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THE HAUSA VERBAL GRADE SYSTEM

F.W. Parsons, the most influential scholar of the Hausa language in the 20 th century,developed a classification of verb forms in Hausa called the Hausa Verbal Grade System (“Grade System” for short).1 This is now the point of reference that all Hausa scholarsuse in discussing Hausa verb forms. This is primarily a classification of verbs according

to their forms, but the grade forms relate to aspects of meaning as well. There are sevengrades, each with a distinctive combination of tone patterns and final vowels. Videosegment 2.02 “Girki” contains examples of six of the seven grades:

Grade 1: mnt ‘forget’, ‰r ‘place upon’, hr ‘kindle (fire)’, gyr ‘repair,prepare’, db ‘take a look’, zub ‘pour (in or on)’, s‰y ‘fry’, sak ‘puton/in’, jum ‘spend some time’, zuzzb ‘pour (several things)’

Grade 2: gyyat ‘invite’ (cf. sày ‘buy’, auk ‘pick up’ related to Grade 6 verbsseen in 2.02)

Grade 3: tfas ‘boil, come to a boil’, sùllà ‘be partially cooked’Grade 4: wank ‘wash’, kwsh ‘scoop out, collect up’, ruf ‘close, cover’, kash

‘kill; put out (fire)’Grade 5: (none in 2.02; examples are saya ‘sell’, gaya ‘greet’, fita ‘remove’)

Grade 6: yiw‰ ‘do (and come)’, say ‘buy (and bring)’, shig‰ ‘come in’, auk‰ ‘pickup and bring’

Grade 7: s˘yu ‘be (well) fried’, dhu ‘be (well) cooked’

I first present the grades according to their forms, followed by a discussion ofmeanings. Examples are given with with the 3rd masculine singular completive subjectpronoun y. Person of subject and tense other than continuative have no effect oncanonical grade forms. As illustrative objects, I use the 3rd feminine singular pronoun ta to represent any pronoun direct object, the woman’s proper name Kànde to represent anynoun object, and the 3rd feminine singular indirect object pronoun matà to represent anyindirect object (pronoun or noun).2 I illustrate each grade with a representative twosyllable and three syllable verb.

Grade System Forms

Grade 1: Initial HIGH tone and final –a, whose tone and length depend on object typeNo object Pronoun direct object Noun direct object Indirect object

y km y km ta y km Knde y km mat ‘catch’

y girmm y girmm ta y girmm Knde y girmm mat ‘honor’

Verbal noun: All grade 1 verbs have -wa verbal nouns. Many also have one or moreassociated non-wa verbal nouns. For example, km ‘catch’ has the verbal nounskmw and km.

Grade 2 (= VVV): Initial LOW tone; final vowel depends on object type (all transitive)No object Pronoun direct object Noun direct object Indirect object

y ur y ur t y uri Knde (see below) ‘marry’

y tmbay y tmby t y tmbyi Knde (see below) ‘ask’

1 F.W. Parsons, “The verbal system in Hausa,” Afrika und Übersee 44:1-36.2 Parsons used the labels “A” form (= no object following), “B” form (= pronoun direct object), “C” (=noun direct object), “D” (= indirect object). I find these abstract labels unhelpful.



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Verbal noun: Verbal nouns of grade 2 verbs are idiosyncratic to each verb—there is noway to predict the verbal noun of any given grade 2 verb. Some examples: (LH, final )kr < kr ‘accept’, (HL, final ) st < st ‘steal’, (HH, final ) nm < nm ‘seek’, (LH, final ‰) k˘y‰ < k˘y ‘learn’, (HH, final ‰) gy < g˘y‰ ‘carry (baby) onback’, (LH, final ) sày < sày ‘buy’, (HL, final ) zg < zg ‘abuse’, (HL, final )zarg < zrg ‘blame’.

Indirect object: Grade 2 verbs do not have a distinctive form for indirect objects.Instead, they “borrow” (to use Parsons’s term) their pre-indirect object form from anothergrade. The most common such “borrowed” forms are the following:• Grade 1: sy y say mat ‘he bought for her’, f y fa mat ‘he told

her’, timak y taimk mat ‘he rendered aid to her’• Grade 5:3 nm y nmam mat ‘he sought (it) for her’, z y zam mat

‘he chose (it) for her’, tmbay y tambayam mat ‘he asked on her behalf’As with verbal nouns, there is no way to predict which of these forms any particulargrade 2 verb will use. Some verbs can use either.

Grade 3: Initial LOW tone and final –a (all intransitive)No object Indirect object

y f ta (see below) ‘go out’

y hur (see below) ‘be patient’

Verbal noun: Grade 3 verbs lengthen the final vowel to form their verbal nouns, e.g. f t < f ta ‘go out’.Indirect object: Grade 3 verbs are all intransitive and hence never have direct objects.They can, however, be used with indirect objects. As with grade 2 verbs, there is nodistinctive grade 3 form for indirect objects. Rather, the verb root “borrows” anothergrade form. The most common is grade 5, e.g. fìta > y fitam mat ‘he came out on her’.

