Learn Hardcore Hausa: Wane littafi ne wannan?

Links the description (wane littafi – “which book”)
To the thing being identified (wannan – “this one”)
And it also marks focus – the part being questioned or emphasized (here, wane littafi).

In non‑verbal sentences (sentences without a main verb like “eat, go, see”), Hausa normally needs ne / ce / ne ne type particles to glue the parts together. So you can’t just say:

✗ Wane littafi wannan? – this sounds wrong/unfinished.

You need the ne:

✓ Wane littafi ne wannan?

How do I know to use ne and not ce here?

You choose ne or ce based mainly on gender (and sometimes number):

ne is used with masculine singular nouns.
ce is used with feminine singular nouns.

Littafi (“book”) is grammatically masculine, so you get:

Wane littafi ne wannan?

If the noun were feminine, you would use ce, for example:

Wace mota ce wannan? – Which car is this?
- mota (car) is feminine, so ce is used.

Why does the sentence start with Wane littafi? Could I say something like Wannan wane littafi ne? instead?

Hausa question structure often puts the question word or questioned phrase at the beginning of the sentence.

Wane littafi ne wannan? – “Which book is this?”
→ The “which book” part comes first.

You can say:

Wane littafi ne wannan? – very natural.
Wane ne wannan littafi? – also possible; here wane stands alone and littafi follows.

But Wannan wane littafi ne? is not the normal way to ask this; it sounds awkward or confusing. You generally do not split “which” and its noun that way in Hausa.

So the safe pattern is:

[Question phrase] + ne/ce + [the thing being identified]

→ Wane littafi + ne + wannan

What is the difference between wane and me / menene (“what”)?

They both ask about identity, but they’re used differently:

wane = which (choosing from a set; usually comes before a noun)
- Wane littafi ne wannan? – Which book is this? (out of some known books)
me / menene = what (open‑ended; not choosing from a specific list)
- Menene wannan? – What is this?

So:

If you expect an answer like “It’s book A / book B / book C”, use wane.
If you just want to know what kind of thing it is at all, use me / menene.

Compare:

Menene wannan? – What is this? (Maybe: It’s a book / phone / key)
Wane littafi ne wannan? – Which book is this? (We already know it’s a book; we want its identity among books.)

Does wane always have to be followed by a noun, like littafi?

Very often, yes, wane works like “which” in English and is followed by a noun:

wane littafi – which book
wane gida – which house
wane ɗalibi – which student

However, there are also forms where wane is “completed” with -ne / -ce and stands more like a pronoun:

Wanene wannan? – Which one is this? / Who is this? (often about a person)
Wacece wannan? – Which (female) is this?

In your sentence, wane is clearly working as a determiner before a noun:

Wane littafi … – Which book …

Is wannan acting like “this book” or like “this one” in this sentence?

In Wane littafi ne wannan?, wannan is an independent demonstrative, meaning “this (one)”.

So the structure is:

Wane littafi – “which book” (a description)
ne – linking/focus particle
wannan – “this (one)”

You are pointing at something (or otherwise indicating it) and asking:

“Which book is this (thing I’m pointing at)?”

If you said wannan littafi, that would mean “this book” as a full noun phrase, not just “this (one)”.

Could I leave out wannan and just say Wane littafi ne??

Not in the same meaning.

Wane littafi ne wannan? has two sides:
- side A: wane littafi (“which book”)
- side B: wannan (“this one”)

If you say only:

Wane littafi ne? – “Which book is it?” / “Which book (is that)?”

you are not explicitly mentioning what you’re talking about (no “this/that” word). It can still be understood from context (maybe you’re pointing, or there’s one obvious thing), but grammatically the original sentence is more explicit by naming wannan as the thing whose identity you’re asking about.

How would this sentence change if the noun were feminine instead of masculine?

Two things usually change with a feminine noun:

The interrogative wane becomes wace (feminine “which”)
The particle ne becomes ce (feminine)

Compare:

Masculine:
- Wane littafi ne wannan? – Which book is this?
  - littafi is masculine → wane
    - ne
Feminine:
- Wace mota ce wannan? – Which car is this?
  - mota is feminine → wace
    - ce

So the pattern is:

Wane [masc noun] ne wannan?
Wace [fem noun] ce wannan?

How would I make a similar question in the plural, like “Which books are these?”?

In the plural, both the noun and the demonstrative change:

littafi → littattafai (books)
wannan (this) → waɗannan (these)

The interrogative “which” in plural is waɗanne (sometimes written waddanne). So you get:

Waɗanne littattafai ne waɗannan? – Which books are these?

Structure:

Waɗanne littattafai – which books
ne – plural still uses ne here
waɗannan – these (ones)

Is ne a question marker, or is the sentence only a question because of the question word wane and the “?” at the end?

Ne is not a question marker. It appears in both statements and questions:

Statement:
- Wannan littafi ne. – This is a book.
Question (with question word):
- Wane littafi ne wannan? – Which book is this?

What makes it a question is mainly:

The question word (wane)
The rising intonation in spoken Hausa
The question mark in writing

So ne is just doing its usual linking/focus job; the “question-ness” comes from wane and intonation, not from ne itself.