A Hausa relative clause can identify a referent by an ongoing action, a repeated practice, or a state-like property: mutumin da yake magana “the man who is speaking,” shagon da suke buɗewa kowace safiya “the shop that they open every morning,” and abin da muke so “what we want.” In these canonical identifying clauses, affirmative continuative predicates use the relative continuative, not the plain ina/kana/yana series.
All unlabelled forms are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). The common relativizer da does not itself show whether the head is the subject, object, place, or time inside the relative clause. The gap, word order, and agreement reveal that relationship.
The complete paradigm inside relative clauses
| Subject inside the relative clause | Relative continuative | Model phrase |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | nake | abin da nake nema |
| 2nd masculine singular | kake | abin da kake nema |
| 2nd feminine singular | kike | abin da kike nema |
| 3rd masculine singular | yake | mutumin da yake aiki |
| 3rd feminine singular | take | matar da take aiki |
| 1st plural | muke | abin da muke nema |
| 2nd plural | kuke | abin da kuke nema |
| 3rd plural | suke | mutanen da suke aiki |
| impersonal | ake | wurin da ake aiki |
The form agrees with the subject inside the relative clause. That subject may be the head noun itself, a separate noun phrase, a pronoun understood from context, or an unspecified actor represented by ake.
Subject relatives: the head controls agreement
When the head noun is understood as the subject of the relative clause, it controls the relative-continuative form.
Mutumin da yake gyaran kwamfuta maƙwabcinmu ne.
The man who is repairing a computer is our neighbor.
Matar da take jiran likita ta iso da sassafe.
The woman who is waiting for the doctor arrived very early.
Yaran da suke wasa da ƙwallo za su dawo kafin magariba.
The children who are playing ball will return before sunset.
Masculine singular mutumin controls yake, feminine singular matar controls take, and plural yaran controls suke. English relative who has one form in all three sentences; Hausa keeps gender and number visible in the preverbal complex.
The head is not repeated as an ordinary pronoun after the verb. Its interpretation fills the subject gap created by the relative construction.
Object relatives: the internal subject controls agreement
If the head is the missing object, a separate subject can appear inside the relative clause. That internal subject controls the marker.
Ga motar da Amina take gyarawa.
Here is the car that Amina is repairing.
Na karanta rahoton da Musa yake dubawa.
I read the report that Musa is examining.
Waɗannan su ne kayan da ma’aikatan suke shiryawa don jigilar gobe.
These are the goods that the workers are preparing for tomorrow’s shipment.
In the first sentence, feminine Amina controls take; the grammatical gender of mota is irrelevant to that subject agreement. In the second, masculine Musa controls yake, even though masculine rahoto happens to match. In the third, plural ma’aikatan controls suke.
Object extraction also affects predicate shape. Many weak verbal nouns show -wa when no direct object immediately follows: neutral Amina tana gyara mota, but relative motar da Amina take gyarawa. Do not add a resumptive object after gyarawa in this ordinary pattern; the head motar already supplies the missing object.
❌ motar da Amina take gyarawa ta
Incorrect ordinary object-relative pattern — final ta unnecessarily repeats the extracted object.
✅ motar da Amina take gyarawa
The car that Amina is repairing.
Places, uses, and impersonal clauses
Relative clauses frequently identify a place through what people do there. Ake leaves the actor unspecified.
Wurin da ake gyara babura yana bayan kasuwa.
The place where motorcycles are repaired is behind the market.
Na gano ɗakin da muke ajiye tsofaffin fayiloli.
I found the room where we keep old files.
Sun rufe ƙofar ɗakin da ake ajiye magunguna.
They closed the door of the room where medicines are stored.
The relative continuative here may receive a passive-looking English translation, but ake is an impersonal subject–TAM form rather than a dedicated passive suffix. Its meaning can be “people do,” “one does,” or “is done,” depending on context.
Ongoing, habitual, and state-like readings
Relative syntax chooses the relative series; the predicate and context shape the aspectual interpretation.
Na ga direban da yake jiran fasinjoji yanzu.
I saw the driver who is waiting for passengers now. (ongoing)
Mun san mai shagon da yake buɗe shagonsa kafin ƙarfe bakwai kowace rana.
We know the shopkeeper who opens his shop before seven every day. (habitual)
Ka kawo littafin da kake so.
Bring the book that you want. (state-like; to one male)
English uses progressive is waiting, simple-present opens, and nonprogressive want. Hausa keeps the same relative-continuative series because it presents each property as open or characteristic rather than as a bounded completed event.
