-ka / -ki / -sa / -ta

Your, His and Her

Level 2

Choose the noun's n or r separately from the possessor's ka, ki, sa or ta.

How It Works

Build these forms as noun + linker + genitive pronoun. Schuh describes masculine singular and plural heads as using n and feminine singular heads as using written r. Caron gives a more restricted selection rule: written r with feminine heads ending in -a, and n elsewhere. The examples here fit both descriptions. Add ka for a male listener, ki for a female listener, sa for him, or ta for her. Write the combination as one word.

Compare littafinsa, his book, and littafinta, her book: changing the possessor leaves masculine n unchanged. In jakarta, her bag, r reflects feminine jaka. By contrast, jakata means my bag.

Feminine r can be pronounced as a doubling of the following consonant; retain r in these ordinary written forms. Possession also includes personal relationships and names. When suna, name, has a proper name as its predicate, the statement omits final ne or ce.

Examples (3)

  1. Sunanka Ibrahim.

    Your name is Ibrahim.

    Addressed to a male listener; suna is masculine.

  2. Jakarki tana nan.

    Your bag is here.

    Addressed to a female listener; feminine jaka supplies r.

  3. Littafinsa yana cikin jakarta.

    His book is in her bag.

    Sa and ta identify the possessors; n and r follow the possessed nouns.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

-ka / -ki / -sa / -taLevel 2Your, His and Her

Learn This First

Recognize first-person attached possession and the interior-location relation before changing the owner to a listener or a third person, including possessed items inside another possessed item.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.