Grammar Overview: Behdînî Kurmanji

Grammar Overview: Behdînî Kurmanji

Şirîn

American Kurdish Center

Azad came to my house yesterday. He brought a gift.
He came to my house yesterday. He brought this.

Personal pronouns (such as “he”) and demonstrative pronouns (such as “this”) often take the place of nouns (such as “Azad”) in our sentences when we speak English.

The same is true in Kurdish. Sometimes in Kurdish, you don’t even need to use a personal pronoun in the sentence!

There are two “cases” in Kurmanji: “direct” and “oblique”. In this lesson we’ll study the “direct” case. In Lesson 2 we’ll study the “oblique” case.
.....

Table of Contents
(alphabetical)

Lessons and Exercises

1 Simple Past Tense of Intransitive Verbs / 1
2 Oblique Case Pronouns; Izafe; Imperatives / 11
3 Oblique Case Suffix, Past Tense of Transitive Verbs
(Ergative Sentence Construction) / 19
4 Present Tense Sentences, Aspect Marker, Irregular Verb / 27
5 Irregular Present Tense Verbs, Compound and Idiomatic Verbs / 35
6 Indefinite Article Marker, Specific Reference Marker,
Contractions, Future Tense Sentences / 43
7 Subjunctive I and Subjunctive II / 51
8 Participles I and II; Present Progressive, Pluperfect, Perfect
Tenses - Aspects; Passive Construction / 63
9 Summary of all Verb Tenses - Aspect - Modes / 71
10 Interrogatives (Question Words) / 73

INTRODUCTION

This Grammar Overview was written primarily for English speakers who are learning the Behdînî Kurmanji language. Native Kurdish speakers will also find it a good resource. It is designed as the text book for a two-day intensive grammar course.
Getting Started! is the pre-requisite study to Grammar Overview and the two-day course taught by the author.

As a brand new learner of Kurmanji, you’ll want to use this Grammar Overview after the two-day course as a quick reference throughout your continued Kurdish language learning. You’ll find much more detailed and very complete self-directed grammar exercises in Exercises in Kurmanji Grammar (Behdtnt Dialect). The Word List, Vocabulary Cards, Books A and B, and the recordings that go with Books A and B will complete your Kurdish language training.

Lesson # 1

Grammar Notes
(from Chapter 1 of Exercises in Kurmanji Grammar)

A. Direct Case Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns

Azad came to my house yesterday. He brought a gift.
He came to my house yesterday. He brought this.

Personal pronouns (such as “he”) and demonstrative pronouns (such as “this”) often take the place of nouns (such as “Azad”) in our sentences when we speak English.

The same is true in Kurdish. Sometimes in Kurdish, you don’t even need to use a personal pronoun in the sentence!

There are two “cases” in Kurmanji: “direct” and “oblique”. In this lesson we’ll study the “direct” case. In Lesson 2 we’ll study the “oblique” case.

Direct Case Personal Pronouns
Ez / I, me
Tu / you(sng)
Ew / he, him/
she, her / it
em / we, us
hîn / you (pl)
ew / they, them

Demonstrative Pronouns
ev, eve / this - these (near)
ew, ewe that - those (far)

…..

Şirîn

Grammar Overview
Behdînî Kurmanji 

American Kurdish Center

American Kurdish Center
"Nî Roj" language learning series
Grammar Overview
(Behdînî Kurmanji)
By Şirîn

The Washington, D.C.
Kurdish
Language & Culture
Istitute

The “Nî Roj” language learning series is for English speakers who
are learning the Behdînî Kurmanji language. Write to
cjrempel@cs.com for an order form for these books, cassette tapes,
and CDs.

These are the books (and recordings) in the “NT Roj” language
learning series:

Get Started! Teach yourself how to write and pronounce
Kurdish [in Latin script]
Grammar Overview (Behdînî Kurmanji)
Book A: Activities for Learners of Behdînî Kurmanji
Book B: Activities for Learners of Behdînî Kurmanji
Exercises in Kurmanji Grammar (Behdînî Dialect)
English-Kurmanji, Kurmancî-Inglîzî Word List
(Behdînî Dialect) [in Latin script]
A Crash Course in Learning Behdînî Kurmanji
A Brief Introduction to Learning Behdînî Kurmanji

© 1996 and 2002 by Şirîn. All rights reserved. No part of this
“Nî Roj” language learning series may be reproduced in any form
without written permission from the author c/o cjrempel@cs.com
or c/o American Kurdish Center - 3857 Plaza Dr. - Fairfax,
VA 22030 USA.