Ongoing Actions After Focus
Suke contrasts with suna; singular forms include kake, kike, yake, take.
How It Works
Select the relative form for the subject’s person, singular gender, and number. Verbal relative continuative -ke has a long vowel in Kano Hausa. Ordinary Boko leaves this unmarked. Similar-looking location and possession constructions have separate length conditions.
Verbal-noun rules still apply. Compare Suna cin doya ‘They are eating yam’ with Me suke ci? ‘What are they eating?’ The fronted object leaves no following noun requiring the linker. A subject question, Wa yake cin doya?, retains that object and linker.
An overt subject can permit omission of agreement material, leaving ke. This remains a relative frame. The examples below distinguish a female-listener object question, feminine subject focus, and a plural relative description.
Examples (3)
- Me kike nema?
What are you looking for?
Kike addresses a female listener.
- Amina ce take yin aiki.
It is Amina who is working.
Subject focus selects take.
- mutanen da suke hutawa
the people who are resting
Noun phrase containing a relative continuative clause.
How It Connects
Learn This First
Recognize ongoing subjects, fronted questions, linked noun descriptions and agreeing focus identification before using relative continuative forms, including ce before a feminine focused actor.
- muna / kuna / sunaOngoing Actions with Plural Subjects
Recognize ongoing subjects, fronted questions, linked noun descriptions and agreeing focus identification before using relative continuative forms, including ce before a feminine focused actor.
Level 1 - me / waAsking What and Who
Recognize ongoing subjects, fronted questions, linked noun descriptions and agreeing focus identification before using relative continuative forms, including ce before a feminine focused actor.
Level 1 - -n / -rLinking a Noun to Its Possessor
Recognize ongoing subjects, fronted questions, linked noun descriptions and agreeing focus identification before using relative continuative forms, including ce before a feminine focused actor.
Level 2 - ne / ceIdentifying Someone or Something
Recognize ongoing subjects, fronted questions, linked noun descriptions and agreeing focus identification before using relative continuative forms, including ce before a feminine focused actor.
Level 1
Related Patterns
- ina / kana / kina / yana / tanaOngoing Actions
Provides plain singular forms.
Level 1 - na / nakeTwo First-Person Frames
Develops first-person and reduced forms.
Level 3 - Actions Used Like Nouns
Explains action morphology and linking.
Level 3 - yake / akeLocation in Questions and Impersonal Clauses
Develops nonverbal length conditions.
Level 4
Learn Next
Patterns that build on this one.
Words in This Pattern
Practice Ongoing Actions After Focus in Bubblegum
Poppy, your AI tutor, writes Hausa lessons at your level. Tap any grammar point in a lesson to see its full explanation.