Grade 4: Initial HIGH tone and final –e, whose tone and length depend on object typeNo object Pronoun direct object Noun direct object

4 Indirect object

y yl y yl ta y yl Knde y yl mat ‘ignore’

y aj y y aj y ta y aj y Knde y aj y mat ‘put away’

Verbal noun: All grade 4 verbs have -wa verbal nouns. Many also have one or moreassociated non-wa verbal nouns. For example, aj y ‘put away, deposit’ has the verbalnouns aj yw and jiy ‘a deposit’.

Grade 5: All HIGH tone and final –a, but with a number of alternate terminationsNo object Pronoun direct object Noun direct object Indirect object

y fita y fita d ita

y fid d ita

y fissh t

y fita d Knde

y fid d Knde

y fita mat ‘remove’

3 There is some question as to whether this is really a grade 5 form or whether it is, at least from a historicalpoint of view, a distinct pre-indirect object form. With a pronoun object, the verb always ends in –m, never –r as is usually the case for grade 5, though it generally has –r before a noun indirect object, e.g. y za w Ka nde ‘he chose (it) for Kande’. 4 The final vowel of grade 4 verbs can be pronounced long before a noun object. There is somedisagreement among Hausas as to whether long or sort final –e are just optional variants or whether a longvowel indicates “emphasis” on the action.



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y wahala y wahala d ita

y wahal d ita

y wahalsh t

y wahala d Knde

y wahal d Knde

y wahala mat ‘trouble’

Verbal noun: Grade 5 verbs have only -wa verbal nouns, formed by adding –wa with a

preceding falling tone to the base form, e.g. fit

w < fita

‘remove’.“Long” and “short” forms: All grade 5 verbs have a “long” form ending in – a as in the

first line for each of the illustrative verbs. Many grade 5 verbs have a “short” form,formed by dropping the – a ending, as in the second line in the table above. The shortform can be used only when there is a direct object present. NOTE: When grade 5 verbshave direct objects, they require the preposition dà before the object. With the shortform, the final root consonant of the verb comes in contact with dà, which may affect its pronunciation, as in the case of fit dà fid dà ‘remove’.-sh form: With pronoun direct objects only the short form of the grade 5 plus dà can bereplaced by the short form plus ñsh, as in the third line for each verb in the table. Thismay affect the pronunciation of the last consonant of the root, as in the case of y fit-sh tà y fissh tà ‘he extracted her’.

Grade 6: All HIGH tone and final – ‰ No object Pronoun direct object Noun direct object Indirect object

y kw‰ y kw‰ ta y kw‰ Knde y kw‰ mat ‘bring’

y tambay‰ y tambay‰ ta y tambay‰ Knde y tambay‰ mat ‘ask & come’

Verbal noun: Grade 6 verbs have only -wa verbal nouns, formed by adding –wa with apreceding falling tone to the base form, e.g. kww < kwo ‘bring’.

Grade 7: LOW...HIGH tone pattern and final –u (all intransitive)No object Indirect object

y ru (see below) ‘benefit, be improved’

y tmbyu (see below) ‘become invulnerable by taking potions’

Verbal noun: Grade 7 verbs have only –wa verbal nouns, formed by adding –wa to thebase form, e.g. ruw < ru ‘benefit’.Indirect objects: Grade 7 verbs have no distinctive pre-indirect object form. Like grades2 and 3, they must “borrow” a form from some other grade if used before an indirectobject. In practice, use of grade 7 vefbs with indirect objects is uncommon.

Grade Form Meanings

There are correlations of meaning with grade forms. However, with the possibleexception of grades 6 and 7, no grade has a consistent meaning that runs through all theverbs that can take that verb form. Moreover, with the possible exception of grade 6, one

cannot consistently predict which grades any particular verb root can be used with andwhat the meaning differences will be when a verb is changed from one grade to another.The remarks here are meant to give some general ideas. For a detailed account, see PaulNewman, The Hausa Language, an Encyclopedic Reference Grammar, Yale UniversityPress, 2000, Chapter 74.

Grade 1 (Basic forms, transitives, applicatives)Basic forms: Many verbs take grade 1 as their “basic” form, i.e. the form in which no

meaning element is added beyond the base meaning of the root. Examples are jim



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‘spend time’, daf ‘cook’, zub ‘pour’, gyr ‘fix, repair’, kanta ‘read’, bayyn ‘explain’, and many, many more.

Transitives: A number of intransitive grade 3 and intransitive grade 4 verbs havetransitive counterparts in grade 1. At least in the case of some grade 3 intransitives, onecan argue that the grade 1 transitives are derived from the intransitives since“transitization” can be viewed as a sub-type of applicative (see below), and grade 3 is

rarely if ever used to derive intransitives from unequivocal basic transitives (but seecomments below under grade 3). Some examples of grade 1 related to grade 3 are cik ‘fill (tr.)’ (cf. c ka ‘fill (intr.)’), fust ‘anger’ (cf. f st ‘become angry’), taf s ‘boil(tr.)’ (cf. tfas ‘boil (intr.)’). Some examples of grade 1 transitive related to grade 4intransitives are fas ‘shatter (tr.)’ (cf. fash ‘shatter (intr.)’), kary ‘break stick, etc.’(cf. kary‘(stick, etc.) break’), agagz ‘break into bits’ (cf. agag j ‘disintegrate’).

