There are seven tenses in Hausa.Each tense is identified by the following:
1- A pre-verbal pronoun (PPRO) 2- A tense –marker (TM) 3- A main verb (V).
These are the things to take into consideration for explanation of Hausa tenses. However, there is need for us to explain the followings:
4.1.1. A pre-verbal pronoun (PPRO)
The pre-verbal pronouns indicate; person, gender, and number, and it is used in all the seven tenses. Consider the table below:
Table 4.1: The preverbal pronoun and their abbreviations.
Pre-verbal Pronoun
Person Number Gender Abbreviation s
Na 1st Singular Both Gender 1st P.S
57
Ka 2 Singular Masculine 2nd P S.M
Ki 2nd Singular Feminine 2nd P S.F
Ya 3rd Singular Masculine 3rd P.S.M
Ta 3rd Singular Feminine 3rd P. S.F
Mu 1st Plural Both Gender 1st P. PL.
Ku 2nd Plural Both Gender 2P. PL
Su 3rd Plural Both gender 3rd P. PL
The above table has five columns; the 2nd column abbreviates the pre-verbal pronoun. (P) Referring to person, (S) is for Singular, (PL) is for plural, (M) is for Masculine gender, and (F) is for Feminine gender.
4.1.2. A tense –marker (TM)
Tense markers indicate time and action is performed. All Hausa tenses have visible (overt) tense marker as follows:
Table 4.2: Hausa tense, tense markers and abbreviation
Tense Abbreviation Tense Marker
(TM)
General Continuous Tense GCT Na
Relative Continuous Tense RCT Ke
General Past Tense GPT a- and -n
Relative Past Tense RPT Ka
First Future Tense FFT Za
Second Future Tense SFT Á
Subjunctive Sub ɸ
58
Note, all the six tenses have tense marker, but the subjunctive tense has zero tense marker, as represented with the symbol in the above table (ɸ).
4.1.3 General Continuous Tense
‘na’ is used to indicate general continuous tense, which refers to an ongoing action. It takes all the subject pronouns (ie.1st, 2nd, 3rd.plu and sing) as below:
(i) Xalibai su-na tafiya makaranta Students 3PL-IMPFV go school
‘The students are going to school’.
(ii) Xaliban su-nakaratu a aji
Children-DEF 3PL-IMPFV in class
‘The students are reading in the classroom’.
(iii) Binta ta-na dafa abinci Binta 3SM-IMPFV cook food
‘Binta is cooking food’.
4.1.4 Relative Continuous Tense
‘ke’ is used to indicate relative continuous tense, which refers to an ongoing action. It takes all the subject pronouns (ie.1st, 2nd, 3rd. plu and sing) as below:
(i) Abdu nee ya-ke tafiya kasuwa Abdu COP 3SM-IMPFV go market
‘It is Abdu who going to the market’.
(ii) Mu ne mu-ke tattauna matsalar 1PL COP 1PL-IMPFV discuss issue
‘We are the people who discussing the issue’.
From the examples above, one can realizes that, both general and relative continuous tenses are used to express ongoing action (imperfective). The only difference between the two is tense marker.
59
Thus, general continuous tense uses ‘na’ as a tense marker while the relative continuous uses ‘ke’ to shows relativity between the doer of the action and the time that the action is initiated.
4.1.5 First Future Tense
‘za’ is used to indicate first future tense, which refers to an obligation to perform future action. It takes all the subject pronouns (ie.1st, 2nd, 3rd. plu and sing) as below:
(i) Mutanenzasutafikasuwagobe
People-DEF FUTI 3PL go market tomorrow
‘The People will go to the market tomorrow’.
(ii) Ali da Rimizasutafimakarantagobe Ali and RimiFUT 3PL go schooltomorrow
‘Ali and Rimi will go to the school tomorrow’.
4.1.6 Second Future Tense
‘á’ is used as a future marker but with no sense of obligation as the former. As in sentences below:
(i) Abdu ya-á tafi kasuwagobe Abdu 3SM-FUT II go market tomorrow
‘Abdu may go to school tomorrow’.
In example i and ii of 4.1.4, the tense marker ‘za’ is used to indicate that an action will take place in the near future. But the illustration in 4.1.4 indicates that the future marker ‘á’ shows that an action to carry out by the subject is under probability. This means that, when the speaker uses the first future marker in a statement there is sense of obligation. While when the second future marker is uses in the utterance there is no sense of obligation or certainty of carrying out the duty.
60 4.1.7 General Past Tense
This tense is used to indicate that an action took place and had been completed in the past, it has ‘a’&‘n’ as tense markers. For examples:
(i) Na-a karanta jarida
1S-PFV read newspaper
‘I read newspaper’.
(ii) Yara-n su-n je makaranta Children-DEF 3PL-PFV go school
‘The children went to the school’.
(iii) ya-a ci abinci-n
3SM-PFV eat food-DEF
‘He ate the food’
(iv) Ta-a yanka lemu
3SF-PFV slice orange
‘She sliced orange’.
4.1.8 Relative Past Tense
This is used to indicate that an action took place in the past. How this differs from the above (General past tense) is that, Relative past tense uses ‘ka’ and it also relates the action of the verb to the subject.
For examples:
(i) Abdu da Musa ne su-katafimakaranta Abdu and Musa COP 3PL-RP go school
‘It is Abdu and Musa who went to the school’.
(ii) Ke ce ki-kaboye littafi-n
2SF COP 2SF-RP hide book-DEF
‘You are the one who hid the book’.
From the explanation of the sentences above, sentence i to iv of 4.1.5 used ‘a’ as a completive marker to indicate that an action was took place in the past. In sentence (i) the agent which represented by the
61
used of first person pronoun ‘Na’ has already read the newspaper in the past. Similarly in sentence (ii, iii, and iv) respectively the action was completed. However, in examples i and ii of 4.1.6, the tense marker ‘ka’ is used to show perfective with the relationship of the action and the doer of the action.
4.1.9 Subjunctive
Subjunctive has no tense marker. It expresses command. It usually works with second person [sing &plu]. This is because command requires face to face interaction between the commander and the commanded.
(i) Tashi ka tafi gida
Stand up 2SM go home
‘You stand and go home’.
(ii) Karbikikaranta
Take 2SF read
‘You take and read’.
(ii) Mu tashi mu tafi
1PL stand up 1PL go
‘Let us stand up and go’.
5. Conclusion
Tense and aspect are two inseparable elements of Grammar.
Languages treat them differently in different special ways. English has two tenses [non-past and past], and four aspects operating under each of the tenses. Unlike the English language, Hausa language conceptually unified the tense and the aspects all together to form a total of seven tense altogether. Each of the Hausa tenses is identified by the (i) preverbal pronoun (ii) tense marker and (iii) main verb respectively. But tense marker plays a vital role to distinguish all the tenses.
62