Grade 7 contributes a dependable structural core: its -u verbs are intransitive, as the Grade 7 intransitivity guide explains, and their subject is typically the entity affected, realized, or brought into the resulting situation. What cannot always be predicted is the established dictionary meaning. Faru means “happen,” gamu da means “meet,” and bugu commonly means “be drunk”; none is learned safely by translating a related base one word at a time.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko omits tone and vowel length. Technically, Grade 7 has preceding Low tone and final High tone on short -u. The forms below are presented in normal spelling because their lexical meanings, valency, and collocations are the real learning burden.
A regular shape can carry a conventional meaning
| Related form | Grade 7 | Established Grade 7 reading | Frame |
|---|---|---|---|
| fara “begin” | faru | happen, occur | intransitive |
| gama “finish; join” | gamu | meet, encounter | gamu da |
| raba “divide” | rabu | part, become separated; divorce | rabu da |
| tara “collect” | taru | assemble, gather together | intransitive |
| buga “hit/beat” | bugu | be drunk; be affected by a blow | intransitive |
| yi “do, make” | yiwu | be possible | intransitive or complement-taking |
| samu “get, obtain” | samu | be available/obtainable | intransitive; tonal distinction hidden in boko |
The grade-wide idea still helps. The subject of faru is the event that comes about; people who taru constitute the gathering; parties who rabu enter a state of separation. But the grade does not predict that fara will yield the everyday verb “happen” or that gamu selects da.
Me ya faru a ofishin jiya?
What happened at the office yesterday?
Mun gamu da sabon shugaban sashen a taron.
We met the new head of department at the meeting.
Bayan shekara goma tare, sun rabu cikin lumana.
After ten years together, they separated peacefully.
Ma’aikatan sun taru domin su tattauna matsalar.
The employees assembled to discuss the problem.
Fara is not interchangeable with faru
The semantic relation between fara and faru is now lexicalized. Transitive fara places an agent or cause at the beginning of an activity; intransitive faru presents an event as occurring.
Shugabar ta fara taron da misalin ƙarfe tara.
The chairwoman began the meeting at about nine.
Taron ya faru ne bayan an kammala binciken.
The meeting took place after the investigation was completed.
It would be misleading to gloss faru simply as “be begun.” An English passive preserves the event “someone began X”; ordinary faru lexicalizes a different predicate, “X happened/took place.” This is precisely why a learner needs both a grade analysis and a lexical entry.
Gamu and rabu select da, not direct objects
Gamu da presents an encounter, while rabu da presents separation from a person or thing. The following noun or pronoun is governed by da. The Grade 7 verb itself has no direct object.
Na gamu da Hauwa a tashar jirgin ƙasa.
I met Hauwa at the railway station.
Na gamu da ita ne ba zato ba tsammani.
I ran into her unexpectedly.
Ya rabu da tsohuwar wayarsa bayan ta lalace.
He got rid of his old phone after it broke.
Abokan kasuwancin sun rabu da juna saboda rashin yarda.
The business partners parted from each other because of mistrust.
This pattern also shows why “Grade 7 never takes an object” must be phrased carefully. It never takes a direct object, but an individual lexical verb may select a prepositional complement. English meet her has a direct object; Hausa gamu da ita does not copy that structure.
One root across the object environments
The pair raba/rabu makes the valency contrast explicit.
| Environment | Natural form | Why |
|---|---|---|
| No following object | Sun rabu. | Grade 7: “They parted.” |
| Noun direct object | Sun raba ribar. | Transitive raba: “They divided the profit.” |
| Pronoun direct object | Sun raba ta. | Transitive raba: “They divided it” (feminine referent). |
| Indirect object | Sun raba musu ribar. | Transitive raba plus beneficiary. |
| Grade 7 complement | Sun rabu da ribar. | Intransitive rabu plus da: “They parted with the profit.” |
Kwamitin ya raba wa ƙungiyoyin tallafin daidai.
The committee distributed the grant equally to the groups.
Wasu ƙungiyoyi sun rabu da shirin bayan an sauya sharuddan.
Some groups withdrew from the program after the conditions were changed.
The grade is therefore morphological, syntactic, and lexical at once. Rabu has the Grade 7 form, removes the transitive object frame of raba, and conventionalizes separation or parting. Its meaning is related to division, but speakers do not rebuild it during every conversation.
Bugu: context chooses among established senses
Bugu illustrates stronger lexical drift. In an appropriate human-subject context, ya bugu commonly means “he is/has become drunk” (informal or neutral conversational use). The connection with buga “hit, beat” is historical and semantic, but “he was beaten” is not a safe automatic translation.
Kada ka bar shi ya tuƙa mota; ya bugu sosai.
Don’t let him drive; he is very drunk. (informal conversation)
Ƙwallon ya bugi bango ya dawo.