Applicatives: Broadly speaking, grade 1 used in an applicative sense applies theaction or the object of an action to, onto, or for the benefit of someone or something. Oneimportant class of the applicative function of grade 1 is use as the pre-indirect objectcounterpart of grade 2 verbs, which have no distinct pre-indirect object form (seediscussion of forms above). Here are some typical applicative uses of grade 1:• Replacement for grade 2 when an indirect object is added: n say mat g‰go ‘I

bought the watch for her’ (cf. n syi g‰go ‘I bought the watch’), n fa w Knde

snn ‘I said my name to Kande’ (cf. n f i snn ‘I said my name’).• Making the subject into the source of something where the subject of the grade 2

counterpart would be the recipient of that thing: n rant mus ku ‘I lent themmoney’ (cf. n rnci ku ‘I borrowed money’), n k‰y w l bai Hausa ‘I taughtthe students Hausa’ (cf. n k˘yi Hausa ‘I learned Hausa’)

• Applying an action or object to or on something where the counterpart in anothergrade, typically grade 4, would lack an applicative sense or would have a differentsense: n aur sid g d‰k ‘I saddled the horse’, (cf. grade 4 n aur d‰k ‘Itied up the horse’), y g‰g mn m‰t j kin m‰t ‘he rubbed polish onto the car’(cf. grade 4 y g‰g m‰t ‘he wiped the car’), y f ruw ‘he fell in the water’ (cf.irregular verb y f ‘he fell down’).

Grade 2 ALL TRANSITIVE (Basic forms, partitives/displacives)Basic forms: By far the most common function of grade 2 is to serve as the basic

form for a root, e.g. sy ‘buy’, nm ‘look for’, tmbay ‘ask’, timak ‘help’, andhundreds more.

Partitives/displacives: Verbs with base meanings expressed in other grades,particularly grade 1, when they have an appropriate base meaning, can be used in grade 2to express the idea of removing a segment from a whole or separating a member from agroup, e.g. y ynki takd ‘he cut off a piece of paper’ (cf. grade 1 y yank takd ‘he cut the paper’), y rgi g‰ g‰m ‘he counted out 10 kolas’ (cf. grade 1 y irg g‰ ‘he counted the kolas’).

Grade 3 ALL INTRANSITIVE (Basic forms)Basic forms: The only common function of grade 3 is as the basic form of many

intransitive verbs, such as fìta ‘go out’, shìga ‘go in, sàuka ‘descend’, h

ur ‘bepatient’, zbur ‘leap up’. A fairly large number of verbs indicating change of state have

paired grade 1 transitives and grade 3 intransitives. Some of these are mentioned undergrade 1 as “transitives”. In such cases, the best description is probably that the root isneutral as to transitivity, and its basic form will be grade 1 in transitive contexts butgrade 3 in intransitive contexts. Some examples are tfas / taf s ‘boil (intr/tr)’,f a / f ‘become broad’/‘broaden’, zfaf /zf f ‘get hot’/‘heat up’, hst/hust ‘become angry’/‘anger’,



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Grade 4 (Basic forms, totality, separative)Basic forms: Many verbs take grade 4 as their basic form. Examples are ruf ‘close’,

wank ‘wash’, kash ‘kill’, g‰d ‘thank’, ajìy ‘put away, put down’, saww ‘ease’,and many, many more.

Totality: Verbs that have grade 1, 2, or 3 as their basic forms can fairly productivelybe used in grade 4 to give a meaning of “do to all objects”, “do to the fullest extent

implied by the verb”. An English translation ‘... up’ or sometimes ‘… down’ often willexpress the idea of a grade 4 totality. Here are some examples: t cik b‰kit ‘she filledthe bucket up’ (cf. grade 1 t cik b‰kit ‘she filled the bucket’), t s‰y nmn ‘shefried up the meat’ (cf. grade 1 t s‰y nm ‘she fried meat’), an bug shi ‘he wasknocked down’ (cf. grade 1 an bug shi ‘he was struck’), n kanc littf ‘I read thebook through’ (cf. grade 1 n kant littf ‘I read the book’), y say k j n ‘he boughtup the chickens’ (cf. grade 2 y syi k j ‘he bought (some) chickens’), an harb s‰j ‘the soldier was shot down’ (cf. grade 2 an hrbi s‰j ‘the soldier was shot’), sun fic ‘they passed through’ (cf. grade 3 sun f ta ‘they went out’).

Separative: Some verbs that have grade 1, 2, or 3 as their basic forms take on ameaning of “do away (from)”, “do off (of)” when used with a grade 4 forms. This maynot really be a function distinct from the totality function, the interpretation deriving fromthe basic meaning of the verb. Some examples are y yank ytsns ‘he cut off his

finger’ (cf. grade 1 y yank ytsns ‘he cut his finger’), t kar min yb ‘shetook my banana away from me’, (cf. grade 2 t kri yb ‘she took/accepted thebanana’), na k‰r awk ‘I chased the goats off’ (cf. grade 2 n k˘ri awk ‘I chased thegoats’), ruw y zub ‘the water spilled out’ (cf. grade 3 ruw y zba ‘the waterspilled’).

