Grade 5 has a recognizable causative or “outward-action” tendency, but its members are words, not algebra. Tsaya → tsayar is transparently “stop → cause to stop,” while saya → sayar is conventionally “buy → sell,” and jefa → jefar commonly adds an “away” result rather than a new caused actor. The shared morphology organizes a family; it does not erase lexical meaning.
This page applies the guide-wide principle that grade predictions have lexical exceptions.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko leaves tone and length unmarked. Technically, the full Grade 5 form has all-high tone and -ar, and its long direct-object construction uses da.
Three recurring semantic zones
The most useful interpretation is a network, not a single English translation.
| Semantic zone | Base or related form | Established Grade 5 form | Conventional meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| direct causation | tsaya “stop, come to a stop” | tsayar | stop or halt something |
| change of location | fita “go out” | fitar | take or remove something out |
| posture | kwanta “lie down” | kwantar | lay something down |
| transfer of knowledge | koya “learn” | koyar | teach |
| transfer of information | sani “know” | sanar | inform, notify |
| change of possession | saya “buy” | sayar | sell |
| efferential result | jefa “throw” | jefar | throw away, discard |
“Causative” is clearest with a basic intransitive event. The subject of yaron ya tsaya is the entity that stops; jami’in ya tsayar da yaron introduces a separate agent who brings about that stopping.
Motar ta tsaya a gaban ƙofa.
The car stopped in front of the gate. (basic intransitive event)
Jami’in ya tsayar da motar a gaban ƙofa.
The officer stopped the car in front of the gate. (Grade 5 transitive event)
Yaron ya kwanta a kan tabarma.
The boy lay down on the mat.
Mahaifiyarsa ta kwantar da shi a kan tabarma.
His mother laid him down on the mat.
This is genuine valency increase: the derived verb has an external agent and an affected participant. But this transparent pattern is only one part of Grade 5.
Lexicalization packages a conventional event
English sell is historically and conceptually related to making someone buy, but Hausa sayar does not normally mean any imaginable act of “causing buying.” It names the conventional commercial transfer from seller to buyer. Similarly, koyar names teaching, not every possible way of causing knowledge to arise.
Amina ta sayi keken daga hannun maƙwabcinta.
Amina bought the bicycle from her neighbor.
Maƙwabcinta ya sayar da keken saboda zai ƙaura.
Her neighbor sold the bicycle because he was going to move.
Daliban suna koyon Hausa a jami’a.
The students are learning Hausa at the university.
Malam Sani yana koyar da su Hausa sau uku a mako.
Malam Sani teaches them Hausa three times a week.
With sayar, buyer and seller occupy different perspectives on one transfer. With koyar, the teacher acts on a learner’s access to knowledge, but the lexical verb “teach” is more specific than the paraphrase “cause to learn.” Translate the established word, not the pieces.
Efferential meanings direct an effect outward
Some Grade 5 verbs are better described as efferential: the action moves an affected entity away, out, or onward from the agent’s sphere. This explains fitar da “take out” and jefar da “throw away” without forcing a clumsy English make X go out or make X throw analysis.
Baƙin sun fita daga ɗakin bayan taron.
The visitors went out of the room after the meeting.
Mai gadi ya fitar da baƙin daga ɗakin bayan taron.
The guard took the visitors out of the room after the meeting.
Kada ka jefar da rasitin; za mu buƙace shi.
Do not throw away the receipt; we will need it.
The object of jefar da need not itself perform an underlying action. The construction presents disposal or outward displacement as one lexical event. That is why “Grade 5 equals make somebody verb” fails.
One lexical verb across four object environments
Grade membership is morphological and syntactic as well as semantic. Using sayar illustrates the full long construction.
| Environment | Example | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| no following object | Ya sayar. | He sold it / completed a sale. |
| noun direct object | Ya sayar da motar. | He sold the car. |
| direct-object pronoun | Ya sayar da ita. | He sold it (feminine referent). |
| indirect object | Ya sayar masa da motar. | He sold the car for him / on his behalf. |
The direct object in the long construction follows da; a pronominal direct object uses the independent series, as in da ita, not the bare direct-object form *ta. A beneficiary can intervene, but its natural interpretation depends on context.
Mai dillancin ya sayar wa kamfanin da motocin.
The agent sold the vehicles for the company / on the company’s behalf.
The no-object use does not make sayar intransitive. Like English sell, it can leave a recoverable object unspoken.
