In a standard Hausa relative clause that presents an event as complete, the finite predicate takes the relative completive: littafin da muka karanta “the book that we read.” The marker agrees with the relative clause’s subject—not necessarily with the head noun—and it remains obligatory when that subject is an overt noun phrase.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). The construction is called relative because relative clauses are one of its core environments, but the same forms also occur in focus, constituent questions, temporal clauses, and narrative discourse. This page concerns clauses that modify or identify a nominal head.
The paradigm inside a relative clause
The table uses littafin da … karanta “the book that … read.” Because the book is the object gap, each subject determines the marker.
| Relative-clause subject | Marker | Example frame |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | na | littafin da na karanta |
| 2nd masculine singular | ka | littafin da ka karanta |
| 2nd feminine singular | kika | littafin da kika karanta |
| 3rd masculine singular | ya | littafin da ya karanta |
| 3rd feminine singular | ta | littafin da ta karanta |
| 1st plural | muka | littafin da muka karanta |
| 2nd plural | kuka | littafin da kuka karanta |
| 3rd plural | suka | littafin da suka karanta |
| impersonal | aka | littafin da aka karanta |
The visible contrasts with plain-completive kin, mun, kun, sun, an are kika, muka, kuka, suka, aka. In ordinary boko, relative and plain na, ka, ya, ta have identical spelling. Their tonal distinction is real in speech, but this guide does not add unverified tone or vowel-length marks to ordinary examples.
Na mayar da littafin da kika ba ni jiya.
I returned the book that you gave me yesterday. (addressing one female)
Ga hotunan da kuka ɗauka a bikin.
Here are the photos that you all took at the celebration.
Time comes from jiya and the larger discourse; relative kika/kuka contributes agreement and completed viewpoint, not a fixed English past tense.
Subject and object relatives share the paradigm
When the head is understood as the subject of the relative clause, the agreeing marker still appears:
Mutumin da ya kawo kayan yana jira a waje.
The man who brought the goods is waiting outside.
Matar da ta buɗe shagon ’yar’uwata ce.
The woman who opened the shop is my sister.
Yaran da suka ci jarrabawar sun yi murna.
The children who passed the examination were happy.
The head noun is interpreted in the subject position inside the relative clause, yet Hausa still realizes the weak agreeing subject–TAM marker ya, ta, suka. English has a relative pronoun who in that position; Hausa distributes the work differently between da, the missing/understood role, and the preverbal marker.
In an object relative, the subject is separate from the head:
Na karanta wasiƙar da Amina ta rubuta.
I read the letter that Amina wrote.
Sun gyara kuskuren da ɗalibai suka yi.
They corrected the mistake that the students made.
Amina and ɗalibai are overt subjects inside their relative clauses. They must be followed by ta and suka. The marker agrees with those subjects; it does not agree with feminine wasiƙar or masculine kuskuren.
The plain–relative contrast sits before the verb
The lexical verb does not acquire an English-style relative ending. The crucial agreement and viewpoint information belongs to the Hausa subject–TAM complex. Compare the independent assertion and its modifying counterpart:
Ɗalibai sun yi kuskure.
The students made a mistake. (plain independent assertion)
Malam ya gyara kuskuren da ɗalibai suka yi.
The teacher corrected the mistake that the students made. (relative clause)
The verb yi remains yi. Plain sun becomes relative suka because the second clause restricts kuskuren. Learners who change only the lexical verb miss where Hausa actually packages person, aspect, and clause type: in the preverbal subject–TAM complex.
Relative clauses can modify a head referring to a time, place, person, or thing, but the semantic role of the head does not itself choose person agreement.
Na tuna ranar da muka fara aiki tare.
I remember the day when we began working together.
Here ranar is the temporal head, while muka agrees with “we.” The clause presents beginning work as a bounded event associated with that day.
Restriction, identification, and information status
A canonical restrictive relative clause helps identify which referent is intended: yaran da suka ci jarrabawar selects the children who passed. Its content is normally treated as usable background for finding the referent. That discourse profile helps explain the traditional association between relative morphology and presupposition.
