Hausa tashi is a high-frequency Grade 3b intransitive meaning “rise/get up,” “wake up,” “leave/depart,” “take off/fly,” and more generally “arise/start.” The Grade 3 exceptions guide locates this small H-L subclass. A person can tashi daga barci “wake from sleep,” a bus can tashi daga Kano “depart from Kano,” a plane can tashi “take off,” dust or smoke can rise, and a price can tashi “go up.” Context identifies the reading.
The verb is invariant in ordinary boko: it does not develop a noun-object or pronoun-object stem because base tashi does not license a direct object. To wake or raise someone, Hausa uses a separate causative family such as tada/tashe, not tashi shi. Ventive taso is also a separate directional or lexicalized form; it is not the pronoun-object shape of tashi.
All ordinary examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa).
Compact form and environment table
| Environment | Form | Natural frame |
|---|---|---|
| citation/finite form | tashi | ya tashi “he got up/left” |
| lexical class | Grade 3b intransitive in -i | no A/B/C object alternation |
| continuative/verbal noun | tashi | yana tashi “he is getting up/leaving; it rises” |
| departure/rising noun | tashi; linked tashin | tashin jirgi “the plane’s departure/takeoff” |
| source | daga | tashi daga Kano; tashi daga barci |
| destination | zuwa | tashi zuwa Abuja |
| total or cost reached | tashi + amount | kuɗin ya tashi naira dubu ashirin “the cost came to twenty thousand naira” |
| direct/indirect object | not licensed | use a causative to wake/raise another participant |
| ventive/lexical extension | taso | matsala ta taso; ya taso daga gida |
| causative family | tada / tashe | ta tashe shi “she woke him” |
Na tashi da ƙarfe biyar domin in kama motar farko.
I got up at five o’clock in order to catch the first bus.
Motar ta tashi daga Kaduna da safe, ta isa Zariya kafin azahar.
The bus left Kaduna in the morning and reached Zaria before noon.
Jirgin sama yana tashi da ƙarfe tara idan babu jinkiri.
The plane takes off at nine o’clock if there is no delay. (scheduled/habitual departure)
Getting up and waking
With a human or animal subject, tashi can describe rising from a seated or lying position or waking from sleep. Add tsaye when the intended result is explicitly standing: tashi tsaye “stand up.” Add daga barci when waking needs to be unambiguous.
Da aka kira sunansa, ya tashi tsaye ya amsa tambayar.
When his name was called, he stood up and answered the question.
Jaririn ya tashi daga barci sau biyu cikin dare.
The baby woke from sleep twice during the night.
Kada ki tashi da sauri idan kina jin jiri.
Do not get up quickly if you feel dizzy. (to one female)
Bare singular imperative tashi! is direct and gender-neutral. Subject-marked ka tashi, ki tashi, ku tashi identifies one male, one female, or a plural/respectful addressee. The verb itself does not carry person or gender.
The continuous form is also tashi in ordinary spelling: yana tashi. Unlike weak verbal nouns such as zaunawa, it does not require invented tashiwa. The time phrase and context decide whether yana tashi means “he is getting up,” “he regularly gets up,” or “it is rising.”
Leaving, departing, and taking off
For departure, the source commonly follows daga, the destination follows zuwa, and time follows as an adjunct. A vehicle may be the grammatical subject even though its driver controls the trip.
Za mu tashi daga nan bayan sallar azahar.
We will leave here after the noon prayer.
Tawagar za ta tashi zuwa Maiduguri ranar Alhamis.
The delegation will depart for Maiduguri on Thursday. (formal/news register)
Da zarar jirgin ya tashi, ma’aikatan suka rufe ƙofar shiga.
As soon as the plane took off, the employees closed the boarding gate.
English leave Kano treats the source as a direct object. Hausa tashi does not: use tashi daga Kano. For the broader event of going away, tafi may also be natural, but tashi foregrounds setting out or departure, often at a particular time.
Noun tashi and its linked form tashin refer to rising or departure: lokacin tashi “departure/getting-up time,” tashin jirgi “takeoff/departure,” bayan tashinsa “after his departure/after he got up.” This nominal use is why one form can occur both after continuative TAM and inside a noun phrase.
An ɗage lokacin tashin jirgin saboda hazo.
The flight’s departure time was postponed because of haze. (formal announcement)
Things that arise, begin, or go up
Tashi extends metaphorically from upward motion or departure to the onset of a situation. Smoke, dust, fire, noise, a quarrel, or unrest may “rise.” A price or level may also go up.
Hayaki ya tashi daga ɗakin girki, sai kowa ya fita waje.
Smoke rose from the kitchen, so everyone went outside.
Hayaniya ta tashi a kasuwa bayan ’yan kasuwa biyu sun yi saɓani.
An uproar arose in the market after two traders disagreed.
Farashin shinkafa ya tashi sosai a makon da ya gabata.
The price of rice rose sharply last week. (economic/news context)
Do not infer that tashi is a general transitive verb “raise.” Farashin ya tashi has the price itself as the subject. “The seller raised the price” requires a causative or a different lexical verb, such as mai sayarwar ya ƙara farashin “the seller increased the price.”
