I love you in Kurdish: Kurmancî and Soranî words of love
Ez hez dikim means both “I love” and “I like”. Learn how to say I love you in Kurdish, plus the words for love and heart and the warmest heart idioms.
Want to tell someone you love them in Kurdish? In Kurmancî (Northern Kurdish, usually written in Latin letters) the most common sentence is Ez ji te hez dikim. In Soranî (Central Kurdish, usually written in an Arabic-based script) the most common form is خۆشم دەوێیت.
This guide shows how those two sentences are built. Then come the words for love, heart and beauty, and the heart idioms Kurds use every day. The word tables use phrases from the ZimanGo lessons.
“I love you” in Kurmancî and Soranî
Ez ji te hez dikim خۆشم دەوێیت xoşim dewêyt I love you
Word for word, the Kurmancî sentence reads “I from you love”. Ez is “I”, ji is “from”, and hez dikim is “I love”. The word te is the form of “you” that follows a little word like ji.
The person you love always sits between ji and hez dikim. Change that one word and the sentence is about someone else.
For “I love you”, Soranî usually reaches for a different verb. You can see it in a lesson sentence: ئەم وێنەیەم خۆشدەوێ means “I love this painting”. The same verb, arranged for “I” and “you”, gives the sentence in the box above.
The lessons teach Ez hez dikim (I love) and sentences such as Ez ji hevalê xwe hez dikim (I love my friend). Swap the friend for te and you have “I love you”.
One verb for love and like
Ez hez dikim /ɛz hɛz diˈkim/ حەزم لێیە hezim lêye I love
In Kurmancî, hez dikim covers both “I love” and “I like”. The lessons use it for family and friends, and also for apples and spring. Context tells you how strong the feeling is.
Soranî also has حەزم لێیە, which works the same way. In a full sentence, the little word لە comes before the person or thing you love.
| Kurmancî | Soranî | English |
|---|---|---|
| Ez ji malbata xwe hez dikim | حەزم لە خێزانمە | I love my family |
| Ez ji hevalê xwe hez dikim | حەزم لە هاوڕێکەمە | I love my friend |
| Ez ji biharê hez dikim | حەزم لە بەهارە | I love spring |
| Ez ji vê muzîkê hez dikim | حەزم لەم مۆسیقایە | I love this music |
| Ez ji sêvan hez dikim | حەزم لە سێوە | I like apples |
Spot the word xwe in the first two rows. It means “my own” here, because it points back to Ez, the person doing the loving. For more ways to talk about the people closest to you, see our list of Kurdish family words.
Words for love, heart and beauty
The lessons teach two Kurmancî nouns for love: evîn and hez. The second is the same word you met in hez dikim. Soranî has two as well, shown in the first rows of the table.
| Kurmancî | Soranî | English |
|---|---|---|
| evîn | عەشق | love |
| hez | خۆشەویستی | love |
| dil | دڵ | heart |
| xweş | جوان | beautiful |
| kulîlk | گوڵ | flower |
| hêvî | هیوا | hope |
| heval | هاوڕێ | friend |
| bi hev re | پێکەوە | together |
| kêfxweş | خۆشحاڵ | happy |
Xweş is a busy little word in Kurmancî. The lessons use it for “beautiful” and for “nice”: Bajar xweş e means “The city is beautiful”. Soranî uses جوان for the same idea.
A few lesson sentences that sound warm in any relationship:
| Kurmancî | Soranî | English |
|---|---|---|
| Em bi hev re kêfxweş in | پێکەوە دڵخۆشین | We are happy together |
| Çavên wî mîna stêran in | چاوەکانی وەک ئەستێرەن | His eyes are like stars |
| Helbest dilê min vedike | شیعر دڵم دەکاتەوە | Poetry opens my heart |
Heart idioms with dil
Kurdish often talks about feelings through the heart: dil in Kurmancî, دڵ dil in Soranî. Soranî even builds “happy” and “sad” on it.
دڵخۆش means happy. دڵتەنگ means sad, and it is literally a “narrow” or “tight” heart. Kurmancî has the same picture in Dilê min teng e.
| Kurmancî | Soranî | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Dilê wî zêr e | دڵی زێڕە | His heart is gold: he is a kind person |
| Dilê min germ bû. | دڵم گەرم بوو. | My heart became warm: I was moved |
| Dilê min sar bû. | دڵم سارد بوو. | My heart became cold: I lost interest |
| Dilê min teng e | دڵم تەنگە | My heart is heavy: I am sad |
| Dilê min li welêt e. | دڵم لە وڵاتە. | My heart is in the homeland: I miss home |
| Em yek dil in. | ئێمە یەک دڵین. | We are one heart: we are united |
| Ji ber dilê min e. | لە دڵمەوەیە. | From my heart: sincerely |
The lessons say “I miss home” with a heart idiom: Dilê min li welêt e. Your heart has stayed behind with the places and people you love.
For many more expressions like these, read our guide to Kurdish idioms.
A famous Kurdish love story
Kurdish has a great love story of its own. Mem û Zîn was written in Kurmancî verse by the poet Ehmedê Xanî in the late 17th century.
It tells of two young lovers, Mem and Zîn, who are kept apart and never marry. The story ends in sorrow, yet it is one of the best-known works of Kurdish literature. Read more about it in our introduction to Kurdish literature.
Which dialect should I use?
Use the dialect of the person you are talking to. Kurmancî is spoken mainly in the Kurdish regions of Turkey and Syria, and also in parts of northern Iraq and north-western Iran. Soranî is spoken mainly in Iraq, around Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, and in western Iran.
The verb is the easy part. Once you know hez dikim, you can say what you love about your family, your city and your favourite music. In ZimanGo these words come early, in the beginner lessons on feelings, with audio from ZimanGo’s own Kurdish text-to-speech voices.
Questions people ask
How do you say “I love you” in Kurdish?
In Kurmancî, say Ez ji te hez dikim. In Soranî, say خۆشم دەوێیت (xoşim dewêyt).
What is the Kurdish word for love?
Kurmancî uses evîn or hez. In Soranî you will hear عەشق. The lessons also teach خۆشەویستی.
Does hez dikim mean love or like?
Both. Ez hez dikim means “I love” or “I like”, and the context shows how strong the feeling is.
What does dil mean in Kurdish?
Dil means heart. In Soranî it is دڵ. It appears in many idioms, such as Dilê wî zêr e, “his heart is gold”.
