How to introduce yourself in Kurdish: “My name is…”
Navê min Aram e means “My name is Aram”. Learn to introduce yourself in Kurmancî and Soranî, with the one small rule behind every sentence.
Telling someone your name is the first real conversation you have in a new language. In Kurdish it takes only a few short sentences, and they all follow one small rule. Every sentence below is shown in Kurmancî (Northern Kurdish, written in Latin letters) and Soranî (Central Kurdish, written in an Arabic-based script), and comes straight from the ZimanGo lessons.
What is your name?
This is the question you will hear first:
Navê te çi ye? /naˈve tɛ tʃi jɛ/ ناوت چییە؟ nawt çîye What is your name?
Word for word, the Kurmancî says “name of you, what is?”. Nav means “name”, te is “you” and çi is “what”. The -ê at the end of navê links the name to the person it belongs to.
Soranî puts “your” at the end of the word instead. Nav is ناو in Soranî, and “your name” is ناوت.
My name is …
To answer, swap te (you) for min (me) and add your name:
Navê min Aram e ناوم ئارامە nawm Arame My name is Aram
The last word, e, means “is”. Kurmancî uses e after a consonant and ye after a vowel. Aram ends in the consonant m, so the sentence is Navê min Aram e.
You have already met the vowel form. In Navê te çi ye? the word çi ends in a vowel, so “is” becomes ye. The Kurmancî vowels are a, e, ê, i, î, o, u and û: if your name ends in one of them, say ye after it.
| Kurmancî | Soranî | English |
|---|---|---|
| Navê min | ناوم | My name |
| Navê te | ناوت | Your name |
| Navê wî Soran e | ناوی سۆرانە | His name is Soran |
Soranî follows the same idea with endings. ناوم means “my name”. In ناوم ئارامە, “is” is joined to the end of the name. After a vowel, a y sound slides in, just as in Kurmancî: چییە means “what is”.
The name box on the ZimanGo homepage writes the Kurmancî sentence for you. Type your first name and it picks e or ye by itself.
Curious about names like Aram and Soran? Read our guide to Kurdish names.
Where are you from?
| Kurmancî | Soranî | English |
|---|---|---|
| Tu ji ku derê yî? | تۆ خەڵکی کوێیت؟ | Where are you from? |
| Ez ji Kurdistanê me | من خەڵکی کوردستانم | I am from Kurdistan |
| Ez ji Amedê me | من خەڵکی ئامەدم | I am from Amed (Diyarbakır) |
| bajar | شار | city |
| gund | گوند | village |
| welat | وڵات | country |
Kurmancî uses ji for “from”. After it, the name of a city or country usually takes an extra -ê (-yê if the name ends in a vowel): Kurdistan becomes Kurdistanê and Amed becomes Amedê. Amed is the Kurdish name of the city of Diyarbakır.
Soranî builds this sentence differently. خەڵکی means “people of”. So من خەڵکی کوردستانم literally says “I am of the people of Kurdistan”, and the -im sound at the very end means “I am”.
Your age and your job
For your age, Kurmancî puts the number before salî (years old). Soranî does the same with ساڵان. For other ages, see our guide to numbers in Kurdish.
| Kurmancî | Soranî | English |
|---|---|---|
| Tu çend salî yî? | تۆ چەند ساڵانیت؟ | How old are you? |
| Ez bîst salî me | من بیست ساڵانم | I am twenty years old |
| Ez deh salî me | دە ساڵانم | I am ten years old |
To ask about work, say Karê te çi ye in Kurmancî. It has the same shape as the name question, with kar (work) in place of nav. In Soranî the question is کارت چییە.
| Kurmancî | Soranî | English |
|---|---|---|
| Ez mamoste me | مامۆستام | I am a teacher |
| Ez doktor im | پزیشکم | I am a doctor |
| Ez xwendekar im | قوتابیم | I am a student |
| Ez li bajêr dixebitim | لە شار کار دەکەم | I work in the city |
In Soranî, “I am a teacher” is a single word: the job plus the ending for “I am”, as in مامۆستام.
Kurmancî “I am” and “you are” follow the same consonant and vowel rule as “is”. After a consonant: im, î, e. After a vowel: me, yî, ye. That is why you say Ez doktor im but Ez mamoste me, and why Tu ji ku derê yî? ends in yî.
Nice to meet you
Kêfxweş bûm خۆشحاڵم Nice to meet you
The Kurmancî phrase joins kêfxweş (glad, happy) with bûm, a past form of the verb for “to be” or “to become”. It says roughly “I was glad” or “I became glad”. Compare Ez kêfxweş im, “I am happy”.
In Soranî, خۆشحاڵم means “I am glad”. Soranî can also use it to say “I am happy”, so it is an easy one to remember.
Put it all together
Here is a short self-introduction from start to finish. Change the name, the city and the age to your own.
| Kurmancî | Soranî | English |
|---|---|---|
| Silav! | سڵاو! | Hello! |
| Navê min Aram e | ناوم ئارامە | My name is Aram |
| Ez ji Amedê me | من خەڵکی ئامەدم | I am from Amed |
| Ez bîst salî me | من بیست ساڵانم | I am twenty years old |
| Ez xwendekar im | قوتابیم | I am a student |
| Navê te çi ye? | ناوت چییە؟ | What is your name? |
| Kêfxweş bûm | خۆشحاڵم | Nice to meet you |
Introducing someone else works the same way. Ev dayika min e means “This is my mother”. In Soranî you say ئەمە دایکمە.
If you are just starting, learn the greetings first with how to say hello in Kurdish. In the ZimanGo app, the About Me and Work & Study lessons teach these sentences step by step, and you can practise saying them out loud with ZimanGo’s own Kurdish speech recognition.
Questions people ask
How do you say “my name is” in Kurdish?
In Kurmancî, say Navê min, then your name, then e or ye: Navê min Aram e. In Soranî, say ناوم ئارامە.
How do you ask “What is your name?” in Kurdish?
Ask Navê te çi ye? in Kurmancî. In Soranî, ask ناوت چییە؟ (nawt çîye).
Do I say e or ye after my name?
Say e if your name ends in a consonant and ye if it ends in a vowel (a, e, ê, i, î, o, u, û). Aram ends in m, so it is Navê min Aram e.
How do you say “nice to meet you” in Kurdish?
Say Kêfxweş bûm in Kurmancî. In Soranî, say خۆشحاڵم.
