A Hausa command can direct an action to or for someone: Kawo mini kujera “Bring me a chair,” Ki nuna masa hanya “Show him the way,” Ku saya musu abinci “Buy them food.” The recipient or beneficiary normally follows the verb and precedes a following theme. The high-frequency verb ba “give” is exceptional: it selects ni, ka, ki, shi, ta, mu, ku, su, as in Ba ni takardar, not the ordinary mini/maka series.
All unlabelled forms below are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko writes ɓ, ɗ, ƙ, ’y but not tone or vowel length. The special bare imperative is available only for an affirmative command to one person; the subject-marked subjunctive supplies plural, negative, first-person, third-person, and impersonal directives. Review the approved ma-series paradigm if the recipient forms are new.
The ordinary recipient and beneficiary series
With many verbs of bringing, showing, telling, buying, preparing, and sending, a pronominal indirect object belongs to the ma-series.
| Participant | Indirect-object form | Command frame |
|---|---|---|
| me | mini | kawo mini ruwa |
| you, one man | maka | in nuna maka hoton |
| you, one woman | miki | in aika miki da saƙo |
| him | masa | gaya masa labarin |
| her | mata | nuna mata wurin |
| us | mana | saya mana abinci |
| you all | muku | in bayyana muku tsarin |
| them | musu | tanada musu kujeru |
Kawo mini tabarma daga ɗakin baya.
Bring me a mat from the back room. (to one person)
Ki nuna mata inda za ta sa hannu.
Show her where she should sign. (to one woman)
Ku saya musu ruwan sha kafin ku tashi.
Buy them drinking water before you leave. (to a group)
The stable order is verb + indirect object + theme: saya musu ruwa, not an English-shaped sequence built by moving them after water. With ordinary verbs of this type, a noun recipient uses wa + noun: Ka nuna wa Bashir hanyar “Show Bashir the way.” The pronoun masa replaces the whole phrase wa Bashir; do not say wa masa. The exceptional verb ba has its own noun-recipient frame, explained below.
Bare singular command and the full directive paradigm
An affirmative command to one addressee can begin directly with the imperative verb. For other persons, use the complete subjunctive series before the lexical verb.
| Directed actor | Marker | With kawo wa baƙi ruwa |
|---|---|---|
| I | in | in kawo wa baƙi ruwa |
| you, one man | ka | ka kawo wa baƙi ruwa |
| you, one woman | ki | ki kawo wa baƙi ruwa |
| he | ya | ya kawo wa baƙi ruwa |
| she | ta | ta kawo wa baƙi ruwa |
| we | mu | mu kawo wa baƙi ruwa |
| you all | ku | ku kawo wa baƙi ruwa |
| they | su | su kawo wa baƙi ruwa |
| unspecified actor | a | a kawo wa baƙi ruwa |
The noun recipient wa baƙi keeps the semantic roles constant across the paradigm. In real directives, Ka kawo mini, Ta kawo mini, and A kawo mini are especially useful pronominal frames.
Don Allah, ka aiko mini da lambar direban yau.
Please send me the driver’s number today. (to one man)
A nuna musu yadda ake amfani da na’urar.
Have someone show them how the device is used. (impersonal directive)
The time expression yau locates the requested event. It does not turn ka into a present-tense form. The same lexical verb can appear after a future marker, a completive marker, or a subjunctive marker; Hausa packages person, aspect or mood, and polarity chiefly before the verb.
Ba “give” selects a different recipient series
The verb ba is a lexical exception. Its recipient uses the short series that elsewhere also serves as direct objects.
| Recipient | After ba | Model command |
|---|---|---|
| me | ni | ba ni rasit |
| you, one man | ka | in ba ka rasit |
| you, one woman | ki | in ba ki rasit |
| him | shi | ba shi rasit |
| her | ta | ba ta rasit |
| us | mu | ba mu rasit |
| you all | ku | in ba ku rasit |
| them | su | ba su rasit |
Ba shi mabuɗin idan ya dawo da yamma.
Give him the key when he returns this evening. (to one person)
Ki ba su kofuna biyu kafin a fara taron.
Give them two cups before the meeting begins. (to one woman)
Ku ba mu minti biyar mu gama lissafin.
Give us five minutes to finish the calculation. (to a group)
There is no productive semantic explanation that will let you predict this exception from English. Memorize the contrast as complete frames: ba shi littafi “give him a book,” but saya masa littafi “buy him a book.”
A noun recipient can follow ba directly: Ba Bashir takardar “Give Bashir the document.” This differs from ordinary nuna wa Bashir and from the pronominal contrast ba shi versus nuna masa.
Ba Amina mabuɗin idan ta dawo.
Give Amina the key when she returns. (to one person)
Verb form before an indirect object
The form of a Hausa verb can depend on what immediately follows it. Traditional descriptions call the shape before an indirect object the D-form. For many verbs ordinary boko hides part of the difference, but Grade 2 makes an important visible contrast.
| Environment with saya “buy” | Command | Role after the verb |
|---|---|---|
| noun direct object | Ka sayi lemo. | lemo is the thing bought |
| pronoun direct object | Ka saye shi. | shi is the thing bought |
| indirect object + theme | Ka saya masa lemo. | masa is the beneficiary |
Ka saya wa Zainab biro idan za ka je kasuwa.
