50 basic Kurdish phrases for beginners: Kurmancî and Soranî

Fifty short phrases are enough to greet people, be polite, ask simple questions and order a glass of tea. This list gives each one in the two big written standards of Kurdish: Kurmancî (Northern Kurdish, written in Latin letters) and Soranî (Central Kurdish, written from right to left in an Arabic-based script). Every phrase comes from the ZimanGo lessons, and most are from the beginner level.

Read each table across: the Kurmancî phrase, the Soranî phrase with the same meaning, then the English. You do not need both columns. Pick the dialect your family or friends speak and learn that one.

Greetings and goodbyes

Start with the words you will use every time you meet someone. Silav works at any time of day; the next three depend on the time.

The time-of-day greetings follow one pattern: a time word plus baş (good). Rojbaş literally means “good day”, but people use it in the morning. There is more in how to say hello in Kurdish.

Polite words

These eight phrases cover thanking, asking nicely and saying sorry.

You will see two spellings of “thank you” in Kurmancî: Spas and sipas. Both are correct, and the lessons use the longer one in Gelek sipas (thank you very much). Soranî spells it two ways as well, as the table shows.

Ji kerema xwe means “please”. In Soranî, “please” is تکایە tikaye. In the food table below, Kurmancî puts it at the end of both requests, while Soranî puts it first in “Tea, please” and last in “The bill, please”. For every way to say thanks, read how to say thank you in Kurdish.

Questions and short answers

Two small patterns get you a long way: Ev çi ye? (What is this?) and Ev kî ye? (Who is this?). Only the question word changes: çi means “what” and kî means “who”. Point at something, ask, and you will learn new words from the answer.

Talking about yourself

These are the first questions people ask a new friend: your name, where you are from and how old you are. Learn the question and the answer together.

Soranî attaches “I am” to the end of the word instead, so “I am fine” is the single word باشم. For more ways to introduce yourself, see how to say “my name is” in Kurdish.

Food and shopping

At a family meal or in a market, these are the phrases you will reach for. The first four are about eating and drinking; the last four come from the intermediate shopping lessons.

If you learn only one shopping question, make it Ev çiqas e? (How much is this?). Point at the item, ask, and listen for the number.

Time and feelings

With these you can tell the time, name the day and say how you feel.

Time

Feelings

Look at the last two rows. Kurmancî uses hez dikim for both “I love” and “I like”, with ji before the person or thing.

How to practise these phrases

Learn five phrases a day and you will know all fifty in ten days. Say each one out loud; reading silently is not the same as speaking.

• Start with greetings and polite words, because they come up in every conversation.
• Pick one column. If your family is from the Kurdish regions of Turkey or Syria, or from Duhok, Kurmancî is the likely match. For Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, or Sanandaj and Mahabad in Iran, start with Soranî.
• Use a phrase on the day you learn it, even if it is only Spas to a Kurdish friend.

Curious why the two columns look so different? Read Kurmancî vs Soranî. In the ZimanGo app you hear these phrases in lessons voiced by our own Kurdish text-to-speech voices, and speaking practice gives you feedback on your pronunciation.