There is also a productive total-or-cost construction in which tashi means “come to, amount to.” The amount names the resulting total; it need not imply that an earlier price increased.
Kuɗin gyaran rufin ya tashi naira dubu ɗari biyu da hamsin.
The cost of repairing the roof came to two hundred and fifty thousand naira.
Keep that construction distinct from a price increase. Kuɗin ya tashi naira dubu ashirin can give the total reached, whereas farashin ya tashi daga naira dubu goma zuwa dubu ashirin explicitly describes a rise from ten thousand to twenty thousand naira. In a simple price question, Nawa ne kuɗin duka? “How much is the total?” remains a clear neutral choice.
Taso is related but not an object form
Taso is a ventive or lexicalized extension associated with movement or development toward a relevant center. It commonly appears when a matter “comes up/arises,” when someone comes from a source toward the discourse center, or in descriptions of growing up/developing. These meanings must be learned as constructions; taso is not selected by a following pronoun.
Wata matsala ta taso yayin da ake gwada sabon tsarin.
A problem arose while the new system was being tested. (formal/professional context)
Ya taso daga ƙauye ya zo neman aiki a birni.
He came up from a village to look for work in the city.
Aisha ta taso cikin iyalin da ke son karatu.
Aisha grew up in a family that values education.
Compare plain motar ta tashi daga Kano “the vehicle departed Kano” with matsala ta taso “a problem came up.” The direction and lexical meaning have changed. Do not replace every tashi with taso just because a movement is mentioned.
Waking or raising someone: use a causative
Base tashi cannot take the person woken as its direct object. The causative family uses forms such as tada and tashe according to its own morphology. A very common pronoun frame is tashe shi/ta/su.
Don Allah, ka tashe ni da ƙarfe shida idan ban tashi da kaina ba.
Please wake me at six if I do not wake up by myself. (to one male)
Uwar ta tashe yaran domin su shirya zuwa makaranta.
The mother woke the children so that they could prepare for school.
This pair makes the valency contrast explicit: yaran sun tashi “the children woke/got up,” but uwar ta tashe yaran “the mother woke the children.” The object belongs to the causative, not to base tashi.
Aspect, future, and negation
Yana tashi da wuri kullum, ko da ba zai je aiki ba.
He gets up early every day, even when he is not going to work.
Ba mu tashi ba sai da direban ya gama duba tayoyin.
We did not leave until the driver finished checking the tires. (negative completive)
Motar ba ta tashi ranar Lahadi.
The bus does not depart on Sundays. (negative continuative/habitual)
Ba za su tashi zuwa Jos yau ba saboda an rufe hanyar.
They will not leave for Jos today because the road has been closed.
Completed negative ba mu tashi ba and negative future ba za su tashi…ba have final ba. Negative continuative ba ta tashi ranar Lahadi does not. Because the verb’s ordinary spelling is constant, the surrounding subject–TAM complex carries the crucial grammatical information.
Common Mistakes
1. Giving base tashi a direct object.
❌ Mahaifiyarsa ta tashi shi da safe.
Incorrect for ‘his mother woke him’; base tashi is intransitive.
✅ Mahaifiyarsa ta tashe shi da safe.
His mother woke him in the morning.
2. Treating an English source object as a Hausa direct object.
❌ Motar ta tashi Kano da ƙarfe bakwai.
Incorrect neutral source frame; Kano requires daga.
✅ Motar ta tashi daga Kano da ƙarfe bakwai.
The bus left Kano at seven o’clock.
3. Inventing a weak verbal noun.
❌ Jirgin yana tashiwa yanzu.
Incorrect standard form; tashi itself occurs in this continuative.
✅ Jirgin yana tashi yanzu.
The plane is taking off now.
4. Using taso as the general future of tashi.
❌ Gobe za mu taso daga otal da ƙarfe shida.
Wrong if only ordinary departure is intended; taso adds a ventive/lexicalized perspective.
✅ Gobe za mu tashi daga otal da ƙarfe shida.
Tomorrow we will leave the hotel at six o’clock.
5. Closing a negative continuative with ba.
❌ Wannan jirgin ba ya tashi ranar Talata ba.
Nonstandard ordinary negative-continuative frame.
✅ Wannan jirgin ba ya tashi ranar Talata.
This flight does not depart on Tuesdays.
Key Takeaways
- Tashi is a Grade 3b intransitive whose ordinary spelling remains constant: get up, wake, leave, take off, rise, or arise.
- Use daga for a source and zuwa for a destination: tashi daga Kano zuwa Abuja.
- The continuative/verbal-noun form is also written tashi, not tashiwa.
- Prices can be intransitive subjects: farashin ya tashi “the price rose.”
- With an amount, kuɗin ya tashi naira… can mean that a cost or total came to that amount.
- Taso is a ventive or lexicalized related form, not an object-conditioned form of tashi.
- To wake or raise someone, use the causative family: ta tashi “she woke up,” but ya tashe ta “he woke her.”
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