VERB

TENSES

• Hausa tenses: overview, meaning, and Marking
  • Meaning
  • Marking
• "Active" vs. "stative" verbs
• Completive
• Continuative
• Future
• Subjunctive
• "Indefinite" future
• Habitual
• Imperative

Meaning and Marking of Hausa Tenses

• Links to information on verb tenses

Overview

• Seven "tense" distinctions plus imperative
  • Completive
  • Continuative
  • Future
  • Subjunctive
  • "Indefinite" Future
  • Habitual
  • Imperative
• The primary marking of "tense" distinctions resides in subject pronouns, NOT verbs
• Two "tenses"--Completive and Continuative--distinguish a "plain" and a "relative" form: a major factor determining this distinction is whether or not something preceding the verb is questioned, emphasized, or relativized

Meaning of Tenses

English and most other European languages have what is called absolute tense. This means that simply by knowing the tense form of a verb, you know the basic time of the event. If you use a verb in past tense, the action already took place (it is past with respect to the time of speaking). Likewise, future tense means that the action has not begun at the time you are speaking, and present means the action is happening at the time you are speaking.

In the absence of any context to the contrary, Hausa tenses can have similar meanings to those of English, e.g.

But Hausa has what is called relative tense. This means that the tense form tells you about the time of the event relative to some time of reference. If no time context is mentioned, the assumption is that the time of reference is the moment of speaking, as in the examples in the table above. However, if the time of reference is displaced to the past or the future, English (which has absolute tense) must change the tense marking, whereas Hausa continues to use the same forms as in the table above.

Past (past context)	Yesterday by 3:00 they had entered.	Jiya da 3:00 sun shiga.
Past (future context)	Tomorrow at 3:00 they will have entered.	Gobe da 3:00 sun shiga.
Future (past context)	Yesterday at 3:00 they were about to enter.	Jiya da 3:00 za su shiga.
Future (future context)	Tomorrow at 3:00 they will enter.*	Gobe da 3:00 za su shiga.
Present (past context)	Yesterday at 3:00 they were entering.	Jiya da 3:00 suna shiga.
Present (future context)	Tomorrow at 3:00 they will be entering.	Gobe da 3:00 suna shiga.

*English continues to use the simple future since the event is in the future regardless of whether a future context is expressed or not.

Marking of Tenses

English marks tense by changes in the verb form (enter vs. entered vs. entering) and/or addition of auxiliary verbs (have, had, will, are, were, etc.). In Hausa, for the most part, the verb itself does not change to mark tense differences. Hausa marks tense differences by different sets of subject pronouns, sometimes with the pronoun combined with some additional particle, such as preceding za, which marks future (see the table above). For this reason, a subject pronoun must accompany every verb in Hausa, regardless of whether the subject is known from previous context or is expressed by a noun subject. Here are some examples:

Na shiga na zauna.	I entered and sat down. ("I entered I sat down.")
Yara sun shiga sun zauna.	The children entered and sat down. ("Children they entered they sat down.")
Muna hira muna dariya	We are chatting and laughing. ("We are chatting we are laughing."
Yara suna hira suna dariya.	The children are chatting and laughing. ("Children they are chatting they are laughing.")

(Notice that although Hausa requires a subject pronoun with every verb, it does NOT have a word like "and" between consecutive verbs.)

"Active" vs. "Stative" verbs

• Links to information on verb tenses

"Active" verbs represent some kind of action, such as run, enter, eat, take--in fact the large majority of verbs.

"Stative" verbs represent a state of being, a mental state, or a static relationship, such as be-nice, know, see, be-older-than.

In English, using an active or a stative verb has an effect on choice of tense.

Active verb	Stative verb
John is drinking tea.	John sees the tea.
John is doing something--he is engaged in an ongoing activity.	The tea is in John's line of sight and is registering in his brain--he is not "doing" anything.
English uses the present progressive (a form of 'be' + the -ing form of the verb).	English uses the simple present form of the verb.

In Hausa, the "active" vs. "stative" sense also determines choice of tense.

Active verb referring to present time	Stative verb referring to present time
Bashir yana shan shayi. 'Bashir is drinking the tea.'	Bashir ya ga shayi. 'Bashir sees the tea.'
Bashir is doing an action.	The tea is in Bashir's line of sight and is registering in his brain--he is not "doing" anything.
Hausa uses the Continuative, which shows an event that is unfolding over time.	Hausa uses the Completive, which shows that the event is viewed as a "unit", i.e. the effects of the event are complete.

English and Hausa differ, however. The Hausa Completive with a stative verb translates as English Present, but the Completive with an active verb usually translates as English Past tense. This is because the base meaning of the Completive is that the event is viewed as "complete", i.e. its effects are no longer in a state of flux.

Active verb with Completive	Stative verb with Completive
Bashir ya sha shayi. 'Bashir drank the tea.'	Bashir ya ga shayi. 'Bashir sees the tea.'
Bashir has completed the tea drinking.	Bashir's mental picture of the tea is complete--it is not evolving from one moment to the next.
The translation into English uses a Past tense, showing that the event came to an end at anearlier time.	The translation into English uses a Present tense, showing that the seeing is in effect at the present moment.

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