The ball hit the wall and came back. (related transitive base buga in its noun-object form bugi)
The second sentence uses the ordinary transitive base; the first uses lexicalized Grade 7 bugu for a conventional state. Context and collocation matter. A dictionary may separate subentries even when grade morphology reveals a historical relationship.
Yiwu and samu: possibility and availability
Yiwu and its verbal noun yiwuwa grammaticalize possibility. They can introduce an assessment and, especially through yana yiwuwa, a following proposition.
Wannan shirin zai yiwu idan muka sami isasshen kuɗi.
This plan will be possible if we obtain enough money.
Yana yiwuwa jirgin ya makara saboda ruwan sama.
It is possible that the flight will be late because of the rain.
Grade 7 samu “be available/obtainable” has the same ordinary boko spelling as transitive samu “obtain.” Tone and syntax distinguish the analyses in speech, while common written constructions often use the verbal noun samuwa.
Ana samun maganin a yawancin kantunan magani.
The medicine can be found in most pharmacies. (impersonal construction with verbal noun)
Maganin yana samuwa a yawancin kantunan magani.
The medicine is available in most pharmacies. (Grade 7 verbal noun)
The first sentence profiles people’s ability to obtain the medicine through impersonal ana; the second profiles the medicine’s availability. English may translate both with a passive-like expression, but Hausa has made different grammatical choices.
Productivity has lexical limits
Many transitive bases can form an -u derivative, but not every logically imaginable derivative is idiomatic, and some attested forms are specialized. For example, dictionaries record tambayu with a culturally specialized sense of being protected or invulnerable through traditional means. It is not the ordinary way to say “be asked.” A neutral agent-suppressing “someone was asked” instead uses an impersonal construction such as an tambaye shi.
This is an honest difficulty: knowing the shape -u does not tell you frequency, register, complement selection, or lexicalized sense. Verify unfamiliar derivatives rather than improvising them.
Practice
Choose the established form.
- “What happened?” → Me ya faru?, not a literal passive of fara.
- “I met her” → Na gamu da ita. The person follows da.
- “They divided it” → Sun raba shi/ta. Use the transitive base.
- “It is possible” → Yana yiwuwa. This is an established possibility expression.
- “The medicine is available” → Maganin yana samuwa. This profiles availability.
Common Mistakes
1. Giving gamu a direct object because English does.
❌ Na gamu shi a wurin aiki.
Incorrect—Grade 7 gamu selects da.
✅ Na gamu da shi a wurin aiki.
I met him at work.
2. Treating faru as a mechanical passive of fara.
❌ Taron ya faru da shugaba.
Incorrect for ‘the meeting was begun by the chair’; faru means ‘happen/take place,’ not an English agentive passive.
✅ Taron ya faru bayan shugabar ta iso.
The meeting took place after the chairwoman arrived.
3. Using intransitive rabu with a direct object.
❌ Sun rabu kuɗin gida biyu.
Incorrect for ‘they divided the money into two.’
✅ Sun raba kuɗin gida biyu.
They divided the money into two parts.
4. Predicting a lexical meaning from -u alone.
❌ Ya bugu means only ‘he was beaten.’
Incorrect claim—bugu has established contextual senses, prominently ‘be drunk’ with a human subject.
✅ Ya bugu sosai, saboda haka ba zai tuƙa mota ba.
He is very drunk, so he will not drive.
Key Takeaways
- Grade 7 reliably marks an intransitive configuration, but individual meanings can be strongly lexicalized.
- Learn faru, gamu da, rabu da, taru, bugu, yiwu, and availability samu as complete lexical frames.
- A da-complement is not a direct object.
- Related bases and Grade 7 derivatives can differ in valency and meaning: raba kuɗi versus rabu da kuɗi.
- Familiar spelling does not remove the need to learn tone, syntax, register, and conventional meaning.
Related Topics
- Grade 7 Resultative/Totality: OverviewB2 — Understand Grade 7 as an intransitive affected-subject pattern that often conveys a thorough result or capacity without being a passive voice or TAM marker.
- Grade 7 IntransitivityB2 — Use Grade 7 only with an affected or participating subject, distinguishing direct objects from licensed prepositional complements and adjuncts.
- Grade 7 Result and CompletionB2 — Separate Grade 7's lexical result, thoroughness, and capacity from actual event completion, completive TAM, and Grade 4 totality.
- Grade 7 Verbal NounsB2 — Form and use the regular -uwa verbal nouns of Grade 7 while keeping finite -u forms, noun linkers, and da-complements distinct.
- 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.
- Lexicalized Grade ExtensionsC1 — Distinguish a grade's broad derivational contribution from the conventional meanings, frames, and collocations stored with individual extended verbs.