—Kurmanji Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings

ojname xwendin ‘to read newspapers,’ kovar weşandin ‘to publish journals,’
and hotêl çûyîn ‘to frequent hotels’ are generic compounds. A modified
direct object of an infinitive is linked to the infinitive by an objective
genitive construct. So, vexwarina qehweya xwe ‘to drink one’s coffee,’
xwendina rojnameya xwe ya bi kurdî ‘to read one’s newspaper in Kurdish,’
weşandina kovara xwe ‘to publish one’s journal,’ and çûyîna min ya
hotêlê ‘my going to the hotel,’ where the objects and complements are definite,
indefinite, or modified (i.e. not generic), become construct phrases.
Ez dixwazim her sibeh bi vexwarina
qehweya xwe re rojnameya xwe ya bi
kurdî jî bixwînim.
I want to read my newspaper in Kurdish
every morning while drinking my coffee.
Bi çûyîna min ya hotêlê dilê xwe girtin. They were offended by my going to the
hotel.
The infinitive is also used with the preposition ji bo to express purpose:
Ji bo dîtina wan ez çûme Sûriyê. I went to Syria in order to see them.
Min bihîst ku li welatên Rohelat çil sal
xebat divêt ji bo çêkirina şerbikekî
ferfûrî.
THE VERB
I have heard that in the countries of the
Orient forty years of labor are needed in
order to produce a porcelain vase.
§ 14. The Present Tense. The present tense corresponds to the English
present used for habitual action (“I work”) and to the present progressive
(“I’m working”). It is formed from the present stem of the verb.
The present stems of a few very common verbs are totally irregular and
must be learned as a principal part of the verb (e.g. dîtin ‘to see’ > bîn-,
xwestin ‘to want’ > xwaz-). With few exceptions, verbs with infinitives
ending in -an, -iyan, -în, and -ûn are regular and form the present stem by
dropping those endings. Verbs that end in -andin (for which type see §28
below) form their present stems by changing the -andin ending to -în- (e.g.
mirandin ‘to cause to die’ > mirîn-).
To form the present tense, the stressed progressive/habitual modal marker
dí is prefixed to the present stem, and the following suffixed personal endings
are added to the stem.
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