Do not confuse Grade 5 with an all-high D-form
Some Grade 2 verbs use an all-high -ar/-am form immediately before an indirect object. That resemblance is not identity. Grade 2 nemar in ya nemar wa yaro likita keeps the lexical meaning “look for” and is licensed by the following recipient. Grade 5 sayar means “sell” even with no recipient.
Ya nemar wa yaron likita.
He looked for a doctor for the boy. (Grade 2 D-form)
Ya sayar da tsohuwar motarsa.
He sold his old car. (Grade 5 lexeme)
The ending cannot be classified in isolation. Ask what the word means, what follows it, and whether the form disappears when the indirect object is removed.
Derivation is restricted, not a free coinage rule
Only attested Grade 5 members should be used. Some familiar roots have common derivatives; others have none in ordinary speech, and some morphologically possible forms are rare or strongly specialized. This is a genuine lexical burden. A dictionary entry or reliable corpus evidence is part of knowing a Grade 5 verb.
English encourages overgeneration because make/let/have + verb is highly productive. Hausa already has a productive analytic construction with sa for that broader job. Grade 5 contributes compact lexical verbs whose meanings may be transparent, partially predictable, or conventionalized.
Practice
Classify each contrast. (1) tsaya/tsayar: direct intransitive–transitive causation; (2) fita/fitar: caused motion outward; (3) saya/sayar: lexicalized change-of-possession contrast; (4) koya/koyar: lexicalized knowledge-transfer contrast; (5) jefa/jefar: outward/resultative disposal. Then place sayar in four frames: ya sayar; ya sayar da mota; ya sayar da ita; ya sayar masa da mota.
Common Mistakes
1. Translating every Grade 5 form as “make someone …”
❌ Ya sayar da motar = Ya sa motar ta saya.
Incorrect analysis—the car does not ‘buy’; sayar conventionally means ‘sell.’
✅ Ya sayar da motar ga Amina.
He sold the car to Amina.
2. Assuming every -ar after a root is Grade 5.
❌ Nemar a nan koyaushe yana nufin fi’ili na aji na biyar.
Incorrect claim—nemar can be a Grade 2 pre-indirect-object form.
✅ Ya nemar wa yaron likita.
He looked for a doctor for the boy. (Grade 2 D-form)
3. Omitting da in the long direct-object construction.
❌ Jami’in ya tsayar motar.
Incorrect in the long Grade 5 construction.
✅ Ma’aikacin tashar ya tsayar da bas ɗin.
The station worker stopped the bus.
4. Using a direct-object clitic after long-form da.
❌ Sun sayar da ta da safe.
Incorrect pronoun series for ‘they sold it in the morning.’
✅ Sun sayar da ita jiya.
They sold it yesterday. (feminine referent)
5. Inventing a derivative without lexical evidence.
❌ Duk wani fi’ili yana da sigar ar mai ma’ana iri ɗaya.
Incorrect claim—not every verb has a common Grade 5 derivative, and meanings are not uniform.
✅ Ta fitar da kayan daga mota.
She took the goods out of the car. (established fitar)
Key Takeaways
- Grade 5 clusters around causation, outward effect, removal, and transfer, but no single paraphrase covers every member.
- Transparent tsaya/tsayar contrasts coexist with lexicalized saya/sayar and efferential jefa/jefar.
- Grade 5 verbs are transitive lexical units; their long object construction uses da.
- A similar -ar form may instead be a Grade 2 D-form, so meaning and syntax both matter.
- Verify each derivative and learn its established frame rather than coining it mechanically.
Related Topics
- Lexical Exceptions to Grade PredictionsA2 — Use Hausa verb grades as strong structural guides without forcing common irregular verbs, exceptional frames, or lexicalized meanings into false regularity.
- What a Hausa Verb Grade Is—and Is NotA2 — Understand Hausa verb grades as lexical morphophonological patterns shaped by meaning, valency, and the following object environment—not as tense conjugations.
- Grade 3 and Change of StateB2 — Use Grade 3's strong change-of-state tendency without mistaking it for a universal meaning or a productive English-style derivation.
- Grade 2 Lexical ExceptionsB1 — Handle the exceptional A-forms, stem alternations, D-forms, and strong verbal nouns that must be stored with individual Grade 2 lexemes.
- Grade 2 All-High -ar FormsB1 — Recognize the all-high -ar/-am form that selected Grade 2 verbs use before an indirect object, without confusing it with the Grade 5 causative.