Hausa mutu means “die” and, with nonhuman subjects, “go out, cease functioning, become defunct.” It is an intransitive Grade 3b verb: the participant that dies is its subject, never its direct object. Its verbal noun mutuwa also serves as the ordinary feminine noun “death.”
English creates related transitive expressions such as die a death, the injury killed him, or informal the battery died. Hausa distributes these meanings across different structures. Use mutu for the dying participant, kashe for “kill,” mutuwa for dying/death, and an appropriate lexical predicate when a machine merely stops. The argument structure matters more than the one-word gloss.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Discussion of respectful wording describes register choices, not a claim that plain mutu is grammatically wrong.
Core forms and licensed environments
| Environment | Standard form | Function |
|---|---|---|
| finite, intransitive | ya mutu | he died |
| finite + location | ya mutu a asibiti | he died in hospital; location is not an object |
| finite + stated cause | ya mutu sakamakon rauni | he died as a result of injury |
| direct noun/pronoun object | unavailable | use kashe “kill” for a caused-death object |
| core indirect object | unavailable | mutu does not mean “die someone” or “die for someone” by dative inflection |
| continuative/verbal noun | yana mutuwa | he is dying / people die |
| lexical event noun | mutuwa; mutuwarsa | death; his death |
| cognate accusative | ya mutu mutuwa marar kyau | he died a miserable death; not a normal direct object |
Tsohon ya mutu a asibiti bayan doguwar jinya.
The elderly man died in hospital after a long illness. (completed intransitive event)
Mutane da yawa suna mutuwa saboda cututtukan da za a iya magancewa.
Many people die from diseases that can be treated. (generic continuative; formal/public-health context)
Bai mutu nan take ba; ma’aikatan ceto sun kai shi asibiti.
He did not die immediately; the rescue workers took him to hospital. (negative completive)
Kowane mai rai zai mutu wata rana.
Every living being will die one day. (future/general truth)
Mutu is strictly intransitive
No object-conditioned stem exists because base mutu licenses no direct object. A location, time, cause, or circumstance can follow, but each is an adjunct rather than the thing “died.”
Kifin ya mutu a cikin ruwa bayan guba ta shiga kogin.
The fish died in the water after poison entered the river. (location and cause, no object)
Mutumin ya mutu yana da shekara tamanin da biyu.
The man died at the age of eighty-two. (age circumstance)
To express caused death, use transitive kashe. An event can be its subject, so Hausa need not invent a passive or object form of mutu.
Hayakin gobarar ya kashe tsuntsaye da dama, wasu kuma sun mutu daga baya.
The fire’s smoke killed many birds, while others died later. (kashe transitive versus mutu intransitive)
An analytic sequence such as sa ya mutu “cause him to die” can be semantically possible where the intermediate result matters, but ordinary direct “kill” is kashe. Do not construct mutu shi or mutu masa from English.
Verbal noun and lexical noun mutuwa
Mutuwa appears after a continuative marker and also heads ordinary noun phrases. In yana mutuwa, it presents dying as ongoing, repeated, or generic according to context. In mutuwar yaron, linker -r connects the feminine noun to its dependent. Possessive mutuwarsa means “his death,” not “his dying him.”
Likitan ya lura cewa ƙwayoyin jikin suna mutuwa saboda rashin iskar oxygen.
The doctor observed that the body’s cells were dying because of a lack of oxygen. (academic/medical)
Mutuwar shugaban ƙungiyar ta sa aka ɗage taron mako guda.
The death of the association’s leader caused the meeting to be postponed for a week. (event noun; feminine agreement)
Labarin mutuwarsa ya isa gari da yamma.
News of his death reached the town in the evening. (possessed noun)
The cognate expression mutu mutuwa
Hausa can place a cognate event noun after certain intransitive verbs: ya mutu mutuwa marar kyau “he died a miserable death.” This does not turn mutu into an ordinary transitive verb. The long final vowel and the construction’s meaning show that the cognate phrase characterizes the manner or quality of the event.
A cikin tatsuniyar, azzalumin ya mutu mutuwa marar kyau.
In the folktale, the tyrant died a miserable death. (literary/narrative cognate expression)
The construction is marked and rhetorically heavier than plain ya mutu. Use it in narration, evaluation, or a proverb-like style (literary/informal depending on context), not merely because English happens to allow die a ... death. In ya mutu mutuwa marar kyau, finite mutu keeps its lexical short final -u; the modified event noun functions adverbially rather than as an ordinary direct object. It therefore cannot be replaced with a pronoun to make ya mutu shi.
