ni / kai / ke / shi / ita

Independent Singular Pronouns

Level 1

The independent singular pronouns are ni, kai, ke, shi, ita.

How It Works

Ni refers to the speaker without distinguishing gender. Kai addresses one male listener; ke addresses one female listener. Shi and ita refer to masculine and feminine participants, including things translated as “it”.

Independent pronouns occur as identification subjects, as identifying expressions, after suitable prepositions, and after babu. Their English form follows their role: da ita means “with her”.

Compare Shi malami ne “He is a teacher” with Ya zo makaranta “He came to school”. Identification uses independent shi; the action clause uses completive ya. An independent pronoun added for contrast does not remove the action marker. Direct-object forms belong to a separate set, so English “her” can correspond to different Hausa pronouns in different environments.

Examples (4)

  1. Ni malami ne a wannan makaranta.

    I am a teacher at this school.

    Ni identifies a male speaker in this example.

  2. Ke ɗaliba ce a nan.

    You are a student here.

    Ke addresses one female listener.

  3. Kai abokina ne.

    You are my friend.

    Kai addresses one male listener.

  4. Mun tafi kasuwa da ita.

    We went to the market with her.

    Independent ita follows da.

How It Connects

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ni / kai / ke / shi / itaLevel 1Independent Singular Pronouns

Learn This First

Identify a clause participant before distinguishing independent singular reference from the subject-TAM marker. In Kai abokina ne, abokina means my male friend; attached first-person possession is written with the noun, and its full noun-class pattern is developed later. In Mun tafi kasuwa da ita, mun marks we in the plain completive; ita is the independent feminine pronoun after accompaniment da.

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Words in This Pattern

nikaishiitaitakée