kurmanji_complete

THE VERB
§ 11. Present Copulas. The present-tense copulas (‘am, is, are’) are enclit-
ics, i.e. unstressed, but they are usually written as separate words.
POSTCONSONANTAL POSTVOCALIC
im in me ne
î in yî ne
e in ye ne
Examples of postconsonantal copulas:
ez kurd im ‘I am Kurdish’ em kurd in ‘we are Kurdish’
tu kurd î ‘you are Kurdish” hun kurd in ‘you are Kurdish’
ew kurd e ‘s/he is Kurdish’ ew kurd in ‘they are Kurdish’
Examples of postvocalic copulas:
ez bi wî re me ‘I’m with him’ em bi wî re ne ‘we are with him’
tu bi wî re yî ‘you’re with him’ hun bi wî re ne ‘you are with him’
ew bi wî re ye ‘s/he’s with him’ ew bi wî re ne ‘they are with him’
The negative ne (stressed) is positioned before the complement (or whatever
is negated, but not before the copula). Examples of copulas with negatives:
ez ne kurd im ‘I’m not Kurdish’ em ne kurd in ‘we aren’t Kurdish’
tu ne kurd î ‘you aren’t Kurdish’ hun ne kurd in ‘you aren’t Kurdish’
ew ne kurd e ‘s/he isn’t Kurdish’ ew ne kurd in ‘they aren’t Kurdish’
Other examples are as follows:
Tu xwêndekár î. You are a student.
Tu xwêndekárekî báş î. You are a good student.
Tu né xwêndekárekî báş î. You are not a good student.
Báş e. It is good.
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