Grade 5 (Basic forms, causative)Basic forms: Although most grade 5 verbs are related in a “causative” sense (see

below) to a verb whose basic form is in some other grade, there are a few grade 5 verbsbased on roots that are not found in other grades, roots that are rarely used in modernHausa, or roots which, although found in other grades, have meanings so different ingrade 5 and the other grade that the grade 5 form can be thought of as carrying a “basic”sense of its own. Examples are ya ‘throw away’, hara ‘vomit (up)’, kya ‘knockdown, throw down’, maya ‘put back, replace’ (cf. rarely heard may ‘bring back tostarting point’), tara ‘find, come across’ (cf. tar ‘intercept’), gaya ‘greet’ (cf. gay ‘tell’), iya = ida ‘accomplish’ (cf. yi ‘do’, iy ‘be able’, the latter which is probablyoriginal the grade 1 form of the former).

Causative5 1—transitizing intransitives: A fair number of intransitive verbs whosebasic form is grade 1, 3, or 4 can be made transitive using grade 5 form. tsaya ‘bring toa stop’ (cf. grade 1 tsay ‘come to a stop’), fita ‘remove, take out’ (cf. grade 3 f ta ‘go

5 “Causative” is not to be understood in a literal sense of “cause to do”, e.g. fita < fìta does not literallymean “cause to go out”, but rather ‘take out, remove’. The “causative” relation is that something/someonethat was inside is now outside in both the grade 5 and grade 3 sense, and in the grade 5 sense, some agentacting on an object was responsible for that state of affairs. Newman (2000:651-660) and references citedthere proposes the term efferential “action directed away“ for grade 5, replacing “causative”. There are twomain reasons for his proposal. First, he argues that grade 5 verbs are not “causative” in the literal sense“cause to do”. This is correct, but ALL syntactic typologists use the term “causative” to describe exactlythe type of relationship that grade 5 has to the base verbs, and this type of relationship is widespread in theworld’s languages as a derivational process relating verbs. Second, he argues that a number of grade 5verbs do not have a “causative” relationship to their bases, e.g. zuba ‘pour out’ < zub ‘pour’. Whatgrade 5 verbs like this have in common with the causative sense is that they signal action directed away, i.e.they are all “efferential“. This is true as far as it goes, but the number of such verbs is small compared tothose with a causative relation to the base grade forms. I have therefore chosen to stick to the traditionaland widely used term causative for grade 5 rather than adopt the less familiar efferential. None of theHausa grade forms can be accurately characterized by a simple semantic label, so I find it preferable to usea familiar label that covers the broadest range of cases.



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out’), warka ‘cure, make well’ (cf. grade 4 wark ‘get well, recover from illness’),gajiya ‘tire’ (cf. irregular g ji ‘get tired’).

Causative 2—causitivizing transitives: A fair number of transitive verbs can be givena causative sense by using the grade 5 form. Examples are kaanta ‘teach, tutor’ (cf.grade 1 kant ‘read, study’), k‰ya ‘teach (a subject)’ (cf. grade 2 k˘y ‘learn’),saya‘sell’ (cf. grade 2 sy‘buy’), sana ‘inform’ (cf. irregular san ‘know’), ciya

‘feed, provide for’ (cf. irregular ci‘eat’).

Grade 6 (ventive or Distanzstamm)Grade 6 is the most regular of all grades. Essentially any verb root can be form a

grade 6 verb, and the meaning is essentially 100% predictable. The label ventive derivesfrom Latin venire ‘to come’ and reflects the oft-repeated characterization of grade 6 as“action toward the speaker”. The characterization is somewhat misleading, however.With verbs of motion grade 6 indicates that the movement was initiated away from theplace of reference (usually the position of the speaker) and is directed toward that place.Examples are fit‰ ‘come out’ (cf. f ta ‘go out’), shig‰ ‘come in’ (cf. sh ga ‘go in’), is ‘arrive (here)’ (cf. sa ‘arrive (there)’), gangar ‘come downhill’, (cf. gangàr ‘godownhill’), tr ‘push (this way)’ (cf. tr ‘push’). With verbs that do not, themselves,denote a change of position, grade 6 indicates that the action took place at some other

location but that its effects are on the point of reference (usually the position ofspeaking). Examples are say‰ ‘buy and bring’ (cf. sy ‘buy’), auk‰ ‘pick up andbring’ (cf. auk ‘pick up’), tambay‰ ‘ask and come with the answer’ (cf. tmbay ‘ask’), kws‰ ‘collect up and bring’ (cf. kwash ‘collect up’), mant‰ ‘forget something,leave something behind’ (cf. mnt ‘forget’). The term Distanzstamm, used by someGerman linguists, thus seems somewhat more appropriate than ventive since it capturesthe idea that the action (including the intiation of a motion) took place at a distance. Grade 7 ALL INTRANSITIVE (resultative state ~ potentiality)

