Non-wa Verbal Nouns

Types of verbs taking non-wa Verbal Nouns

• Menu for general information on verbal nouns
• Types of verbs taking non-wa verbal nouns
  • Intransitive verbs
  • Variable Vowel Verbs
  • Irregular verbs
  • Verbs that also have -wa verbal nouns
• Classes of non-wa verbal nouns

(1) Intransitive Verbs

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Many intransitive verbs end in a short vowel and form their verbal noun simply by lengthening the final vowel. There are two main groups of these intransitive verbs:

1. Intransitive verbs which end in -a and begin in Low tone or have all High tones. The verb b'ata 'get lost', which has High-Low tones, also has a verbal noun with lenghthened final vowel.

    

2. Intransitive verbs which end in -i or -u

 

See a list of intransitive verbs which lengthen their final vowel to form their verbal noun

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Variable Vowel Verbs are verbs which change their final vowels depending on the kind of objects they take. All Variable Vowel Verbs have non-wa verbal nouns. There is no way to predict which class of non-wa verbal noun a Variable Vowel Verb will take.

• See a list of common Variable Vowel Verbs and their verbal nouns
• See a listing of classes of non-wa verbal nouns

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Hausa has only a small number of "irregular" verbs, i.e. verbs which do not fit patterns of the majority of verbs. Even some of the irregular verbs fit into classes which show regularities but which have only a small number of members. All irregular verbs take non-wa verbal nouns. Below are the classes of irregular verbs, grouped according to how they form their verbal nouns:

1. Monosyllabic verbs: Nearly all monosyllabic verbs form their verbal noun by lengthening the vowel and adding falling tone, e.g ci 'eat' with lengthened vowel and falling tone to meaning 'eating'. See a list of Monosyllabic verbs and their verbal nouns.

    

2. Intransitive verbs ending in -i or -u: A few such verbs form a verbal noun with a feminine suffix, e.g. gaji 'get tired' with verbal noun gajiya. See a list including intransitive verbal nouns with feminine suffixes.

    

3. Transitive verbs with High-High tones ending in -a: Such verbs have verbal nouns with High-Low tones and final -a, e.g. kira 'call'. See a list including Hi-Hi-a verbs and their verbal nouns.

    

4. The verbs sani 'know', bari 'leave', gani 'see': These three important verbs have verbal nouns identical to the base verbs. See a list including sani, bari, and gani with their verbal nouns.

    

5. The verbs zo 'come' and je 'go': These verbs share a verbal noun zuwa. The final "wa" of this verbal noun is not the -wa of -wa Verbal Nouns (zuwa ends in Low tone, but verbal noun -wa is High) nor a feminine suffix (zuwa is a masculine noun). See a list of verbs with their verbal nouns, including zo and je.

    

6. The verb hau'mount, climb': This verb has the verbal noun hawa, which is a Hi-Hi-a verbal noun.

    

7. The verb ba 'give': This is the most irregular verb in Hausa. Its verbal noun is bayarwa, which is a regular -wa verbal noun! See a table with all the forms of ba'give'.

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Many verbs that have -wa verbal nouns also have non-wa verbal nouns. There is no way to predict whether a verb which has a -wa verbal noun will also have a non-wa verbal noun, and as with Variable Vowel Verbs, there is no way to predict the class of non-wa verbal noun that one of these verbs might take. Often the non-wa verbal noun of such a verb will have a meaning other than or in addition to the name of the action of the verb, e.g.

Verb	Verb meaning	non-wa VN	non-wa VN meaning
gina	'build'	gini	'structure'
raba	'divide, distribute'	rabo	'one's share'

• See a list of common verbs which have both -wa and non-wa verbal nouns
• See a listing of classes of non-wa verbal nouns