The Hausa relative completive has nine agreeing forms: na, ka, kika, ya, ta, muka, kuka, suka, aka. They occur before the lexical verb in completed relative clauses, explicit focus constructions, fronted constituent questions, many temporal clauses, and narrative foreground. The name relative is traditional; it does not mean that these forms belong only after an English-style relative pronoun. For the system-level contrast, begin with plain and relative TAM forms.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko writes neither tone nor vowel length, so several singular forms look exactly like their plain-completive counterparts. Learn both the paradigm and the construction that selects it.
Complete affirmative paradigm
The table pairs each form with gama aiki “finish work” and a natural licensing context.
| Person | Relative completive | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | na | Aikin da na gama “the work that I finished” |
| 2nd masculine singular | ka | Aikin da ka gama “the work that you finished” |
| 2nd feminine singular | kika | Aikin da kika gama “the work that you finished” |
| 3rd masculine singular | ya | Aikin da ya gama “the work that he finished” |
| 3rd feminine singular | ta | Aikin da ta gama “the work that she finished” |
| 1st plural | muka | Aikin da muka gama “the work that we finished” |
| 2nd plural | kuka | Aikin da kuka gama “the work that you all finished” |
| 3rd plural | suka | Aikin da suka gama “the work that they finished” |
| impersonal | aka | Aikin da aka gama “the work that was finished” |
Wannan shi ne aikin da na gama jiya.
This is the work that I finished yesterday.
Wane aiki kika gama da safe?
Which work did you finish in the morning? (addressing one female)
Da muka gama aikin, muka koma gida.
When we finished the work, we went home.
Jiya and da safe locate events in time. The relative markers supply subject agreement and completive viewpoint. They are not interchangeable past-tense endings attached to the verb.
Compare the plain and relative series
| Person | Plain | Relative |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | na | na |
| 2nd masculine singular | ka | ka |
| 2nd feminine singular | kin | kika |
| 3rd masculine singular | ya | ya |
| 3rd feminine singular | ta | ta |
| 1st plural | mun | muka |
| 2nd plural | kun | kuka |
| 3rd plural | sun | suka |
| impersonal | an | aka |
The plural pairs are the easiest anchors: mun/muka, kun/kuka, sun/suka, an/aka. Feminine singular kin/kika is also visible. In na/na, ka/ka, ya/ya, ta/ta, ordinary spelling hides a tonal distinction heard in speech. The page follows standard unmarked boko rather than adding tone marks that learners will not see in normal writing.
Mun sayi shinkafa.
We bought rice. (plain neutral assertion)
Shinkafa ce muka saya.
It was rice that we bought. (relative form after focus)
The verb saya stays the same. Hausa puts the crucial person–aspect information before it. English mostly changes the verb itself, so English-speaking learners must deliberately watch the preverbal complex.
Where the paradigm appears
Relative clauses
Na ga motar da suka saya.
I saw the car that they bought.
The completed clause da suka saya modifies motar.
Explicit constituent focus
Amina ce ta kawo saƙon.
It was Amina who brought the message.
Although relative and plain ta look alike, the focused constituent plus ce licenses relative ta.
Fronted constituent questions
Me kuka kawo daga kasuwa?
What did you all bring from the market?
The question asks for one constituent. A polar question about the entire event can keep the plain form: Kun kawo kayan? “Did you bring the goods?” Not all questions select the same paradigm.
Temporal clauses
Lokacin da aka buɗe asibitin, mutane da yawa suka halarta.
When the hospital was opened, many people attended.
Relative aka presents the opening as a temporal boundary. With explicit lokacin da and suitable context, such a boundary can also be recurring or future; aka is not inherently English past.
Narrative foreground
Muka tashi da wuri, muka hau mota, muka isa Kaduna da rana.
We got up early, boarded a vehicle, and reached Kaduna in the afternoon.
Narrative muka advances the sequence. This is not a relative clause, showing why the traditional label covers several distributions. Neutral reports and current-result statements often use plain mun instead.
Overt noun subjects keep the marker
Hausa finite verbal clauses retain their subject–TAM complex even when a full noun phrase names the subject.
Littafin da Aisha ta rubuta ya shahara.
The book that Aisha wrote became popular.
Yaran ne suka ɗauki akwatunan.
It was the children who carried the boxes.
Da baƙi suka isa, mai masaukin ya tarbe su.
When the visitors arrived, the host welcomed them.
Aisha ta, yaran … suka, and baƙi suka are not redundant. The noun phrase gives lexical identity; ta/suka gives agreement and TAM. Dropping the marker produces no standard finite predicate.
