Past Tense – Hausa

Creating phrases in the past tense is rather easy in Hausa because the verb itself does not have to be conjugated. Rather ‘n’ or ‘ba’ is placed before/after the verb to indicate the affirmative or negative action that happened in the past.

Examples:

Present: Na kan sayi wani abu = I buy something

Past affirmative: Na nsayi wani abu = I bought something

Past negative: Ba na sayi wani abu ba = I did not buy something

Present: Ta kan rufe kofa = She closes the door

Past affirmative: Ta nrufe kofa = She closed the door

Past negative: Ba ta rufe kofa ba = She did not close the door

Try it out yourself!