Relative Clauses with Tí in Yoruba

In Brief

Put the person or thing you are describing first, followed by tí and a clause: ìwé tí mo kà means “the book that I read.” The described noun is understood in an empty position inside that clause; Yoruba does not normally repeat it with an object pronoun. The same tí can correspond to English “who,” “that,” or “which.”

Overview

A relative clause is a small clause that identifies or describes a noun (a word for a person, place, thing, or idea). In “the woman who is singing,” the woman is the noun being described and who is singing is the relative clause. Yoruba commonly introduces this kind of description with tí.

This pattern is useful whenever two short thoughts share one participant. Instead of leaving them separate—“I saw a man; the man has left”—you can make one fluent sentence: Ọkùnrin tí mo rí ti lọ (“The man that I saw has left”). At B1, this gives you a practical way to identify people, specify objects, describe places, and add detail to stories.

English makes you choose among “who,” “whom,” “that,” “which,” and sometimes “where.” Yoruba does not make the same choice here: tí works with human and nonhuman nouns alike. The main skill is therefore not selecting a pronoun but keeping the Yoruba word order clear and leaving the appropriate position unspoken inside the relative clause.

How It Works

The core pattern

The basic structure is:

described noun + tí + describing clause

Yoruba pattern	English	What happens inside the clause
ọkùnrin tí mo rí	the man that I saw	ọkùnrin would be the object of rí
obìnrin tí ń kọrin	the woman who is singing	obìnrin would be the subject of ń kọrin
ìwé tí o kà	the book that you read	ìwé would be the object of kà
ibi tí mo ti wá	the place that I came from	ibi supplies the place understood with ti wá

The first noun is often called the head noun—in plain terms, the person or thing that the rest of the phrase describes. It comes before tí. Everything after tí tells you which noun the speaker means.

When the head noun is the object

In ìwé tí o kà (“the book that you read”), o is the subject (the person doing the reading). The book is the direct object (the thing affected by the action), but it is already named before tí. Its normal object position after kà is therefore left empty:

ìwé + tí + o + kà + ___

English behaves similarly when it says “the book that you read,” but English also permits “the book which you read.” Yoruba does not need separate relative words for “that” and “which.”

When the head noun is the subject

The head noun can itself be the person doing the action:

obìnrin + tí + ___ + ń kọrin
“the woman who is singing”

There is no separate subject pronoun after tí in this pattern. The progressive marker ń (“is/are …-ing”) can follow tí directly because the missing subject is already understood to be obìnrin.

Compare the two patterns:

Yoruba	English	Role of the head noun
Ọmọ tí ń sáré rẹ̀ mí.	The child who is running is tired.	The child does the running: subject gap.
Ọmọ tí mo pè ti dé.	The child whom I called has arrived.	I did the calling; the child is its object.

The pronoun mo in the second sentence is necessary because it identifies who called. Adding another pronoun for “the child” after pè would wrongly fill the position that the head noun already supplies.

Keeping the main clause separate

A complete sentence may contain two clauses: the relative clause describes the noun, while the main clause gives the sentence’s central message.

In Ọkùnrin tí mo rí lánàá ti lọ:

• Ọkùnrin — “the man,” the head noun
• tí mo rí lánàá — “that I saw yesterday,” the relative clause
• ti lọ — “has left,” the main-clause predicate

The two forms tí and ti are not interchangeable. Tone marks matter: tí with a high tone introduces the relative clause here, while low-toned ti in ti lọ marks a completed or already-realized event (“has left”). Writing the accents helps the reader parse the sentence immediately.

People, things, places, and times

Tí is not restricted to people or objects. A general place noun such as ibi (“place”) or a time noun can also stand before it:

• ibi tí mo ń gbé — “the place where I live”
• ibi tí mo ti wá — “the place I came from”
• ọjọ́ tí a pàdé — “the day when we met”

English naturally switches to “where” and “when.” Yoruba still presents a noun first—ibi, ọjọ́—and then describes it with tí. With relational words or preposition-like items, Yoruba may leave that item later in the clause: ẹni tí mo sọ̀rọ̀ fún (“the person I spoke to”). This resembles conversational English “the person I spoke to,” not the formal “the person to whom I spoke.”

From two statements to one

A reliable way to build a relative clause is to start with two simple sentences:

1. Mo rí ọkùnrin náà. — “I saw the man.”
2. Ọkùnrin náà ti lọ. — “The man has left.”

Name the shared noun once, put its description immediately after it, and remove the repeated object:

Ọkùnrin tí mo rí ti lọ. — “The man that I saw has left.”

This method keeps the basic subject–verb–object order you already know while showing exactly where the gap belongs.

Examples in Context

Yoruba	English	Note
Ọkùnrin tí mo rí lánàá ti lọ.	The man that I saw yesterday has left.	The man is the object of rí.
Ìwé tí o kà dára.	The book that you read is good.	Ìwé is not repeated after kà.
Obìnrin tí ń kọrin ni olùkọ́ wa.	The woman who is singing is our teacher.	The woman is the understood subject of ń kọrin.
Ibi tí mo ti wá ni ilé mi.	The place I came from is my home.	A place is described with tí.
Oúnjẹ tí wọ́n sè dùn gan-an.	The food that they cooked is very tasty.	wọ́n is the subject of the relative clause.
Ọmọ tí ó ń ṣeré níta ni Adé.	The child who is playing outside is Adé.	An explicit ó follows tí here.
Mo ra aṣọ tí Bọ́lá fẹ́ràn.	I bought the clothes that Bọ́lá likes.	The entire noun phrase is the object of ra.
Ẹni tí mo pè kò dáhùn.	The person I called did not answer.	ẹni means “person/one.”
Ilé tí bàbá mi kọ tóbi.	The house that my father built is big.	bàbá mi does the building.
Ọjọ́ tí a pàdé ni ọjọ́ Ajé.	The day we met was Monday.	A day can be the head noun.
Èyí ni ọkọ̀ tí a máa gùn.	This is the vehicle that we will take.	máa places the action in a future or expected frame.
Ẹni tí mo sọ̀rọ̀ fún yóò ràn wá lọ́wọ́.	The person I spoke to will help us.	fún remains after the verb phrase.

