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Beginning Kurmanji Kurdish
by Deniz Ekici

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Table of Contents

  1. Tu bi xêr hatî Kurdistanê (Welcome to Kurdistan)
  2. Tu çi karî dikî? (What do you do?)
  3. Li Mêvanxaneya Zanîngehê (At the University Guesthouse)
  4. Li nêzîk dikan hene? (Are there stores nearby?)
  5. Şîv hazir e (Dinner is ready)
  6. Ew bi çendê ye? (How much is it?)
  7. Ev pirtûkxaneya me ye (This is our library)
  8. Dilê te diçe çi? (What would you like to eat?)
  9. Ka em herin qawexaneyê (Let's go to the cafeteria)
  10. Şîler diçe postexaneyê (Şîler goes to the post office)
  11. Ez xwe baş nabînim (I don't feel well)
  12. Em ê herin Seyranê (We will go on a picnic
  13. Te îro çi kir? (What did you do today?)
  14. Dîroka Dihokê (The History of Dihok)
  15. Newroz Pîroz! (Happy Newroz!)
  16. Di derbarê jîyana li Silêmanîyê de (About life in Suleimania)
  17. Li Zanîngeha Silêmanîyê (At the University of Suleimania)
  18. Wêjeya kurdî (Kurdish Literature)
  19. Baran dibare (It is raining)
  20. Li Sekingeha Basê (At the bus depot)

Learning Goals by Lesson (First 10 lessons)

  1. In this lesson you will learn how to greet and welcome people, introduce yourself, ask simple questions, and excuse yourself.
  2. In this lesson you will learn how to ask other people's names and occupations and describe certain objects using adjectives.
  3. In this lesson you will learn how to describe a house with its contents and express possession in number. You also will learn expressions such as "there is one person," "there are three books," "I have two pens" and the related vocabulary.
  4. In this lesson, you will learn how to ask or give information about the location of an object or a place. You also will learn how to give a command in Kurmanji.
  5. In this lesson, you will learn how to form a sentence in the present tense. You also will learn the names of family members and relatives as well as the names of some Kurdish dishes.
  6. In part one of this lesson, you will learn how to form negative sentences in the present tense and the usage of certain interrogative determiners such as "çi" (what), kî (who), çima (why), kengî (when), etc. In addition, you will learn how to compare things in different contexts as you will learn some basic concepts such as big-small, cheap-expensive, good-better etc., and colors in Kurmanji.
    In part two of this lesson, you will learn how to ask questions by changing the intonation, by starting the sentence with question words "gelo" or "ma" or by adding the phrase "ne wisan" to the end of an interrogative sentence. You also will learn another way of forming the superlative degree of adjectives.
  7. In this lesson you will learn how to say, for instance, "I see myself in the mirror" or "I am reading my book" by using the reflexive pronoun "xwe." You will also learn how to use ordinal numbers in Kurmanji to express position in a series, e.g. first floor, third door, etc.
  8. In this lesson you will learn how to form negative sentences in the present tense and make polite commands using this form. You will also learn a few more adjectives and traditional Kurdish dishes.
  9. In this lesson you will learn how to modify head nouns with clauses, in addition to modifying them with only a noun or an adjective. You will learn different ways of stating or asking one's nationality or country of origin and what languages they speak. You also will learn more Kurdish personal names and the names of several cities in Kurdistan.
  10. In this lesson you will learn how to request permission, make a polite command or express a desire, a wish, a suggestion, an obligation, a requirement or intention in Kurmanji using certain modal auxiliary verbs.

Alphabet

Map of Kurdish-speaking areas

Grammar

  1. Nominative Case of Personal and Demonstrative
  2. Pronouns Present Tense Copulas (am, is, are)
  3. Oblique Case of Personal Pronouns
  4. Ezafeh (Noun Connector)
  5. Indefinite Nouns
  6. Indefinite Nouns with Ezafeh (Noun Connector)
  7. The Existential Verb "Hebûn" (to exist/to have/there is/there are)
  8. Cardinal Numbers
  9. The Imperative
  10. Kurmanji Prepositions and Circumpositions(Ambipositions)
  11. Oblique Case of Demonstrative Pronouns
  12. Present Tense
  13. Compound Verbs
  14. The Negative Form of the Verb "bûn" (to be)
  15. Interrogative Sentences with Interrogative Determiners
  16. The Comparative and Superlative Degrees of Adjectives
  17. The Reflexive Pronoun "Xwe"
  18. Ordinal Numbers
  19. The Negative Form of the Present Tense
  20. Polite Commands
  21. Relative Clause
  22. Nationalities, Languages, Countries, Cities
  23. Where are you from?
  24. What language do you speak?
  25. The Present Tense of the Subjunctive Mood
  26. The Negative Form of the Present Tense Subjunctive Mood
  27. Future Tense
  28. Cardinal Numbers
  29. A Few Kurmanji Expressions
  30. Diminutive
  31. The Simple Past Tense with Intransitive Verbs
  32. The Negative Form of the Simple Past Tense
  33. Different Uses of the Preposition "Bi"
  34. The Secondary Ezafeh Construction
  35. The Simple Past Tense with Transitive Verbs
  36. The Negative Form of the Simple Past Tense with Transitive Verbs
  37. The Numbers in the Oblique Case
  38. The Existential Verb "Hebûn" in the Past Tense
  39. The Past Continuous Tense
  40. The Negative Form of the Past Continuous Tense
  41. The Seasons, Months, Days, and the Periods of the Day
  42. The Adverbial Use of the Seasons, Months, Days, and the Periods of the Day
  43. Subordinating Clauses
  44. Passive Voice
  45. Telling the Time
  46. Some Kurdish Expressions
  47. The Present Tense to Convey the Present Progressive Meaning
  48. Weather Conditions
  49. Vocative Case
  50. Using Infinitives as Nouns

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