The English translation of a Hausa TAM form depends partly on the lexical meaning of the verb. With an active verb such as sha “drink,” the completive normally reports a finished action. With a stative verb such as sani “know,” that same completive can describe a state that holds now. This is why ya sha is normally “he drank,” while ya sani is normally “he knows.”
All unlabelled examples on this page are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). “Active” and “stative” here describe interpretations of predicates; they do not name two sets of subject agreement. Ordinary boko does not mark tone or vowel length, so the spelling on the page cannot display every spoken distinction.
Active verbs present actions and changes
An active verb denotes something happening: moving, entering, eating, writing, opening, or changing. The plain completive presents that event as a whole; the continuative presents it as unfolding or in progress.
Bashir ya sha shayi.
Bashir drank tea.
Bashir yana shan shayi.
Bashir is drinking tea.
Yara sun shiga aji.
The children entered the classroom.
Yara suna shiga aji.
The children are entering the classroom.
In each pair, the lexical content remains “drink” or “enter.” The subject–TAM complex before the predicate chooses the viewpoint: completive ya/sun versus continuative yana/suna. English often translates the first as simple past and the second as be + -ing, but that translation is a result of the active meaning plus the viewpoint, not a one-word tense equation.
Stative verbs present knowledge, perception, ability, and relations
A stative predicate describes a relatively settled condition rather than an action in progress. Common examples include sani “know,” tuna “remember,” iya “know how/be able,” fi “surpass,” and a stative reading of ga “see.” With these meanings, the completive can describe a state valid at the reference time.
Na san adireshin.
I know the address.
Aisha ta tuna sunan likitan.
Aisha remembers the doctor's name.
Musa ya iya tuƙi.
Musa knows how to drive.
Bashir ya ga motar daga nan.
Bashir can see the car from here.
Nothing in na, ta, ya literally means English present tense. The completive packages the knowledge, memory, ability, or visual registration as established at the relevant time. With an active verb, an established whole is usually a finished event; with a stative verb, it can be a currently valid state.
This does not mean that a stative completive is timeless. A time phrase can relocate its reference:
Jiya na san amsar, amma yanzu na manta.
Yesterday I knew the answer, but now I have forgotten it.
The adverb jiya makes the state past relative to speaking. See relative time and time adverbs for the larger system.
The same completive paradigm serves both interpretations
The plain-completive person forms do not change according to whether the predicate is active or stative.
| Person | Marker | Active example | Stative example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | na | na shiga “I entered” | na sani “I know” |
| 2nd masc. singular | ka | ka shiga “you entered” | ka sani “you know” |
| 2nd fem. singular | kin | kin shiga | kin sani |
| 3rd masc. singular | ya | ya shiga | ya sani |
| 3rd fem. singular | ta | ta shiga | ta sani |
| 1st plural | mun | mun shiga | mun sani |
| 2nd plural | kun | kun shiga | kun sani |
| 3rd plural | sun | sun shiga | sun sani |
| impersonal | an | an shiga | an sani |
An overt noun subject still requires the agreeing marker:
Ma'aikatan sun gama aikin.
The workers finished the job.
Ma'aikatan sun san dokar.
The workers know the rule.
The noun ma'aikatan identifies the people; plural sun supplies agreement and completive aspect. A learner cannot leave sun out merely because the English translation already has the workers.
Negation keeps the interpretive contrast
The negative completive has its own forms and normally surrounds the predicate with ba … ba. With an active verb it commonly denies a completed action; with a stative verb it can deny a present state.
Ba su sha shayin ba.
They did not drink the tea.
Ba su tuna sunan ba.
They do not remember the name.
The English tense changes, but the Hausa negative-completive frame is the same. Do not “correct” the stative translation to past solely because English lessons often call this paradigm a past tense.
Some states prefer the continuative
The active–stative distinction is a powerful guide, not a mechanical dictionary label. Important state-like verbs such as so “want/like” and ji “feel, hear, understand” commonly use the continuative for a present interpretation.
Ina son shayi, amma ba na son sukari da yawa.
I like tea, but I do not like much sugar.
Kana jin Hausa?
Do you understand Hausa? (to a male)
Amina tana jin sanyi.
Amina feels cold.
The completive of ji is also possible with meanings such as “heard,” “felt,” or contextually “understand”: Na ji may mean “I heard” or “I understand.” There is no honest shortcut that makes every English stative verb select one Hausa TAM. Learn high-frequency predicates in a natural frame: na sani, ina so, ina ji.
Plain and relative forms are a syntactic distinction
Stativity does not choose between plain and relative TAM. Neutral statements use the plain completive; focus, constituent questions, and relative clauses can select the relative completive.
Sun sha shayin.
They drank the tea. (plain neutral report)
Me suka sha?
What did they drink? (relative completive in a constituent question)
Sun tuna malaminsu.
They remember their teacher. (plain neutral report)
Wa suka tuna?
Who do they remember? (relative completive in a constituent question)
Both active and stative pairs change sun to suka for the focused question. The relative form is not simply a past-tense form; the stative question has a natural English present translation.
Practice: infer the interpretation
Hauwa ta buɗe taga.
Hauwa opened the window. (active, completed action)
Hauwa ta san inda makullin yake.
Hauwa knows where the key is. (stative, established knowledge)
Gobe da safe, yara suna rubuta jarabawa.
Tomorrow morning, the children will be taking an examination. (active continuative in a future frame)
The last sentence proves that continuative does not mean “present” by itself. Gobe da safe supplies a future reference time; suna rubuta presents the activity as ongoing at that time.
Common Mistakes
1. Translating every completive as English past.
❌ Na sani.
Incorrect if automatically translated as ‘I knew’; the usual stative reading is current knowledge.
✅ Na sani.
I know.
2. Using the continuative for every English present.
❌ Ina sani.
Incorrect as the default beginner model for ‘I know.’
✅ Na sani.
I know.
3. Dropping the marker after a noun subject.
❌ Aisha san adireshin.
Incorrect — a finite verbal clause needs the feminine subject–TAM marker.
✅ Aisha ta san adireshin.
Aisha knows the address.
4. Treating every state-like meaning alike.
❌ Na so shayi.
Incorrect as the neutral model for present ‘I like tea.’
✅ Ina son shayi.
I like tea.
5. Replacing plain sun with suka merely because English uses a past tense.
❌ Suka sha shayin.
Incorrect as a context-free neutral report; suka requires a relative or focused environment.
✅ Sun sha shayin.
They drank the tea.
Key Takeaways
- Active predicates plus the completive usually describe completed actions; stative predicates plus the completive can describe current states.
- The person paradigm stays na, ka, kin, ya, ta, mun, kun, sun, an in both uses.
- Present so and ji commonly use the continuative, so lexical behavior must be learned rather than guessed.
- An overt noun still requires the agreeing subject–TAM marker.
- Plain versus relative TAM is selected by syntax and information structure, not by past versus present meaning.
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Start learning Hausa →Related Topics
- Aspect Rather Than English TenseA1 — Interpret Hausa completive and continuative forms as viewpoints on events, using time words and predicate meaning instead of one-to-one English tense labels.
- 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.
- Relative Time and Time AdverbsA1 — Use Hausa TAM viewpoints with time adverbs that anchor an event in the past, present, or future.
- 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.
- Completive Meaning with Stative VerbsA2 — See why Hausa completive forms can express present knowledge, ability, perception, and comparison with stative predicates.
- Continuative with Stative PredicatesC1 — Use Hausa continuative forms for posture, residence, temporary condition, wanting, and experience while distinguishing state from ongoing action.