—Kurmanji Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings

Li dora xwe dinêrim. I look around myself.
Ferzende di ranê xwe da birîn bû. Ferzende was wounded in his thigh.
With past transitive verbs (see §18.2), xwe takes its person and number
from the logical subject (= agent).
Ezê vegeriyama Şamê, minê hevalên
xwe ên li wir bidîtana.
Te xwe ji bîr dikir û te çemê bajarê
xwe tanî bîra xwe.
I would have returned to Damascus; I
would have seen my friends there.
You forgot yourself, and you remembered
the river of your town.
§ 8. Prepositions, Postpositions, Circumpositions. Certain prepositions,
particularly bi, di, ji, and li, occur as circumpositions that envelop the
complement, that is, the preposition itself marks the beginning of the prepositional
phrase, and the end of the complement is marked by one of the postpositions,
ve, de, or re (or the variants, va, da, and ra).
The postpositional element does not always, in and of itself, add anything
substantial to the meaning of the prepositional phrase, and most prepositions
occur without the postpositional element without any significant distinction
in meaning. Others need the postpositional element to define the
signification of the preposition, as di … de ‘in’ vs. di … re ‘with’ and ji …
ve ‘from’ vs. ji … re ‘to, for, with.’ Generally the postpositions have the
following significations: de indicates stationary position in or at; re indicates
accompaniment; and ve indicates motion away from.
Common prepositions and circumpositions:
ba to, towards
ber in front of, toward
bêî (bêyî, bêy) without
berî before
bi with, by means of (see below)
bi … re with, along with
bi tenê except for
bi xêra due to, thanks to
derveyî outside of
di … de in
KURMANJI KURDISH
20
di … re by, via, with
di … ve through
di bareya …de about, concerning
digel with
di nav … de among, amidst,
inside of
di navbera … de between
heta until, as far as
ji from, of (partitive)
ji … re to, for, with