Verbs whose basic form is in grades 1, 2, 3, or 4 can fairly productively be used ingrade 7. In the completive, grade 7 has the meaning “be in state implied by the verb, becharacterized by application of the action implied by the verb”. There is generally asense of thoroughness associated with the grade 7 form. The canonical use of grade 7 isfor the semantic object of a verb indicating change of state to be the subject of a grade 7,e.g. nm y s˘yu ‘the meat is (thoroughly) fried’ (cf. t s‰y nm ‘she fried themeat’), m‰t t gyru ‘the car is (well) repaired’ (cf. mknik y gyr m‰t ‘themechanic repaired the car’). If the object of the transitive counterpart is volitional, it maybecome the subject of a grade 7 with the sense that the subject performed the action onitself, e.g. mutn sun tru ‘the people gathered’ (cf. an tr mutn ‘the people wereassembled’), yr sun jru ‘the children lined up‘ (cf. mlm y jr yr ‘the teacherlined the children up‘). In non-completive forms, grade 7 has the sense of potentiality.For example, m‰t z t gyru ‘the car can be repaired’ (cf. mknik zi gyr m‰t ‘the mechanic will repair the car’, not ‘… can repair the car’), d‰y tan smuw wannn ksuw ‘yams are obtainable in this market’ (cf. in smn d‰y wannnksuw ‘I get yams in this market’), dts b y dfuw ‘a stone is not cookable’ (cf.

don m K

nde tak

daf

d

ts

? ‘why is Kande cooking a stone?’). If the grammaticalsubject is volitional, however, the potentiality sense is not usually present, e.g. mutn z s tru ‘the people will gather’, not ‘the people can be assembled’.

Is grade 7 a passive? A number of reference works and technical publications on Hausa refer tograde 7 as a passive. In my opinion this is incorrect. I would restrict the term passive voice toconstructions where the grammatical subject of a verb is the patient of an action that wasperformed by an agent (expressed or understood). The agent is “demoted” to an oblique phrase oris omitted altogether—an agentless passive. For example, the English sentence the dog chased thecat has the passive counterpart the cat was chased (by the dog). Hausa grade 7 NEVER fits thischaracterization. This can be shown in a variety of ways, of which I will mention just a couple. If



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the subject of a grade 7 is volitional, it is also the agent, e.g. mutn sun tru ‘the peoplegathered’, sun rbu ‘they got divorced’, an taur y tmbyu ‘the d'an tauri took potions forinvulnerability’. There is no circumstance under which the interpretations of such sentences couldbe “the people were gathered (by the king)”, etc. When the subject is not volitional, the meaningis likewise not that of agent acting on patient. Constructions such as the following are common inHausa: mahuc y gas ts r, ts rn y gsu ‘the butcher grilled the shishkebab and theshishkebab became well-grilled’. If the second clause were a passive “… the shishkebab wasgrilled (by the butcher)’, it would be a silly and redundant thing to say. But it is not. The secondclause is about the STATE of the shishkebab, not the ACT that was performed on the shishekebab.In languages with a true passive, the passive voice is an independent variable from other verbalfeatures such as tense and mood: (past) the cat was chased (by the dog), (present) the cat is beingchased (by the dog), (future) the cat will be chased (by the dog). The semantic relations betweencat , dog, and chase remain constant regardless of tense. This is not the case with grade 7. In non-completive sentences such as k˘g yan truw ‘the river is crossable’, k˘g zi tru ‘theriver will be crossable’, the interpretation is potentiality (“crossableness”). It would be impossibleto interpret such sentences to mean ‘the river is being/will be crossed (by a ferry)’. Even in thecompletive, as in k˘g y tru ‘the river has been crossed’, the English translation, whichsounds like a passive, is misleading. The English passive could be expanded, as in the river wascrossed by the ferry three times since this morning. Phrases such as su uk ‘three times’ or tunsf ‘since this morning’ would be incompatible with the grade 7, which, in this case meanssomething like “frequently crossed, much crossed”. One could add the phrase g jirgin f t˘ ‘byferry’, but this phrase is adverbial, not agentive. That is, the sentence k˘g y tru g jirginf t˘ would mean something like “the river has been much crossed, ferrywise”.

A note to students and teachers on the grade system as a framework for teaching Hausa verbs.

Specialists in the Hausa language all use the grade system as the frame of reference for discussing Hausa

verbs. It is a fundamental component of any modern Hausa reference grammar. On the other hand, it is

not, in my opinion, an efficacious framework for studying Hausa at the elementary and intermediate levels.

• Abstractness: The system of terms of “grades” and A, B, C , D “forms” comes from a descriptive

linguistic tradition of organizing elements of a language in terms of categories whose labels have no

relation to the form or the meaning of the elements in those categories. As a teaching and learning

framework (and, for my money, even as a descriptive framework), it makes more sense to talk about “a-

Verbs”, “o-Verbs”, “Variable Vowel Verbs (VVV)”, “pronoun-object form”, etc.

