Grade 6 is strikingly stable across Hausa object frames. Its all-high form with long final -o appears when nothing follows, before a direct-object pronoun, before a noun direct object, and before an indirect object. The syntax changes around the verb, but the Grade 6 verb itself does not alternate as Grade 1, 2, 4, and 5 verbs often do.
All unlabelled material is (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). The labels “long” and “all-high” are (academic) descriptions; ordinary boko examples write simply sayo, ɗauko, kawo without tone or length marks.
One shape in the four traditional environments
The four frames are conventionally labelled A, B, C, and D. The labels refer to the immediately following syntactic environment, not to tense or meaning.
| Environment | Structure | Example with sayo |
|---|---|---|
| A | no following object | Ta sayo. |
| B | direct-object pronoun | Ta sayo shi. |
| C | noun direct object | Ta sayo rediyo. |
| D | indirect object | Ta sayo masa rediyo. |
Zainab ta sayo, amma ta ɓoye abin a cikin mota.
Zainab bought something and brought it back, but she hid it in the car.
Zainab ta sayo shi bayan ta gwada sautinsa.
Zainab bought it and brought it back after testing its sound.
Zainab ta sayo rediyo daga kasuwar Kurmi.
Zainab bought a radio at Kurmi market and brought it back.
Zainab ta sayo masa rediyo domin tsohon nasa ya lalace.
Zainab bought and brought him a radio because his old one had broken.
The last row contains two participants after the verb: masa is the recipient or beneficiary, and rediyo is the theme. The verb remains sayo. The page on Grade 6 with no following object explains why the first row can contain an understood theme.
B-frame: direct-object pronouns follow directly
A Grade 6 transitive verb takes the ordinary direct-object pronoun series directly. There is no Grade 5-style da, and the final -o does not change.
| Object | After kawo | Example |
|---|---|---|
| me | ni | ya kawo ni |
| you (one man) | ka | ya kawo ka |
| you (one woman) | ki | ya kawo ki |
| him / masculine it | shi | ya kawo shi |
| her / feminine it | ta | ya kawo ta |
| us / you all / them | mu / ku / su | ya kawo mu / ku / su |
High-frequency kawo makes the human objects in this paradigm natural: someone can bring me, you, her, or them to a place. With sayo, by contrast, use an inanimate antecedent such as mota “car” when practicing sayo ta. Grammar licenses a form; lexical meaning and the real-world scene still constrain the sentence.
Motar ta yi kyau, don haka muka sayo ta nan take.
The car looked good, so we bought it and brought it back immediately.
Takardun suna ofis; don Allah ka ɗauko su.
The documents are in the office; please bring them.
Na ga jakar a shago, amma ban sayo ta ba.
I saw the bag in the shop, but I did not buy it and bring it back.
English-speaking learners may expect a particle corresponding to back or here. In these lexical Grade 6 uses, the ventive orientation is part of sayo/ɗauko itself. A locative phrase can clarify the destination, but it is not required merely to make the form grammatical.
C-frame: noun objects do not shorten -o
With a noun direct object, Grade 6 still keeps -o. This differs sharply from grades whose final vowel shortens or changes before a noun. Compare Grade 2 sayi littafi “buy a book” with Grade 6 sayo littafi “buy a book and bring it toward the center.”
Some speakers permit phonetic shortening of final -o before a noun object. This (regional/speaker-variable) detail does not change ordinary boko spelling, and the Nigerian Standard teaching paradigm treats Grade 6 as invariant. Learners should therefore write sayo littafi and avoid inventing a different written C-form.
Usman ya sayi tabarma a kasuwa.
Usman bought a mat at the market. (Grade 2; no ventive result asserted)
Usman ya sayo tabarma domin baƙin da za su kwana.
Usman bought a mat and brought it back for the guests who will stay overnight. (Grade 6)
Aisha ta ɗauko ruwa daga rijiya kafin rana ta yi zafi.
Aisha fetched water from the well before the day became hot.
In ɗauko ruwa, the water is the moving theme. In intransitive shigo, by contrast, the subject moves and no direct object is licensed. Grade 6 contains both transitive and intransitive lexemes; the ending does not create a patient by itself.
D-frame: an indirect object follows the same verb
Grade 6 also retains -o before a recipient, beneficiary, or other licensed affected participant. Pronominal indirect objects normally use the fused ma series: mini, maka, miki, masa, mata, mana, muku, musu. A noun recipient can be introduced by wa.
Baba ya kawo mana ruwa saboda famfonmu ya lalace.
Father brought us water because our tap had broken.
Rabi ta sayo wa mahaifiyarta magani daga gari.
Rabi bought and brought medicine for her mother from town.
Direban ya ɗauko musu akwatunan daga tashar mota.
The driver fetched the boxes for them from the motor park.
The indirect object normally precedes the following theme: sayo masa rediyo, kawo mana ruwa. Do not confuse these forms with direct-object shi, ta, mu, su. In ta sayo shi, shi is what was bought; in ta sayo masa rediyo, masa identifies the man who receives or benefits from the radio.
