Continuative: Second Person Feminine Singular (kina) | Hausa Grammar

Use kina when addressing one female and presenting her action, habit, or state from inside: Kina aiki can mean “You are working” or “You work.” Hausa marks the addressee’s gender here, whereas English you leaves it unspecified.

All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko does not show tone or vowel length. The predicate after kina follows continuative verbal-noun syntax, so learning the marker alone is not enough.

Kina in the complete paradigm

Person	Plain continuative	With zuwa “coming/going”
1st singular	ina	ina zuwa
2nd masculine singular	kana	kana zuwa
2nd feminine singular	kina	kina zuwa
3rd masculine singular	yana	yana zuwa
3rd feminine singular	tana	tana zuwa
1st plural	muna	muna zuwa
2nd plural	kuna	kuna zuwa
3rd plural	suna	suna zuwa
impersonal	ana	ana zuwa

Kina tattara kayanki yanzu.

You are gathering your things now. (to one female)

Kina jiran likitar a waje?

Are you waiting for the doctor outside? (to one female)

Kina magana da ’yar’uwarki ne?

Are you speaking with your sister? (to one female)

Kina already supplies second-person feminine singular agreement. Independent ke is added only when discourse needs contrast, emphasis, or an explicit topic.

Events in progress and repeated routines

With an immediate time frame, the continuative commonly describes an unfolding event.

Kina shirya abincin rana a kicin.

You are preparing lunch in the kitchen. (to one female)

Kina duba sakamakon a wayarki.

You are checking the result on your phone. (to one female)

With a frequency phrase, the same marker describes what the addressee regularly does.

Kina zuwa makaranta da bas kowace rana.

You go to school by bus every day. (to one female)

Kina karatu da dare bayan yara sun yi barci.

You study at night after the children have gone to sleep. (to one female)

Kina sayen kayan miya a kasuwar nan duk mako.

You buy cooking ingredients at this market every week. (to one female)

English uses are …-ing for the immediate examples and a simple present for the routines. Hausa keeps kina because both are situations viewed as open, repeated, or ongoing.

State-like meanings with kina

Several common predicates take a continuative even though natural English does not normally make them progressive.

Kina son zama kusa da taga?

Do you want to sit near the window? (to one female)

Kina buƙatar rasit ɗin?

Do you need the receipt? (to one female)

Kina jin ƙamshin hayaƙi?

Can you smell smoke? (to one female)

Translations such as Are you wanting…? and Are you needing…? would imitate Hausa form at the expense of natural English. Conversely, some Hausa state predicates use a completive established-state form: Kin san inda yake “You know where it is.” Learners must notice which Hausa construction a frequent predicate selects.

💡

Store high-frequency frames as wholes: kina son, kina buƙatar, kina jin, but kin san and kin iya. English stativity does not determine the Hausa TAM choice by itself.

Past, present, and future reference

The continuative is not a dedicated present tense. A time phrase can locate the same kina clause at different reference times.

Jiya da rana kina aikin sa kai a asibiti.

Yesterday afternoon you were volunteering at the hospital. (to one female)

Yanzu kina jiran amsar manajar.

You are waiting for the manager’s answer now. (to one female)

Gobe da wannan lokaci kina tafiya zuwa Katsina.

At this time tomorrow you will be travelling to Katsina. (to one female)

The adverbials jiya da rana, yanzu, and gobe da wannan lokaci supply temporal location. Kina supplies feminine singular agreement and the inside view of the situation.

Verbal-noun behavior after kina

The continuative uses a verbal-noun predicate. With “come/go,” the contrast is visible: completive Kin zo “You came” versus continuative Kina zuwa “You are coming/you come.”

Kina zuwa wurin aiki da ƙafa?

Do you walk to work? (to one female)

Kina shan maganin bayan cin abinci.

You take the medicine after eating. (to one female)

Kina kallon shirin da na ba ki shawarar ki kalla?

Are you watching the program I advised you to watch? (to one female)

The forms zuwa, shan, cin, and kallon belong to different verbal-noun patterns. -n can link a non--wa verbal noun to a following noun object. With some -wa verbal nouns, -wa is absent before a direct object, so an expression may look like a bare verb even though its syntax remains that of the continuative:

Kina wanke tufafin ne ko kina gyara su?

Are you washing the clothes or mending them? (to one female)

There is no universal “continuous ending.” Learn each frequent verbal noun, its object pattern, and its usual collocations. Detailed alternations are treated on continuative with -wa verbal nouns.

Kina, kin, and za ki express different viewpoints

Kin shirya rahoton da safe.

You prepared the report in the morning. (one female; completive)

Kina shirya rahoton yanzu.