Human death, respectful rasu, and condolence register
Plain mutu is semantically direct. In news, biography, formal announcements, and respectful conversation about a person, rasu “pass away/die” is often preferred: Malam ya rasu jiya. This is a register choice, not a different biological event and not an honorific conjugation.
An sanar cewa tsohon shugaban makarantar ya rasu jiya da dare.
It was announced that the former headteacher passed away last night. (formal/respectful)
Mun yi wa iyalinsa ta’aziyya bayan rasuwarsa.
We offered condolences to his family after his passing. (respectful social context)
When speaking directly to bereaved relatives, established condolence expressions are usually more appropriate than repeatedly saying mutu. The separate condolence formulas page treats those interactional choices.
Nonhuman and extended subjects
Mutu extends naturally to fire and light going out and to things losing vitality or usefulness. These meanings preserve the idea that the subject ceases to function; they do not add an object.
Wutar ta mutu da tsakar dare, sai muka sake kunna murhu.
The fire went out at midnight, so we lit the stove again. (established nonhuman extension)
Fitilar ta mutu lokacin da ake karanta sakamakon.
The lamp went out while the results were being read. (loss of light)
For modern devices, speakers may use mutu informally—wayar ta mutu can mean a phone went dead—but precise contexts often favor cajinta ya ƙare “its charge ran out” or ta daina aiki “it stopped working.” Label the intended failure rather than treating English die as a universal technical verb.
Commands, wishes, and negation
A literal imperative “die!” is hostile and pragmatically extreme, so a reference table should not manufacture friendly command examples merely to fill a paradigm. Subjunctive ya mutu occurs inside licensed wishes, results, or subordinate clauses, but the lexical meaning remains intransitive.
An garzaya da shi asibiti domin kada ya mutu saboda zubar jini.
He was rushed to hospital so that he would not die from blood loss. (negative purpose subjunctive)
This negative purpose has no final ba. By contrast, completed negation is bai mutu ba, with closing ba.
Common Mistakes
1. Giving mutu a direct object
❌ Hatsarin ya mutu direban.
Incorrect—mutu is intransitive and cannot mean ‘the crash killed the driver.’
✅ Hatsarin ya kashe direban.
The crash killed the driver.
2. Using mutuwa as a finite completive
❌ Mutumin ya mutuwa a bara.
Incorrect—plain completive requires finite mutu.
✅ Mutumin ya mutu a bara.
The man died last year.
3. Treating a cognate phrase as an ordinary object
❌ Ya mutu ta.
Incorrect analysis—mutuwa in the cognate construction characterizes the event; mutu does not take an object pronoun.
✅ Ya mutu mutuwa marar kyau a ƙarshen labarin.
He died a miserable death at the end of the story. (literary)
4. Copying English “the phone died” in every technical context
❌ Faɗin ‘wayar ta mutu’ yana nufin cewa cajinta ne kawai ya ƙare.
Incorrect rule—the intended fault may be an empty charge, loss of signal, or a broken device.
✅ Cajin wayar ya ƙare, shi ya sa ba ta kunnawa.
The phone’s charge ran out, which is why it will not switch on.
5. Adding final ba to a negative purpose clause
❌ An kai shi asibiti domin kada ya mutu ba.
Incorrect—kada in a negative purpose construction does not take final ba.
✅ An kai shi asibiti domin kada ya mutu.
He was taken to hospital so that he would not die.
Key Takeaways
- Mutu is an intransitive Grade 3b verb: the dying participant is its subject.
- There are no noun-object, pronoun-object, or core indirect-object forms; use kashe for “kill.”
- Mutuwa is both the verbal noun in yana mutuwa and the feminine noun “death.”
- Mutu mutuwa marar kyau is a marked cognate construction, not evidence that mutu is transitive.
- Human-reference rasu is often more respectful in announcements and condolences; nonhuman mutu can mean “go out/cease functioning.”
Related Topics
- Grade 3 Lexical ExceptionsB2 — Recognize Grade 3a, Grade 3b, irregular intransitives, and lexical complement frames that resist a one-pattern account of Grade 3.
- Intransitive ClausesA1 — Build Hausa clauses whose lexical verb has a subject but no direct object, and distinguish later place or time phrases from objects.
- Continuative with -wa Verbal NounsA2 — Form the Hausa continuative with weak -wa verbal nouns and remove -wa when a direct object follows.
- Cognate ObjectsA2 — Use a modified verbal noun to describe the manner or number of an event, while keeping any true direct object in its normal position.
- Verb Reference: haifa — give birthC1 — Distinguish transitive haifa and its object-conditioned forms from intransitive haihu, birth-result an haife, and causative haifar da.
- Condolence and Congratulations FormulasA2 — Offer condolences and congratulations in Hausa with formulas, responses, and degrees of warmth suited to the event and relationship.