Common Mistakes

Repeating the object inside the relative clause

• Wrong: Ìwé tí mo kà á dára.
• Right: Ìwé tí mo kà dára.
• Why: The head noun ìwé already supplies the understood object of kà. In the basic relative pattern, do not add á (“it”) in that same position.

Dropping an aspect marker along with the subject

• Wrong for “the woman who is singing”: Obìnrin tí kọrin.
• Right: Obìnrin tí ń kọrin.
• Why: The head noun supplies the understood subject, but it does not supply ń, the marker that presents the singing as ongoing. Without ń, the time or aspect of kọrin is no longer the one intended.

Omitting the real subject of an object relative

• Wrong: Ìwé tí kà dára for “The book that you read is good.”
• Right: Ìwé tí o kà dára.
• Why: The missing element is the book, not the reader. You still need o to say who read it.

Putting the described noun after tí

• Wrong: Tí mo rí ọkùnrin ti lọ.
• Right: Ọkùnrin tí mo rí ti lọ.
• Why: The head noun comes first; tí mo rí follows it as a description.

Confusing tí with ti

• Wrong: Ọkùnrin ti mo rí tí lọ.
• Right: Ọkùnrin tí mo rí ti lọ.
• Why: tí introduces the relative clause, while ti before lọ contributes the completed meaning “has left.” Omitting tone marks hides a grammatical contrast.

Translating English “where” word for word

• Wrong approach: Search for a separate relative word every time English uses “where.”
• Right: ibi tí mo ń gbé — “the place where I live.”
• Why: Yoruba often starts with the place noun ibi and then uses the regular tí construction.

Usage Notes

In careful writing, keep tí and its tone mark visible. In rapid or informal speech, speakers may reduce or omit the marker in contexts where the relationship remains obvious. Such reduced speech is useful to recognize, but noun + tí + clause is the dependable model for learners and for unambiguous writing.

You will also frequently see tó. In many contexts this reflects the close combination tí ó, with the vowels merging in speech and spelling. For example, proverbial or conversational forms may contain ẹni tó ... or ọmọ tó .... Do not conclude that tí and tó can always be swapped without regard to the following structure; first learn the full careful pattern and then notice contractions in authentic material.

English punctuation can encourage learners to place commas around every relative clause. Yoruba examples are often written without a comma when the clause identifies which person or thing is meant. Punctuation depends on the wider sentence and whether the information is identifying or merely additional, so it is better to follow well-edited Yoruba models than to transfer English commas automatically.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

Relative constructions become especially powerful when their head is a general word such as ẹni (“the person/one who”), ohun (“the thing/what”), or ibi (“the place where”). These forms allow a whole relative phrase to function like a noun:

• Ẹni tí ó ṣiṣẹ́ ni yóò rí èrè. — “The person who works is the one who will receive the reward.”
• Ohun tí mo fẹ́ ni omi. — “What I want is water.”
• Ibi tí wọ́n ń lọ jìnnà. — “The place they are going is far.”

At higher levels, these phrases often interact with Yoruba focus and cleft constructions. A cleft is a sentence that singles one item out, roughly like English “It is X that ….” In Obìnrin tí ń kọrin ni olùkọ́ wa, ni identifies the singing woman as our teacher. Here, the relative clause builds the noun phrase, while ni performs a separate focusing or identifying job. Do not mistake ni for part of the relative marker itself.

Longer relative clauses can include aspect, negation, adverbs, or another dependent clause. The core still remains recognizable:

ohun + tí + ó ṣe pàtàkì jùlọ
“the thing that is most important” / “what is most important”

When a relative phrase becomes long, identify three anchors: the head noun, tí, and the main clause. This prevents markers such as ti, ń, máa, and ni from blurring together. Advanced prose may also use reduced or stylistically compact patterns, but the core head-first analysis remains useful.

Practice Tips

1. Combine sentence pairs. Write “I bought a book. The book is good,” then combine them as Mo ra ìwé tí ó dára or another model verified from your course. Repeat with a person as subject and as object so you practise both kinds of gap.
2. Mark the missing position. While studying, rewrite ìwé tí mo kà temporarily as ìwé tí mo kà ___. The blank makes it easier to resist adding an unnecessary object pronoun.
3. Listen for a family of forms. In recordings, collect examples with tí, tí ó, and tó. Note the noun before them and ask whether that noun is the subject, object, place, or time understood inside the clause.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Basic Sentence Structure (SVO) — helps you identify the subject, verb, object, and missing position inside a relative clause.
• Next step: Focus and Cleft Constructions — shows how relative phrases interact with ni and emphasis.
• Advanced: Complex Clause Structures — expands relative clauses into longer, nested sentences.
• Advanced reading: Proverbs and Idiomatic Expressions — provides authentic compact relative patterns in memorable expressions.