You are preparing the report now. (one female; continuative)

Za ki shirya rahoton gobe.

You will prepare the report tomorrow. (one female; future)

English retains you and changes the verb phrase. Hausa changes the preverbal subject–TAM complex: kin, kina, za ki. Changing only the lexical predicate while keeping the wrong marker does not produce the intended TAM meaning.

Ke, focus, and named addressees

Independent ke makes the female addressee contrastive or topical while kina remains the finite marker.

Ke kina kula da kuɗi, shi kuma yana kula da kaya.

You look after the money, while he looks after the goods. (to one female)

Narrow focus uses the feminine copular form ce and relative continuative kike:

Ke ce kike buɗe ofishin da safe.

You are the one who opens the office in the morning. (to one female)

A woman’s name can occur as a vocative:

Amina, kina zuwa kasuwa yanzu?

Amina, are you going to the market now?

Here the speaker addresses Amina, so kina is second person. When speaking about her, use Amina tana zuwa kasuwa. Hausa also licenses reduced Amina na zuwa kasuwa after an overt third-person noun subject; reduced na is still a continuative marker and is not a replacement for second-person kina.

Plain kina and relative kike

Use plain kina in neutral assertions and yes/no questions. Use relative kike in focus, constituent questions, and relative clauses.

Kina neman sabon gida?

Are you looking for a new home? (yes/no question to one female)

Me kike nema a wannan shagon?

What are you looking for in this shop? (to one female)

Na ga aikin da kike yi wa ƙungiyar.

I saw the work that you are doing for the organization. (to one female)

Relative kike does not mean “you were.” Its time comes from context just as the time of kina does. The syntactic environment—not an English tense distinction—selects the relative form.

Negative feminine singular is ba kya

The standard negative continuative uses ba kya + verbal noun, normally without a final ba. The form is not ba kina and not negative-completive ba ki … ba.

Ba kya aiki ranar Asabar.

You do not work on Saturday. (to one female)

Ba kya sauraron rediyo yanzu.

You are not listening to the radio now. (to one female)

Ba kya son zama a nan?

Don’t you want to sit here? (to one female)

Compare Ba ki zo taron jiya ba “You did not come to the meeting yesterday.” That negative completive uses ba ki, the finite predicate zo, and a closing ba. The negative continuative uses ba kya, verbal-noun syntax, and no closing ba.

💡

The feminine contrast is a useful diagnostic: kina zuwa (affirmative continuative), ba kya zuwa (negative continuative), kin zo (affirmative completive), ba ki zo ba (negative completive).

Practice

Fill each gap with kina, kike, ba kya, or kin: (1) _ aiki yanzu “you are working now”; (2) Me _ rubutawa? “what are you writing?”; (3) _ zuwa nan ranar Lahadi “you do not come here on Sunday”; (4) _ gama aikin “you have finished the work.” Answers: kina, kike, ba kya, kin. Say why the third has no final ba while a negative completive would require one.

Common Mistakes

1. Using masculine kana to address one woman.

❌ Kana jiran ’yar’uwarki?

Incorrect to one female; kana is masculine singular.

✅ Kina jiran ’yar’uwarki?

Are you waiting for your sister? (to one female)

2. Replacing the subject–TAM marker with independent ke.

❌ Ke karatu a jami’a?

Incorrect — ke alone does not form a finite continuative clause.

✅ Kina karatu a jami’a?

Are you studying at a university? (to one female)

3. Using zo instead of the continuative verbal noun zuwa.

❌ Kina zo da wuri kullum.

Incorrect in the standard continuative pattern.

✅ Kina zuwa da wuri kullum.

You come early every day. (to one female)

4. Negating unchanged kina with a closing ba.

❌ Ba kina kallon wasan ba.

Incorrect for the ordinary negative continuative.

✅ Ba kya kallon wasan.

You are not watching the match. (to one female)

5. Keeping plain kina after a constituent question word.

❌ Ina kina aiki yanzu?

Incorrect in the standard constituent-question pattern.

✅ Ina kike aiki yanzu?

Where are you working now? (to one female)

Key Takeaways

Kina is the plain continuative for one female addressee; masculine singular is kana and plural is kuna.
It expresses ongoing events, habits, and some state-like meanings in past, present, or future frames.
The predicate has verbal-noun syntax: compare completive kin zo with continuative kina zuwa.
Independent ke adds contrast; focused ke ce and constituent questions select relative kike.
A name plus kina is normally a vocative address; a third-person report about a woman uses tana or licensed reduced na.
Negative continuative is ba kya + verbal noun without final ba; negative completive is ba ki + finite predicate + ba.

Now practice Hausa

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Hausa →