A Grade 5 command directs someone to bring about the established Grade 5 event: Tsayar da motar! “Stop the car!”, Fitar da akwatin! “Take out the box!”, Sanar da su! “Inform them!” The imperative does not create the derived verb. You must first know that tsayar, fitar, sanar are real Grade 5 lexemes with those meanings and frames.
The basic singular-imperative guide supplies the mood system that interacts with Grade 5 here.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko does not mark tone or vowel length. Technically, the special bare imperative has the general L…H command melody, whereas a finite Grade 5 citation form has all-high tone. The target examples keep normal unaccented spelling.
The bare imperative is affirmative and singular
The special bare imperative addresses one person and contains no subject–TAM marker. With the full Grade 5 form, the spelling in boko still ends in -ar.
Tsayar! Ina so in sauka a nan.
Stop it! I want to get off here. (one addressee; object understood)
Fitar da akwatin kafin a rufe ɗakin.
Take the box out before the room is locked.
Sanar da ni idan likitan ya iso.
Let me know when the doctor arrives.
The command melody applies to the imperative construction; -ar is not an “imperative ending.” The same lexical Grade 5 form occurs in statements such as ya tsayar da motar “he stopped the car.” Mood and grade are separate dimensions.
One verb across four command environments
The full or “long” construction is the safest productive model because it can appear in every environment licensed by the verb.
| Environment | Command with tsayar | Function |
|---|---|---|
| no following object | Tsayar! | stop it; affected entity understood |
| noun direct object | Tsayar da motar! | da + noun object |
| direct-object pronoun | Tsayar da ita! | da + independent pronoun |
| indirect object | Tsayar mini da motar! | beneficiary first, then affected object |
Tsayar da motar a inda hanya ta faɗaɗa.
Stop the car where the road widens.
Tsayar da ita kusa da gidan mai.
Stop it near the filling station. (ita refers to a feminine noun such as mota)
Tsayar mini da motar a bakin kasuwa.
Stop the car for me at the market entrance.
In the pronoun command, ita is the independent pronoun required after long-form da. Do not substitute the direct-object clitic *ta. In the D-environment, mini is an indirect object; the semantic direct object remains motar.
The beneficiary reading must make sense. A morphological D slot does not guarantee that every possible “for someone” command is pragmatically normal.
Short forms are real but lexically and socially variable
Many Grade 5 verbs have a short construction before a direct object: the -ar is absent and da still introduces the object. With tsaya/tsayar, the familiar short form is tsai da.
Tsai da motar nan take!
Stop the car immediately! (short Grade 5 construction)
Tsai da shi kafin ya shiga babban titi.
Stop him before he enters the main road. (short construction)
Not every Grade 5 lexeme freely alternates in the same way. Koyar “teach,” for example, is normally learned in its established full frame rather than reduced by a general classroom rule. Short-form availability is lexical and can vary by speaker.
Some descriptions also record a special -she form before a direct-object pronoun, as in Tsaishe ta! “Stop her!” This belongs to the Grade 5 pronominal system, not to a universal suffix to be added to any verb. It competes with transparent long Tsayar da ita!, and preferences vary.
Tsaishe ta kafin ta wuce ƙofar.
Stop her before she passes the gate. (special pre-pronoun Grade 5 form; speaker variation exists)
A command keeps the derived meaning
Basic tsaya is intransitive “stop/stand/wait”; derived tsayar is transitive “halt something.” The imperative contrast therefore changes participant structure, not merely style.
Tsaya a nan har in dawo.
Wait here until I return. (basic verb; the addressee stops or waits)
Tsayar da babur ɗin a gefen hanya.
Stop the motorcycle at the side of the road. (Grade 5; affect an object)
Likewise, Fita! tells the addressee to go out, whereas Fitar da shi! tells the addressee to remove someone or something.
Fita daga ɗakin yanzu.
Go out of the room now.
Fitar da shi daga ɗakin yanzu.
Take him out of the room now.
English uses stop both transitively and intransitively, hiding the Hausa grade contrast. The safest learning entry records valency: tsaya “come to a stop”; tsayar da X “bring X to a stop.”
