har / sai
Limits and Next Events
Read the complete frame to distinguish “until,” “then,” “except” and “already.”
How It Works
Har sai introduces an event serving as an endpoint. In Ku jira har sai na dawo., returning ends the waiting. Procedural sai can introduce a next step with subjunctive marking, while successive narrated events can use relative completive. Each finite clause keeps its own subject marker.
Leave-taking sai can take plain completive even when the meeting lies ahead: Sai mun haɗu gobe. anticipates tomorrow’s meeting. Neither “then” nor “until” determines one universal following paradigm.
After an absence statement, sai can mean “except”: the exception identifies who remains included. Initial har can instead present completion as already reached and convey surprise about the whole proposition. Waiting until a return establishes an endpoint; asking whether work is already finished comments on completion. These connectors do not themselves show gender or number agreement.
Examples (5)
- Ku jira har sai na dawo.
Wait until I return.
Returning supplies the endpoint; ku addresses several listeners.
- Idan ruwa ya tafasa, sai a zuba shinkafa.
When the water boils, then add rice.
Impersonal subjunctive a introduces the procedural step.
- Sai mun haɗu gobe.
See you when we meet tomorrow.
Plain completive mun occurs in an anticipated meeting frame.
- Babu kowa a ɗakin sai Fatima.
There is nobody in the room except Fatima.
Sai introduces the exception to the absence claim.
- Har kun gama aikin?
Have you already finished the work?
Har presents completion as already reached, potentially with surprise.
How It Connects
Learn This First
Recognize narrative event progression, dependent subjunctive events, absence claims and procedural unspecified-agent instructions before distinguishing endpoints, sequences and limiting exceptions with har and sai.
- A Narrative Event Chain
Recognize narrative event progression, dependent subjunctive events, absence claims and procedural unspecified-agent instructions before distinguishing endpoints, sequences and limiting exceptions with har and sai.
Level 5 - babuSaying There Is None
Recognize narrative event progression, dependent subjunctive events, absence claims and procedural unspecified-agent instructions before distinguishing endpoints, sequences and limiting exceptions with har and sai.
Level 1 - aAn Unspecified Agent
Recognize narrative event progression, dependent subjunctive events, absence claims and procedural unspecified-agent instructions before distinguishing endpoints, sequences and limiting exceptions with har and sai.
Level 3
Related Patterns
Words in This Pattern
Practice har / sai in Bubblegum
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