However, “relative form equals presupposition” is not an exceptionless translation rule. Parenthetical nonrestrictive clauses, clauses marked as uncertain, and clauses whose main purpose is to add new information can show more complex TAM choices in careful Hausa. At B2, the safe generalization is structural: use the relative paradigm in ordinary identifying/restrictive perfective relatives, but analyze marked modal and parenthetical examples on their own terms.
Ina neman direban da ya kawo mu nan da safe.
I am looking for the driver who brought us here this morning.
The relative clause identifies the driver. Da safe locates the completed trip; ya agrees with the driver and is written like plain ya, so the relative environment supplies the diagnosis.
Active events and stative relatives
With active predicates, the relative completive presents the event as a whole:
Mun ziyarci ƙauyen da ambaliya ta lalata bara.
We visited the village that the flood damaged last year.
With stative predicates, English may use a present:
Shi ne mutumin da ya san duk hanyoyin garin.
He is the man who knows all the roads in the town.
Na kira ma’aikatan da suka iya gyara injin.
I called the workers who know how to repair the engine.
The relative completive treats knowledge or ability as established at the reference point. It does not force “knew” or “were able.” A past setting can produce those translations, while a current identifying context produces “knows” and “know how.”
Negation inside the relative clause
Negative completive clauses use the negative person forms and final ba. The positive opposition between plain sun and relative suka, for example, is not preserved as ba suka.
Na ware takardun da ba su cika sharuɗɗan ba.
I set aside the documents that did not meet the requirements.
Sun kira mutumin da bai biya kuɗin ba.
They called the man who did not pay the money.
Ka kawo kayan da ba a buɗe ba.
Bring the goods that have not been opened. (addressing one male)
In the last example, ba a … ba is impersonal negative completive. The relative clause is still identifiable from da and its relation to kayan, even though positive aka does not survive inside the negative frame.
Practice
Supply the correct marker.
- Ga abincin da mu _ dafa. Answer: muka.
- Na ga yaran da _ dawo jiya. Answer: suka.
- Wannan ce wasiƙar da Amina _ rubuta. Answer: ta.
- Ina neman takalmin da _ saya. Answer: kika for one female addressee.
- Change to negative: mutumin da ya zo → mutumin da bai zo ba.
Common Mistakes
1. Using the plain plural inside an ordinary restrictive relative.
❌ Littafin da mun karanta yana da amfani.
Incorrect — the completed relative clause requires muka.
✅ Littafin da muka karanta yana da amfani.
The book that we read is useful.
2. Dropping the marker after an overt noun subject.
❌ Na karanta saƙon da Halima rubuta.
Incorrect — Halima does not replace the subject–TAM marker.
✅ Na karanta saƙon da Halima ta rubuta.
I read the message that Halima wrote.
3. Making the marker agree with the head instead of the clause subject.
❌ Sun gyara motar da yara ta lalata.
Incorrect — ta wrongly agrees with feminine mota rather than plural yara.
✅ Sun gyara motar da yara suka lalata.
They repaired the car that the children damaged.
4. Treating a stative relative as necessarily past.
❌ Mutumin da ya san hanya.
Incorrect only if automatically restricted to ‘the man who knew the way.’
✅ Mutumin da ya san hanya yana tare da mu.
The man who knows the way is with us.
5. Keeping an affirmative relative form under negation.
❌ Takardun da ba suka kawo ba suna nan.
Incorrect standard negative-completive agreement.
✅ Takardun da ba su kawo ba suna nan.
The documents that they did not bring are here.
Key Takeaways
- Ordinary completed restrictive relatives select na, ka, kika, ya, ta, muka, kuka, suka, aka.
- The marker agrees with the relative clause’s subject, not automatically with the modified head.
- An overt noun subject still requires the subject–TAM marker.
- Plain sun yi contrasts with relative suka yi; the lexical verb does not change merely because the clause is relative.
- Stative predicates can have present interpretations, while time adverbs establish past, present, or other reference points.
- Negative relative clauses use the negative-completive series rather than positive relative forms.
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.
- Active and Stative Verb InterpretationsA1 — See how a verb's action or state meaning changes the time interpretation of Hausa completive and continuative constructions.
- Relative Time and Time AdverbsA1 — Use Hausa TAM viewpoints with time adverbs that anchor an event in the past, present, or future.