Plural, gender-marked, and negative directives use subject markers
The bare imperative is limited to an affirmative command to one addressee. Use ka, ki, ku plus the subjunctive verb for explicit masculine singular, feminine singular, or plural direction. Use kada/kar for prohibitions.
Ki sanar da shugabar kafin taron ya fara.
Inform the chairwoman before the meeting begins. (to one woman)
Ku fitar da kujerun zuwa baranda.
Take the chairs out to the veranda. (to several people)
Kada ka sayar da gonar ba tare da shawarar iyalinka ba.
Do not sell the farm without consulting your family. (to one man)
Kar ku tsayar da motoci a kan gadar.
Do not stop vehicles on the bridge. (informal/conversational kar; to several people)
These are subject-marked subjunctive directives, not plural or negative forms of the special bare imperative. The Grade 5 verb itself retains its lexical object frame.
Politeness comes from the whole utterance
Neither the bare imperative nor a subject-marked subjunctive is intrinsically rude or polite. The relationship, situation, and the rest of the utterance do that work. Don Allah, a reason, or a respectful vocative can soften a command; this pragmatic choice does not change the verb’s grade.
Don Allah, ka sanar da ni kafin ka tafi.
Please let me know before you leave.
Malam, don Allah ka tsayar da motar a nan.
Sir, please stop the car here.
Practice
Build four commands with sayar: Sayar!; Sayar da motar!; Sayar da ita!; Sayar masa da motar! Then change the noun-object command for one woman to Ki sayar da motar, for a group to Ku sayar da motar, and into a prohibition to one man: Kada ka sayar da motar. Finally, contrast Sayi motar! “Buy the car!” with Sayar da motar! “Sell the car!”—command mood does not neutralize their Grade 2/Grade 5 lexical difference.
Common Mistakes
1. Omitting da from the full object command.
❌ Tsayar motar a nan!
Incorrect in the long Grade 5 construction.
✅ Tsayar da motar a nan!
Stop the car here!
2. Using a direct-object clitic after long-form da.
❌ Sanar da ta kafin taron.
Incorrect after long-form da—use independent ita, not direct-object ta.
✅ Sanar da ita kafin taron.
Inform her before the meeting.
3. Confusing the base and derived commands.
❌ Tsaya da motar!
Incorrect for the intended full Grade 5 command ‘stop the car’; tsaya is the basic intransitive verb.
✅ Tsayar da motar!
Stop the car!
4. Using the bare imperative for a group.
❌ Fitar da akwatunan, ku duka!
Incorrect as an explicitly plural command in the neutral standard.
✅ Ku fitar da akwatunan!
Take out the boxes, all of you!
5. Negating with declarative ba … ba.
❌ Ba sayar da gidan ba!
Incorrect standard prohibition.
✅ Kada ka sayar da gidan!
Do not sell the house!
Key Takeaways
- The bare Grade 5 imperative is an affirmative command to one person and has the general imperative L…H melody.
- The full frame preserves -ar and uses da + noun/independent pronoun.
- Short and -she forms exist for licensed verbs, but they are lexically and dialectally variable.
- Commands preserve lexical contrasts such as tsaya versus tsayar and sayi versus sayar.
- Use ka/ki/ku for explicit addressee marking and kada/kar for negative commands.
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Start learning Hausa →Related Topics
- Singular Imperatives: Basic FormationA2 — Form affirmative commands to one Hausa addressee with the special subjectless imperative while respecting its tonal and verb-class limits.
- Grade-Sensitive Imperative FormsA2 — Recognize how Hausa verb grade and following-object type shape commands without confusing stem alternations with person, tense, or politeness.
- Imperatives with Direct ObjectsA2 — Place noun and pronoun objects correctly in Hausa commands while preserving person marking and the Grade 2 object-conditioned verb forms.
- Imperatives with Indirect ObjectsA2 — Give Hausa commands with recipients and beneficiaries, keeping the ordinary ma-series distinct from the exceptional recipient forms selected by ba ‘give’.
- Negative Commands with kada and karA2 — Build Hausa prohibitions with kada or conversational kar followed by an agreeing subjunctive marker and no final ba.
- The Three Object EnvironmentsA2 — Choose Hausa verb forms by whether no object, a noun direct object, or a direct-object pronoun immediately follows, while treating indirect objects separately.