• Non-exhaustiveness: Just counting verbs in a Hausa dictionary, the grade system accounts for well over

90% of all verbs. Fortunately for learners, Hausa has only about 30 “irregular” verbs that do not fit into

the grade system,

6

but these are among the most frequently used verbs, including all monosyllabic verbs(yi ‘do’, sh ‘drink’, s‰ ‘want’, j ‘go’, etc.), san ‘know’, gan ‘see’, b ‘give’, tsh ‘stand up’, mut

‘die’, kir ‘call’, etc. At the early stages of learning Hausa, it makes little sense to introduce a system

where one declares that many of the most frequently encountered verbs are not part of that system!

• Non-productiveness: With the exception of grade 6 and possibly grade 7, none of the grades is fully pro-

ductive in any of its functions. “Basic” forms are scattered among grades 1-5, and none of the “derived”

senses associated with these grades are productive or predictable—one has to know the form and mean-

ing of a derived form in advance of knowing that it exists and fits a particular form/meaning relation!

In short, at the elementary and probably the intermediate level of Hausa learning/teaching, the only proce-

dure that makes sense is to learn verbs individually, making a few crucial distinctions, such as the division

between grade 2 (“VVVs”) and others in their basic forms and the function of grade 6 (“o-verbs”). The

grade system makes sense only when one has a large enough repertoire of verbs to populate it!

6 Some attempts have been made to incorporate irregular verbs into the grade system, esp. F.W. Parsons.“Suppletion and neutralization in the verbal system of Hausa,” Afrika und Übersee, 55:49-97, 188-208,1971/72 and Paul Newman, Hausa, An Encyclopedic Reference Grammar, New Haven CT: YaleUniveristy Press, 2000, Chapter 74. I do not consider these attempts very successful. The grade system isan invented system created for the convenience of linguists. It fits the verbs it was designed to fit, but thereis no reason to think that there should be a place in the system for verbs that were not part of its design.



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1. Grade System: Forms

Fill in the blank with the Hausa verb based on the root in parentheses and in the gradementioned. Pay particular attention the proper grade form. MARK TONE AND VOWEL

LENGTH ON THE VERB.

1. (fit- 5) Knde z t _____________ nm dg cikin mi.

2. (fit- 6, gay- 5) Mi gid y ______________ don y ________________ b.

3. (nm- 2, sm- 2) N ______________ bk n gid bn ___________ sh ba.

4. (gn- 4, bincik- 4) Bàn ___________ àlam n ba. Bri n ____________ tkna.

5. (kaant- 1) Bri n _______________ hany shir n cinc n a wannn littf .

6. (tafas- 3) Ta bar ruw wut ha y _____________ s˘sai.

7. (rab- 7) Gtarin d y fa kn bishiy t _____________ biyu.

8. (wank- 4, zub- 1) Knde t _____________ sh nkf kfin t ___________ ruw.

9. (fit- 3) D uwagid d amary sun k n girk , sai uwagid ta _____________.

10. (gayyat- 2) In s n _________________ k k z gid k ci binci.

11. (say- 6) K tfi ksuw k ____________ man gishir .

12. (sk- 1, gas- 7) Mahuc y __________ ts r tukb nmn y ____________.

13. (gay- 5) D b suk is, sai mi gid ya ________________ s.

14. (lalat- 4, ks- 1, gyr- 1) Kwmfyt t ___________ an __________ _________ ta.

15. (kaant- 1) G littf mi din kt, k yak z t iy ________________ shi?

16. (fit- 5) Nm y sll. Bri n __________________.

17. (say- 6) Kin dw? T˘ m kik _______________?

18. (gyr- 1) n kyan miy d uwagid ta __________________.

19. (bincik- 4) Yan snd sun _________________ shi s˘sai.

20. (fit- 6) Wani sbon

ggo y

_____________ kw

nan n

n.

21. (fit- 3) dan Allh y s, n ____________ wannn aik bi.

22. (rab- 7) Sun ____________ dà mtas.

23. (nm- 2, zaun- 1) Bàri ìn ________________ mikì tàbarm kì ___________.

24. (gayyat- 2) B naw z k _________________ don l yf ?



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25. (gay- 5) K _______________ min d gid.

26. (tafas- 3) Tun bi ______________ ba zi n.7

27. (tambay- 7) an taur y _______________ wu b t c ns.

28. (ajiy- 4, wank- 4) Uw t ______________ yrnt bh˘ t ___________ shi.

29. (fit- 5) Knde t ga nm y sll, tan kuma ________________.

30. (fit- 6) An gam tr, mutn sun _________________.

31. (nm- 2) Mun _______________ sh nkf ta asa S n.

32. (bincik- 4) Anthony Pellicano, sh n wand ak __________________. 33. (kaant- 1) Wn n yak _________________ lbn dniy diy˘?

34. (tafas- 3) Ruw yan _________________ cikin tukuny

35. (rab- 7) Ki! B k __________________ d ws!

