns show -wa when no direct object follows: tana karantawa.
- Before a noun or pronoun direct object, -wa is absent: tana karanta littafi, tana karanta shi.
- Do not add the genitive linker or possessive objects used by strong non--wa verbal nouns.
- A fronted question or relative object leaves no object after the predicate, so -wa appears: Me kake karantawa?
- Subject agreement, polarity, and viewpoint remain in the preverbal complex: tana, take, ba ta.
- The same pre-object predicate can occur under different TAM markers, so do not identify tense/aspect from the lexical verb alone.
Related Topics
- Continuative with Non--wa Verbal NounsA2 — Build the Hausa continuative with strong verbal nouns such as gani, ci, sha, saye, and tambaya, including their noun- and pronoun-object patterns.
- 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 Meaning and Ongoing EventsA2 — Understand how the Hausa continuative gives an inside view of unfolding, repeated, and still-open situations rather than marking one English tense.
- 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.
- Action Nouns versus Verbal NounsB1 — Distinguish lexical action nouns such as aiki and magana from verb-linked verbal nouns such as tafiya and ci, and use each in aspectual and ordinary noun syntax.