The verb ba “give” is an important exception to the general dative pattern: say ta ba shi littafi, not ta ba masa littafi. That exception does not change the Grade 6 forms illustrated here.
Frame invariance does not erase lexical restrictions
The four-column paradigm states a morphological generalization, not a promise that every Grade 6 verb sounds natural in every frame. Intransitive fito readily appears without an object, but it does not take a direct patient. Transitive ɗauko accepts a moving theme. Tambayo commonly concerns information obtained by asking and can leave the question or answer implicit.
Wakilan sun tambayo mana ranar da za a fara aikin.
The representatives went and asked on our behalf when the work would begin.
This sentence has a beneficiary mana, while the following clause expresses the information sought. It would be wrong to conclude that the Grade 6 ending itself means “for us.” The same tambayo occurs without a beneficiary.
High-frequency kawo deserves special care. It has the Grade 6 formal pattern and the same four object frames, but synchronically it is the ordinary lexical verb “bring.” Do not mechanically analyze every token as though a speaker had just attached productive -o to kai “take/carry.” Likewise, English bring about often requires lexicalized jawo or another verb, not literal kawo.
Rashin shiri ya jawo jinkiri mai tsawo.
The lack of preparation caused a long delay. (lexicalized abstract jawo)
The continuative preserves the frame distinction
Grade 6 normally uses a weak verbal noun. With no local object it adds -wa; before a direct or indirect object that -wa is absent, leaving the familiar -o shape.
Zainab tana sayowa kusan kowane mako.
Zainab buys things and brings them back almost every week. (no following object)
Zainab tana sayo mana kayan makaranta a hankali.
Zainab is gradually buying and bringing us school supplies. (indirect object)
The second sayo is the local object-conditioned short form used in the continuative, not a form made present by -o. Traditional learner descriptions say that the weak verbal noun drops -wa before an object; another analysis treats the resulting form as the ordinary verb inside the continuative construction. On either analysis, preverbal tana supplies continuative TAM.
Practice
Start with Musa ya ɗauko littafin “Musa fetched the book.” Remove the object: Musa ya ɗauko. Replace the noun with a masculine pronoun: Musa ya ɗauko shi. Add a first-person beneficiary and restore the noun: Musa ya ɗauko mini littafin. In all four answers, ɗauko remains unchanged. Then explain why Baƙi sun shigo cannot be expanded to an object frame merely because it ends in -o: shigo is an intransitive lexeme.
Common Mistakes
1. Importing the Grade 2 C-form into Grade 6.
❌ Hauwa ta sayi rediyo ta kawo gida, a matsayin sigar C ta sayo.
Incorrect analysis—sayi is a Grade 2 verb, not the C-form of Grade 6 sayo.
✅ Hauwa ta sayo rediyo ta kawo gida.
Hauwa bought a radio and brought it home.
2. Adding Grade 5 da before a Grade 6 direct object.
❌ Musa ya ɗauko da akwatin daga mota.
Incorrect—Grade 6 ɗauko takes its noun object directly.
✅ Musa ya ɗauko akwatin daga mota.
Musa fetched the box from the car.
3. Confusing a direct pronoun with an indirect one.
❌ Ta sayo shi rediyo, da ma'anar ta sayo masa rediyo.
Incorrect—the sequence needs the indirect form masa for ‘for him.’
✅ Ta sayo masa rediyo.
She bought and brought him a radio.
4. Giving an intransitive Grade 6 verb a patient.
❌ Baƙi sun shigo kayan cikin ɗaki.
Incorrect intended object frame—shigo does not mean ‘bring the luggage in.’
✅ Baƙi sun shigo da kayan cikin ɗaki.
The guests came into the room with the luggage.
Key Takeaways
- Grade 6 is all-high with long -o in A, B, C, and D environments.
- Direct-object pronouns follow directly: sayo shi, sayo ta, ɗauko su.
- Noun direct objects also follow directly: sayo rediyo, ɗauko ruwa.
- Indirect pronouns use the ma series: sayo masa rediyo, kawo mana ruwa.
- Form invariance does not make every Grade 6 lexeme compatible with every frame.
- The grade is morphological, syntactic, and lexical: all three kinds of information must be learned.
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 with No Following ObjectB2 — Interpret an objectless Grade 6 verb by combining its invariant -o form with its lexical valency and the discourse context.
- 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.
- Noun Objects versus Direct-Object PronounsA2 — Choose the correct Hausa verb form by distinguishing noun-like direct objects from the special postverbal direct-object pronoun series.
- Direct-Object Pronouns: Core ParadigmA2 — Learn Hausa ni, ka, ki, shi, ta, mu, ku, and su as direct objects and keep them distinct from independent, subject–TAM, indirect-object, and possessive forms.
- Indirect-Object Pronouns with ma-B1 — Use Hausa mini, maka, miki, masa, mata, mana, muku, and musu for recipients, beneficiaries, and other affected participants.