Grade 6 is strongly associated with a ventive path toward a contextual center, but many frequent Grade 6 verbs have conventional meanings that cannot be recovered by translating -o as “come.” Jawo can mean “pull this way” or “cause,” tuno means “recall,” and samo often means “obtain, manage to find.” The historical or metaphorical path helps organize the vocabulary; it does not replace learning what each verb actually means and which complements it licenses.
The Grade 6 overview introduces the productive ventive pattern. This page focuses on the point where that pattern becomes lexical knowledge. All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko does not mark tone or vowel length. Technically, Grade 6 has all-high tone and long final -o.
A continuum from spatial to conventional meaning
Lexicalization is not an on/off switch. Some uses are transparently spatial, some extend a spatial image metaphorically, and others must simply be stored as meanings of the verb.
| Grade 6 verb | Established use | How transparent is the ventive link? |
|---|---|---|
| shigo | come in | direct movement toward the contextual center |
| ɗauko | fetch; pick up and bring | an affected object reaches the center |
| tambayo | ask there and return with the answer | information reaches the center |
| jawo | pull this way; cause, bring about | literal path or metaphorical arrival of a result |
| tuno | recall, remember | something is brought back to awareness |
| samo | obtain, find, manage to get | an item or opportunity becomes available to the relevant participant |
Amina ta shigo ofis ɗin ta zauna kusa da mu.
Amina came into the office and sat near us. (spatial Grade 6)
Bello ya ɗauko fayil ɗin daga mota.
Bello fetched the file from the car. (the file reaches the center)
Na tambayo lokacin da jirgin zai tashi.
I asked and found out what time the plane would leave. (the answer is brought back)
The translation ask and find out is often more natural than a word-for-word English sequence with come. The Hausa verb packages the remote inquiry and its useful return as one event.
Jawo: from a physical pull to causation
The literal use of jawo preserves a directional contrast: something is pulled toward the relevant center. Its conventional abstract use means “cause, bring about.” The result is conceptualized as being drawn into the present situation, but speakers do not need to construct that metaphor every time.
Ka jawo kujerar nan kusa da tebur.
Pull that chair over here near the table. (literal directional use; one male addressee)
Ruwan sama mai ƙarfi ya jawo ambaliya a unguwar.
The heavy rain caused flooding in the neighborhood. (lexicalized causative use)
Rashin wutar lantarki ya jawo tsaiko a aikin.
The power outage caused a delay in the work.
English cause is a useful translation, but jawo is not the productive Hausa analytic causative construction with sa. It is one lexical verb with a causative sense. Compare Ruwan sama ya sa muka koma gida “The rain made us go home,” where sa introduces an entire caused clause.
Tuno and samo must be learned as lexical verbs
Tuno connects naturally with the idea of bringing something back into mind, but its ordinary meaning is simply “recall, remember.” With a remembered noun phrase, careful reference usage commonly has the sociative complement tuno da; a content clause can follow without da, as in ban tuno inda… ba “I did not remember where….” Samo commonly describes obtaining or finding something, often with the practical implication that the item has become available to the actor or another relevant participant.
Da na ga hoton, sai na tuno da sunan makarantar.
When I saw the photograph, I remembered the name of the school.
Ban tuno inda na ajiye makullin ba sai da safe.
I did not remember where I had put the key until morning.
Mun samo ɗaki kusa da asibitin.
We found a room near the hospital.
Ta samo mana tikiti biyu duk da cewa saura kaɗan.
She managed to get us two tickets even though only a few remained.
The beneficiary mana is fully natural with samo. That does not mean that every Grade 6 verb has a benefactive reading or that -o itself supplies the pronoun “us.” The lexical verb provides the event; mana separately identifies the beneficiary.
One Grade 6 verb across four environments
Grade 6 is formally stable before no object, a noun direct object, a direct-object pronoun, and an indirect object. The verb jawo illustrates all four. The objectless example requires a recoverable effect; the final example uses the literal “pull” sense because a beneficiary is pragmatically natural there.
| Environment | Example | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| no following object | An samu asara; jinkirin ne ya jawo. | There was a loss; it was the delay that caused it. |
| noun direct object | Jinkirin ya jawo matsala. | The delay caused a problem. |
| direct-object pronoun | Jinkirin ya jawo ta. | The delay caused it. (feminine referent) |
| indirect object | Ya jawo mini kujerar. | He pulled the chair over for me. |
Na fahimci matsalar da jinkirin ya jawo.
I understood the problem that the delay caused. (no postverbal object in the relative clause)
Jinkirin ya jawo ta, amma an warware matsalar yanzu.
The delay caused it, but the problem has now been resolved.
This invariance is morphological, not semantic. Jawo can be literal in one frame and abstract in another because its senses are related but conventional. The object environment does not automatically select the sense.