Time reference likewise comes from context:
Na haɗu da mutanen da suke jiranmu jiya da yamma.
I met the people who were waiting for us yesterday evening.
Waɗannan su ne ma’aikatan da suke karɓar baƙi gobe da safe.
These are the employees who will be receiving visitors tomorrow morning.
Suke is not past in the first sentence or future in the second. Jiya and gobe locate the open situation.
Full forms and reduced ke
When an overt noun or an otherwise explicit focused head makes the subject recoverable, yake/take/suke may reduce to invariant ke.
Ga mutumin da ke jiranka a waje.
Here is the man who is waiting for you outside. (addressing one male)
Matan da ke sayar da kayan miya sun koma gida.
The women who sell cooking ingredients have gone home.
Na ɗauko takardar da Amina ke nema.
I brought the document that Amina is looking for.
Full da yake, da suke, da Amina take are also standard. Reduced ke no longer displays masculine, feminine, or plural agreement; the overt subject supplies that information. It remains relative continuative, so plain reduced na cannot replace it.
Negation and important limits
Negative continuative relative clauses use the negative paradigm rather than a negative version of -ke.
Ba na son motar da ba ta aiki da kyau.
I do not want the car that does not work properly.
Ga ma’aikatan da ba sa zuwa ranar Asabar.
Here are the employees who do not come on Saturdays.
Standard plural negatives are ba ma, ba kwa, ba sa, and negative continuative normally has no final ba. Do not write da ba suke.
The rule “relative clause equals relative TAM” is a strong learner default for canonical identifying clauses, but advanced discourse has limits. Parenthetical, nonrestrictive comments that present genuinely new information can use a plain form, and some highly grammaticalized temporal clauses show variation. Those marked constructions do not license free swapping in ordinary phrases such as mutumin da yake aiki or abin da muke nema.
Exercises
Choose the marker controlled by the subject inside the relative clause: (1) matar da _ aiki a nan; (2) motar da Musa _ gyarawa; (3) yaran da _ jira a waje; (4) wurin da _ sayar da tikiti; (5) abin da mu _ nema. Answers: take, yake, suke, ake, muke. For items 1 and 2, state whether the head is the relative-clause subject or object.
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping the plain continuative in a canonical identifying relative clause.
❌ mutumin da yana aiki a nan
Incorrect in the canonical relative clause; yana is plain continuative.
✅ mutumin da yake aiki a nan
The man who works here.
2. Making agreement follow an object head.
❌ motar da Musa take gyarawa
Incorrect — masculine Musa is the internal subject.
✅ motar da Musa yake gyarawa
The car that Musa is repairing.
3. Dropping the marker after an internal noun subject.
❌ rahoton da Amina dubawa
Incorrect — Amina does not replace the subject–TAM marker.
✅ rahoton da Amina take dubawa
The report that Amina is examining.
4. Reading the relative continuative as past tense.
❌ Jiya na ga mutanen da suka jira mu.
Wrong for the intended ongoing meaning ‘the people who were waiting for us’; suka presents a bounded event.
✅ Jiya na ga mutanen da suke jiranmu.
Yesterday I saw the people who were waiting for us.
5. Negating suke instead of choosing the negative series.
❌ mutanen da ba suke aiki a nan
Incorrect standard negative-continuative form.
✅ mutanen da ba sa aiki a nan
The people who do not work here.
Key Takeaways
- Canonical affirmative continuative relative clauses use nake, kake, kike, yake, take, muke, kuke, suke, ake.
- A subject head controls the marker; an object head does not—the internal subject controls it.
- Keep a subject–TAM marker after a name or noun inside the relative clause.
- Relative continuative covers ongoing, habitual, and state-like properties in past, present, or future contexts.
- Full third-person forms may reduce to ke when the subject is overtly recoverable.
- Negation uses ba na … ba sa, not ba + a relative affirmative form.
Related Topics
- Relative Continuative PronounsA2 — Use nake, kake, kike, yake, take, muke, kuke, suke, and ake for ongoing or habitual situations in focus, questions, and relative clauses.
- Linking before Relative ClausesA2 — How a Hausa head noun takes its joined n/r form before a restrictive relative clause introduced by da.
- 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.
- 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.
- Continuative with -wa Verbal NounsA2 — Form the Hausa continuative with weak -wa verbal nouns and remove -wa when a direct object follows.
- Pronoun Reduction after an Overt SubjectA2 — Recognize the limited Hausa reductions yana/tana/suna → na and yake/take/suke → ke after an overt subject without deleting subject–TAM marking elsewhere.