7 An idiomatic expression meaning, “(A young person) is acting too smart for his own good.”



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2. Grade System: Meanings

Put the number of the verb grade in the parentheses following the verbs, and translate thesentences in English, attempting to capture the sense of the grade forms whereappropriate.

1. Z t zub ( ) dy cikin tukuny don t daf ( ). T, d zra t dfu ( ), sai kwsh ( ) zub turm dak ( ). In t dku ( ) sai uk ( ) laily ( ) s kwn˘.

2. K kws ( ) sakwar k s wannn kwn˘.

3. W ya hd ( ) wannn kwn˘? Ruw duk y zub ( ).

4. Knde t uki ( ) ldy don t b ( ) miy.

5. Mahuc y gas ( ) ts r y m ( ) w mtum n d zi sy ( ).

6. Don Allh k mi ( ) min ts rn da ya gsu ( ).

7. K m ( ) wannn hany z k ga ind ak sai d ( ) ts r.

8. Knde tan bkc tan fita d ( ) ds dban, wya mas dban.

9. dan an yi tnk, gr zi fit ( ) dg cikin rriy, sai mai d ( ) tsk turm .

10. kwai ds turm . N b ( ) t n kwsh ( ) ta wary n kuma fissh ( )t dg cikin gid n zuba ( ) as don k j s ci.



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3. Grade System: Derived Grade with “Irregular” Verbs

Hausa has only a small number—fewer than 30—“irregular” verbs, i.e. verbs whose basicforms do not match one of the seven grades. Even these irregular verbs, however, takepart in the grade system in that they can take regular grade forms in grades 1 and 4-7 withderived meanings associated with those grades. In transforming irregular verbs into one

of these derived grades, note the following:(1) Monosyllabic verbs add the grades 1 and 4-7 endings directly to the base verb,including its vowel, rather than dropping the base form vowel (though see comment(2) for some verbs in grade 4). In order to avoid having two vowels come together, a –y- is inserted before the grade ending: ji 1 jiy ‘hear’, i 4 iy ‘refuse’, ci 5 ciya ‘eat/feed’, ci 6 ciy‰ ‘eat’, sh 7 shyu ‘drink’. In grades 6 and 7,the intervening –y- often becomes –w- because of the lip-rounding of the vowels,e.g. ciy‰ ciw‰, shyu shwu. The verbs tàfi ‘go’, gàji ‘get tired’, kir ëcallíalso retain their base vowels when adding derived grade endings, e.g. tafiya ‘conduct’, 6 kirw‰ ‘call’.

(2) The verbs ci ‘eat’, sh ‘drink’, j ‘pull’ in their grade 4 forms add –ny- instead of just –y-, e.g. c ny ‘eat (up)’, jny ‘pull away’. Note the Falling-High tone pattern.

Translate the following sentences into Hausa using derived grade forms of the followingverbs:

bi f gud tafiya c g ji san tsh ci gan sh yi

1. Please inform the teachers that (cw) that there is a meeting at 4:00.

2. His wife set out (ìaroseî) toward his house after he went and conciliated.

3. Ali has come from drinking. There he is, heís drunk (grade 7 of bug). (sh giy ìdrinkî in the sense of ìconsume alcoholî)

4. The children drank up the kunu and said they should be given more (ìone shouldincreaseî).

5. Keep (han

) the children from going near the well lest they fall in.

6. This road is passable (ìfollowableî) only in the dry season (rn ).



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7. Go and have a look at the miya for me.

8. How does one conduct work in this company (kamf n )?

9. Insects ( wr ) are ruining my sorghum.

10. The dog ran away from me with my shishkebab in his mouth.

11. The cincin was tasty to the point that we ate it up.

12. My children water my animals every day.

13. The parade ( f t ) will pass by way of this gate.

14. Itís possible (ìdoableî) that Michael Jordan will return to the Bulls.

15. Translating these sentences has tired me out.

4. Fata ‘hope’ and So ‘want’

The words f t ‘hope’ and s ‘want’ seem similar in that both express a desire on the partof the subject, as in in f t… ‘I hope that …’, in s… ‘I want (that) …’. However,they have different grammatical properties. Although both are used in the continuative,the “tenses” that can follow them are complementary.• f t can be followed only by the completive, continuative, or future (affirmative or

negative); only the non-relative forms of completive and continuative are possible• s can be followed only by the affirmative subjunctive Both can optionally add the linker –n.

Moreover, f t itself cannot be negated, though the clause following it can be,whereas s can be negated, though the clause following it cannot. For f t, this is likeEnglish: one can say, “I hope that he will/won‘t come,” but not, “I don’t hope that hewill/won’t come.” For s, although one can negate it as in English, “I don’t want him tocome,” one cannot directly negate the following clause in Hausa, as in English, “I wanthim to not come.” In Hausa, the latter idea must be reworded in some way, e.g. in s y



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f s zuw ‘I want him to call off coming’ or b n d nak s sh n kad y z‰ ‘what Iwant is that he not come’.

Video segment 2.02 “Girki” has two examples of f t, one with the typicalcontinuative structure, the other using dà (here) “there is...”.

In f t b k mnt mi gid zi gyyci b ba.

