Kurdish grammar basics: word order, ezafe and gender

Kurdish grammar can look unusual at first: the verb waits until the end of the sentence, and small endings carry a lot of meaning. The good news is that a handful of patterns explain most everyday sentences. This guide walks through them in Kurmancî (Kurmanji, Northern Kurdish) and Soranî (Sorani, Central Kurdish), and every example comes from the ZimanGo lessons.

No grammar terms needed: read each example out loud and spot the pattern. If letters such as ê and î are new to you, start with our Kurdish alphabet guide.

Word order: the verb goes last

In both dialects, a normal sentence starts with the subject, then the object, and ends with the verb. Linguists call this subject-object-verb order, or SOV. Where English says “I drink tea”, Kurdish says “I tea drink”.

Look at the last row: the extra detail “for breakfast” sits in the middle, and the verb still closes the sentence. You may also notice that the Soranî column has no separate word for “I”. The next section explains why.

One exception is worth learning early. When you go somewhere, the place often comes after the verb: Ez diçim dibistanê in Kurmancî and دەچم بۆ قوتابخانە in Soranî both mean “I go to school”.

Personal pronouns: I, you, we

Each sentence below starts with a personal pronoun. Read the first word of each line to see the words for “I”, “you”, “she” and “we”:

In Kurmancî, the pronouns are ez (I), tu (you), ew (he or she) and em (we). Ew also means “they”; the verb ending shows whether it is one person or more. Both dialects have one more word for “you” when you speak to several people, and Soranî has its own plural word for “they”. You will meet them in the lessons.

In Soranî, the ending on the verb already tells you who is doing something, so the pronoun is often left out. You see it mainly when it is stressed, or in sentences like “I am from Kurdistan” above. Kurmancî sentences in the lessons usually keep it:

For “my” and “your”, Kurmancî switches to a second set of pronouns that come after the noun: ez becomes min, tu becomes te, and ew becomes wî (him) or wê (her). Soranî attaches a short ending to the noun instead.

Kurmancî also uses this second set for the subject of past-tense verbs such as “ate” or “saw”; our Kurmancî vs Soranî guide shows how. To introduce yourself, read how to say “my name is” in Kurdish.

Present tense: di- + verb + ending

Ez dixebitim /ɛz dixɛˈbitim/ کار دەکەم kar dekem I work

Kurmancî builds the present tense like a sandwich: di- at the front, the verb in the middle and a person ending at the back. In dixebitim you can see di + xebit (work) + im (I).

The endings are -im for “I”, -î for “you”, -e for “he” or “she”, and -in for “we”, “you” (more than one) and “they”. Here they are in sentences from the lessons:

Soranî works the same way, with de- at the front and the person at the back. دەخۆم dexom means “I eat”: de + xo (eat) + m (I).

One present form covers both “I work” and “I am working”, so you only need to learn one. Context tells you which one is meant.

Some Kurmancî verbs have a small front part, and di- slips in after it. In vedixwim (I drink) from the first table, the pieces are ve + di + xw + im. The same happens in Ez radibim (I wake up): ra + di + b + im.

The ezafe: the small link between words

In Kurdish, the main noun comes first and the words that describe it or own it follow. A short ending on the noun, called the ezafe, links them together. It works a little like “of” in English, except that it is glued to the first word.

Erkên malê /ɛɾˈken maˈleː/ ئەرکی ماڵ erkî mal Homework

Literally, this is “tasks of the house”. In Kurmancî, the ending depends on the noun it is attached to:

• -ê after a masculine noun: dilê zêr (heart of gold)
• -a after a feminine noun: Telefona zîrek (smartphone)
• -ên after a plural noun: Erkên malê (homework)
• -î (masculine) or -e (feminine) after -ek (“a”): tiştekî nû (something new), Geşteke xweş bû (it was a nice trip)

Soranî has no gender, so it uses one main link for all nouns: -î, written ی.

In the last two rows, both dialects first add their word for “a” and then the link. In Soranî, شتێکی is شت (thing) + -êk + -î, just as Kurmancî tiştekî is tişt + -ek + -î.

After a vowel, Kurmancî adds a y before the ending. For example, bira (brother) becomes Birayê min (my brother), and ode (room) becomes Odeya min (my room).

Masculine and feminine nouns in Kurmancî

Every Kurmancî noun is either masculine or feminine. Soranî has no grammatical gender, so Soranî learners can skip this part.

For people, grammar usually follows real life: a man or a boy is masculine, a woman or a girl is feminine. For everything else there is no reliable rule, so learn each noun together with its gender. Here are some nouns from the lessons:

• Masculine: mêr (man), kur (boy), bira (brother), heval (friend), dil (heart), nan (bread), gund (village)
• Feminine: jin (woman), keç (girl), xwişk (sister), pirtûk (book), av (water), çay (tea), şev (night)

You hear the gender in the ezafe: masculine nouns take -ê and feminine nouns take -a.

Soranî ends “my brother” and “my sister” with the same -m. Kurmancî needs -ê for bira and -a for xwişk.

“The” and “a”: definite and indefinite

Kurmancî has no word for “the”. A bare noun can mean “the book” or just “book”, and the context does the rest. To say “a” or “an”, add -ek to the noun, or -yek after a vowel.

Soranî marks both. The ending -eke means “the” (-ke after a word ending in -a or -e), and -êk means “a” (-yek after a vowel).

The last row shows both systems at once. Soranî says ژوورەکە jûreke for “the room” and کورسیەک kursîyek for “a chair”. Kurmancî marks only the chair, kursiyek, and leaves “the room” without a “the”.

Putting the patterns together

Here is one sentence from the lessons that uses almost everything above: Ez romaneke xweş dixwînim, “I read a beautiful novel”. The verb comes last, di- and -im make the present tense for “I”, and -eke means “a” plus the link to the describing word.

The Soranî version is ڕۆمانێکی جوان دەخوێنمەوە. It follows the same order, with -êk for “a”, -î as the link and de- … -m on the verb.

You do not have to master all of this before you speak. Learn whole phrases first and let the patterns sink in with practice; Is Kurdish hard to learn? has more tips. ZimanGo builds on these patterns step by step, from the Alphabet level up to C2, in Kurmancî or Soranî.