Buy Zainab a pen if you are going to the market. (to one man)
Ki saya mata takarda da safe.
Buy her some paper in the morning. (to one woman)
The return to saya before wa Zainab/mata is not an imperative tense ending. It is the grade-conditioned form selected by an indirect-object environment. Learn a new transfer verb with its full frames instead of changing only the lexical verb inside an English template.
Overt noun subjects still require a marker
A reported or third-person directive can name its actor. The noun is followed by the matching subjunctive marker; it never replaces that marker.
Ka ce wa Bilkisu ta kawo mana fayil ɗin gobe.
Tell Bilkisu to bring us the file tomorrow. (to one man)
Shugaban ya umurci ma’aikatan su nuna wa baƙi ɗakunan.
The manager ordered the employees to show the visitors the rooms.
In Bilkisu ta kawo, ta agrees with the overt feminine subject. In ma’aikatan su nuna, su agrees with the overt plural subject. The recipient phrases mana and wa baƙi come after their verbs and perform a different grammatical job.
Negation, states, and plain versus relative forms
A prohibition uses kada/kar + subjunctive marker. It does not negate a bare imperative with ba … ba.
Kada ka gaya masa lambar sirrin.
Do not tell him the password. (to one man)
Kar ku ba su amsa kafin ku duba bayanan.
Don’t give them an answer before checking the information. (to a group; conversational)
An indirect-object command can request an action or a maintained relation. Ku saurara mini asks for attentive listening; Ka yi mini haƙuri asks the addressee to adopt a patient stance toward the speaker. Hausa does not need a separate “stative imperative tense.”
Ku saurara mini na ɗan lokaci.
Listen to me for a moment. (to a group)
The subjunctive has no separate plain and relative series. Relative morphology may occur in a neighboring question—Me kake saya mata? “What are you buying her?”—but a following command remains Ka saya mata littafi. Relative forms mark their own focus, question, or relative-clause environment; they are not past-tense forms and do not spread across the sentence.
Exercises
Supply the appropriate recipient. (1) “Bring me the receipt”: Kawo mini rasit ɗin. (2) “Buy her medicine”: Ki saya mata magani. (3) “Show the visitors the hall”: Ku nuna wa baƙin zauren. (4) With exceptional ba, “Give them the forms”: Ba su fom ɗin. (5) Change the actor to Bilkisu: Bilkisu ta kawo mana takardun gobe. (6) Make it negative: Kada Bilkisu ta ba su takardun yau.
Common Mistakes
1. Extending the ma-series to ba “give”
❌ Ka ba masa kuɗin.
Incorrect in Standard Hausa—ba selects shi for this recipient.
✅ Ka ba shi kuɗin.
Give him the money. (to one man)
2. Using the ba exception with an ordinary benefactive verb
❌ Ki saya ta abinci.
Incorrect for ‘buy her food’—saya selects indirect-object mata.
✅ Ki saya mata abinci.
Buy her food. (to one woman)
3. Putting the theme before the recipient
❌ Ku kawo littattafai musu.
Incorrect neutral order—the indirect-object pronoun precedes the theme.
✅ Ku kawo musu littattafai.
Bring them books. (to a group)
4. Dropping agreement after an overt noun subject
❌ Ka ce wa Amina kawo mana ruwan.
Incorrect—the overt feminine subject Amina requires ta.
✅ Ka ce wa Amina ta kawo mana ruwan.
Tell Amina to bring us the water. (to one man)
5. Giving a prohibition an ordinary ba … ba frame
❌ Ba gaya masa labarin ba!
Incorrect negative-command construction.
✅ Kada ka gaya masa labarin!
Do not tell him the story! (to one man)
Key Takeaways
- Ordinary recipients and beneficiaries use mini, maka, miki, masa, mata, mana, muku, musu after many verbs.
- Ba “give” exceptionally selects ni, ka, ki, shi, ta, mu, ku, su for its recipient.
- Put an indirect-object pronoun before a following theme: saya mata magani.
- Grade 2 uses its indirect-object frame in saya mata, distinct from sayi magani and saye shi.
- A noun actor still requires an agreeing subjunctive marker: Amina ta kawo mana…
- Time, aktionsart, and the surrounding construction determine the English translation; the lexical verb itself does not carry an English tense ending.
Related Topics
- Imperatives with Direct ObjectsA2 — Place noun and pronoun objects correctly in Hausa commands while preserving person marking and the Grade 2 object-conditioned verb forms.
- Subjunctive after Commands and RequestsB1 — Use the Hausa subjunctive for direct exhortations and for the reported content of commands and requests.
- Indirect-Object Pronouns with ma-B1 — Use Hausa mini, maka, miki, masa, mata, mana, muku, and musu for recipients, beneficiaries, and other affected participants.
- mini, maka, and mikiB1 — Use mini for a first-person recipient and distinguish masculine maka from feminine miki when addressing one person.
- masa, mata, mana, muku, and musuB1 — Use Hausa masa, mata, mana, muku, and musu to mark recipients, beneficiaries, and other ma-linked participants without confusing them with direct objects.
- Subject Marking after an Overt NounA2 — Keep the required Hausa subject–TAM marker after names and full noun phrases, and make it agree with gender, number, and person.