‘I hope (that) you haven’ forgotten that mai gida is going to invite some guests.’D f tan kuma kin ‰r binc n. ’It’s hoped that you have put the food on (to cook).’

Translate the sentences into Hausa:

1. I hope you have taken the meat out of the refrigerator.

2. Uwargida wants amarya to pre-cook the meat.

3. The wives hope that the guests will eat up the food.

4. I don’t want you to put any onions into the miya.

5. I hope that mai gida has not invited Ci-duka.

6. Who do you want me to invite?

7. I hope that the water is boiling.

8. Last year I wanted to learn Hausa. This year I want to learn Kanuri ( Barbarci).

9. I hope you are not grinding the corn that we bought and brought from the market.

10. What do you hope that mai gida wants you to cook for him?



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5. Girki

Use these words in describing the actions in the pictures below.

daf /dhu nm gishir sy /s˘yu

kyan miy sll mi tfas mrk wank

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9



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Tuwon Masara

Adapted from the “Hausar Yau da Kullum” video set:

T˘ g shi tan zub mas cikin turm d˘min t yi srf . Ynzu z m ga tuwonmas. T˘ g shi nan tan y n bkc. Tan fita d ds dban, wya mas dban.

T˘ g shi nan tan ni mas kn dtsn ni, yan zam gr . T˘ g shi nan tan tnk. Tan zub ruw cikin gr d˘min t yi tlg. T˘ g shi nan kuma tan tntuw, wtu tuw y dfu an tw. T˘ byan an t sai t kwsh. G shi nan t auk mr tan kwsh tuw cikin wary. G shi nan t zub shi kwn˘ z t laily sai c .

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9



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10 11 12

1. Using the passage preceding the picture describe what she is doing in each picture.

2. In the table below, list the ingredients/results of each stage, the utensils used, and theactions performed in making tuwon mas and explain each in Hausa.

Ingredients/results Utensils Actions

mas turm srf

Miya

Adapted from the “Hausar Yau da Kullum” video set:

T ynzu kuma g shi nan tan yank tttsai d tmt d˘min t yi miy. Byan t gam yankw t zub turm , z t ni wannn kyan miy, wtu tan dak su turm . G shi nan z t kwsh wannn kyan miy d˘min t j t zub tukuny daf .G shi nan kuma tan zub gishir . G shi nan tan ka miy d maburg . T f miy t dfu, g shi tan kwshw. Ynzu b n d ya rag, sai zub wannn miy kn tuwnnan na mas. T sh knan, sai ci, tuw y gam huw.

1 2 3



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4 5 6

7 8 9

1. Using the passage preceding the picture describe what she is doing in each picture.

2. In the table below, list the ingredients/results of each stage, the utensils used, and theactions performed in making tuwon mas and explain each in Hausa.

Ingredients/results Utensils Actions

tttsai wu yank



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Kunun Tsamiya

This image if from a box of ready-madek nun tsmiy mix with the instructions for preparation and ingredients in Hausa and inEnglish. Compare the instructions and

ingredients as given in the two languages.



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“Ladin Oga”Alhaji Mamman Shata and his group

A song about a woman who cooked food for sale in a town town named Kwana.

Ll g Ld n Òg.

Yan amsh : gaid Ld n Òg Gaish k Ld n Òg.

Yan amsh : gaid Ld n Òg N nmi mtan auy,D s d mtan bi rn ,D˘min tuw, d˘min ci,D˘min tuwon saidw,K z k b n bya,Mt m km Kwan,K k˘yi tn tuw,

K k˘yi gyran miy. Yan amsh : Gidan su Ld n Òg

K k˘yi gyran miy. Yan amsh : Gidan su Ld n Òg

dan t yi miy yan binn ,Sai k ji miy sai z,Kn miy g amsh ,Kma k dam kan,k s kn stu r.

Yan amsh : Miyk Ld n Òg

Kma trr tak. Yan amsh : Miyk Ld n Òg

dan tai miy kakash ,Sai k ga miy tai kaur ,Kn miy g yau,Kma k b hak,Kn k muz hak,K s wuak k yank,K s zrenk k r,K raty kn wuy,

Miy k

ma

ts

kiy

. Yan amsh : Miyk Ld n Òg

Yr m km Kwan. Yan amsh : Grin su Ld n Òg

(repeats previous line and chorus twice)

Mù jy m ga Ld n Òg. Yan amsh : gaid Ld n Òg



Girki 2.02

Tambayoyi

1. Wc c Ld n Òg? Mn n aik nt?

2. An y n tuw d˘min ____________________ kuma d˘min ____________________.

3. Wnne dg cikin kalmmin nn suk siff nt ir n mi Ld n Òg?wr ga sants amsh mas kaur z yau ym d

4. Sht y c k s miy Ld n Òg kn stu d˘min...

a. k tsabtt hannunk.b. k sanyy hannunk sab˘d zfin miy.c. miy t yi amsh kma trr.d. k yi w r gak ad.

5. Byyn abbuwn d ka gan htunn d k as:

Documents

Hausa Shit