Derived meaning is not always predictable from a base
A useful family can contain both a clear contrast and a lexical surprise. Basic ja means “pull”; Grade 6 jawo preserves that idea in its literal use but also means “cause.” Basic tuna concerns remembering or reminding; tuno specializes in recollection. Basic samu means “get, obtain”; samo is an established Grade 6 relative meaning “get/find,” but the exact pragmatic difference depends on the event and viewpoint.
Ka ja igiyar a hankali.
Pull the rope gently. (basic ja; no ventive center highlighted)
Ka jawo igiyar zuwa nan.
Pull the rope over here. (Grade 6 directional use)
Na tuna da taron tun da safe.
I remembered the meeting from early in the morning.
Na tuno da lambar wayarsa bayan mun rabu.
I recalled his phone number after we parted.
The pairs are valuable memory aids, not algorithms. A learner cannot attach -o to any English verb, infer one guaranteed meaning, and assume that speakers use the result. Frequency, valency, collocation, and conventional sense are all properties of the lexeme.
TAM and verbal nouns remain separate
The final -o does not mark past or completion. A lexicalized Grade 6 verb occurs under different TAM constructions: ya jawo “it caused,” zai jawo “it will cause,” yana jawowa “it is causing” without a local object, and yana jawo matsala “it is causing a problem” before an object.
Wannan sauyin zai jawo ƙarin kuɗi a nan gaba.
This change will cause additional expense in the future.
Hayaniyar tana jawo mana matsala a kowane dare.
The noise causes us a problem every night.
Matsalolin da jinkirin yake jawowa suna ƙaruwa har yanzu.
The problems that the delay is causing are still increasing. (the relativized object is not local to jawowa)
Weak verbal-noun -wa appears when no local object follows, while it is absent before a local object. This is a verbal-noun construction, not a new lexical sense of jawo.
Practice
Classify each use as spatial, metaphorically extended, or strongly lexicalized: shigo ɗakin (spatial), jawo kujerar zuwa nan (spatial), jawo matsala (metaphorically extended and conventional), tuno da sunansa (strongly lexicalized), samo tikiti (lexicalized). Then build the four jawo frames: jinkirin ne ya jawo; ya jawo matsala; ya jawo ta; ya jawo mini kujerar. Finally, place lexicalized jawo under future and continuative marking: zai jawo matsala; yana jawo matsala.
Common Mistakes
1. Translating -o as a separate verb “come” in every sentence.
❌ Jinkirin ya jawo matsala = Jinkirin ya ja matsala ta zo nan.
Incorrect mechanical analysis—the ordinary meaning is simply that the delay caused a problem.
✅ Jinkirin jirgin ya jawo wa matafiya matsaloli da yawa.
The flight delay caused the travelers many problems.
2. Assuming a lexicalized sense removes Grade 6 morphology.
❌ Jinkirin ya jawa matsala.
Incorrect invented final-vowel change in the Grade 6 verb.
✅ Jinkirin ya jawo matsala.
The delay caused a problem.
3. Treating Grade 6 -o as past tense.
❌ Jawo ba ya iya zuwa bayan zai domin yana nuna abin da ya wuce.
Incorrect claim—Grade 6 is lexical derivation, not past tense.
✅ Rashin shiri zai jawo matsala gobe.
Lack of preparation will cause a problem tomorrow.
4. Assuming every newly imagined -o form has a predictable standard meaning.
❌ Ana iya ƙara o ga kowane fi’ili a sami ma’ana ɗaya tabbatacciya.
Incorrect—an apparent formation still needs evidence for its use, frame, and meaning.
✅ Na tuno da sunansa a hanya.
I remembered his name on the way. (established tuno da)
5. Using the full weak verbal noun directly before an object.
❌ Hayaniyar tana jawowa matsala.
Incorrect standard weak verbal-noun form before a local noun object.
✅ Hayaniyar tana jawo matsala.
The noise is causing a problem.
Key Takeaways
- Grade 6 meanings range from literal direction toward a center to conventional senses such as jawo “cause,” tuno “recall,” and samo “obtain/find.”
- A spatial or metaphorical explanation can aid memory but does not replace the lexical entry.
- Grade 6 keeps long final -o and its form is stable across object environments.
- The same verb can have a literal and an abstract sense; object type alone does not choose between them.
- Grade and TAM remain independent, and weak verbal-noun -wa follows its own syntactic distribution.
Related Topics
- Grade 6 Ventive: OverviewB2 — Use established all-high -o verbs for motion, action, or effects oriented toward a contextually chosen deictic center.
- Grade 6 Direction toward the Deictic CenterB2 — Interpret Grade 6 ventive direction relative to the speaker, addressee, destination, or viewpoint that anchors the discourse.
- Grade 6 Benefactive and Affected-Participant ReadingsB2 — Separate Grade 6 ventive orientation from the indirect-object expressions that identify a beneficiary, recipient, or affected participant.
- Grade 6 Object FramesB2 — Use the same all-high -o form before no object, a direct-object pronoun, a noun object, or an indirect object.
- 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.
- 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.