Active and stative meanings
An active verb normally describes a bounded event:
Wa ya buɗe wannan ƙofar?
Who opened this door?
A stative verb can describe an established present state:
Wace ɗaliba ce ta san amsar?
Which female student knows the answer?
Su ne suka iya amfani da wannan na’ura.
They are the ones who know how to use this device.
The same relative-completive viewpoint combines with different lexical meanings. Ta san can be “she knows” in a current context and “she knew” in a past frame. Do not translate the marker before reading the predicate and time setting.
The negative completive is a separate series
Positive relative forms do not simply follow ba. Standard negative completive uses ban, ba ka, ba ki, bai, ba ta, ba mu, ba ku, ba su, ba a, normally closed by final ba.
| Subject | Positive relative | Negative completive |
|---|---|---|
| I | na | ban … ba |
| you (m.sg.) | ka | ba ka … ba |
| you (f.sg.) | kika | ba ki … ba |
| he | ya | bai … ba |
| she | ta | ba ta … ba |
| we | muka | ba mu … ba |
| you (pl.) | kuka | ba ku … ba |
| they | suka | ba su … ba |
| impersonal | aka | ba a … ba |
Waɗanne mujallu ba ku karanta ba?
Which magazines did you all not read?
Musa ne bai kawo takardun ba.
It was Musa who did not bring the documents.
The focus or wh-construction remains, but positive kuka/ya is replaced by the negative series. There is no standard ba kuka karanta ba for this meaning.
Practice
Fill each gap, then identify the licensing environment.
- Me _ saya? “What did we buy?” Answer: muka; fronted constituent question.
- Wannan ita ce motar da Amina _ saya. Answer: ta; the overt noun subject still takes agreeing ta.
- Da ku _ dawo, muka fara cin abinci. Answer: kuka; temporal clause; omit independent ku unless it is contrastive.
- Takardun ne _ karanta. Answer: aka for “It was the documents that were read”; impersonal focus background.
- Change littafin da suka karanta to negative: littafin da ba su karanta ba.
- Choose plain or relative: neutral They have arrived = Sun iso; focused They are the ones who arrived = Su ne suka iso.
Common Mistakes
1. Using the plain form in a fronted constituent question.
❌ Me mun saya?
Incorrect in the standard fronted wh-construction.
✅ Me muka saya?
What did we buy?
2. Omitting the marker after a noun subject.
❌ Littafin da Aisha rubuta yana da daɗi.
Incorrect — Aisha still needs feminine singular subject–TAM ta.
✅ Littafin da Aisha ta rubuta yana da daɗi.
The book that Aisha wrote is enjoyable.
3. Treating all questions alike.
❌ Me kun kawo?
Incorrect — a standard fronted constituent question requires relative kuka, not plain kun.
✅ Me kuka kawo?
What did you all bring?
4. Reading every relative form as past.
❌ Su ne suka san hanyar.
Incorrect if forced to mean only ‘They were the ones who knew the route.’
✅ Su ne suka san hanyar.
They are the ones who know the route.
5. Putting affirmative relative forms inside the negative frame.
❌ Wane rahoto ba kuka duba ba?
Incorrect standard negative-completive agreement.
✅ Wane rahoto ba ku duba ba?
Which report did you all not examine?
Key Takeaways
- The full positive series is na, ka, kika, ya, ta, muka, kuka, suka, aka.
- Visible plain–relative contrasts occur in kin/kika, mun/muka, kun/kuka, sun/suka, an/aka.
- Ordinary boko hides the singular tonal contrasts in na, ka, ya, ta.
- Relative clauses, explicit focus, fronted constituent questions, temporal boundaries, and narrative foreground license the paradigm in different ways.
- Every overt noun subject still takes an agreeing subject–TAM marker.
- Negative completive uses its own series, while predicate type and context—not the relative marker alone—determine English tense.
Related Topics
- 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.
- The Hausa Subject–TAM ComplexA1 — Understand the preverbal Hausa forms that express subject agreement together with tense, aspect, mood, and polarity.
- The Lexical Verb versus the Preverbal MarkerA1 — Separate the Hausa word that names an event from the preverbal complex that expresses subject agreement and TAM.
- 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.
- Completive in Narrative SequencesA2 — Build Hausa event chains with narrative completive forms while separating foreground storyline, neutral reporting, background description, and negation.
- Completive Meaning with Stative VerbsA2 — See why Hausa completive forms can express present knowledge, ability, perception, and comparison with stative predicates.