—Kurmanji Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings

present, as in the following:
Kaset û cd derket li hemû mûzîk
marketan.
Konferansa Tevgera Jinên Azad bi
dawî bû.
Li başûrê Kurdistanê di 10 salên dawî
de 2733 kes mirin, 4913 kes jî
birîndar bûn.
The cassette and CD have come to (are
available in) all music stores.
The conference of the Liberated
Women’s Movement has ended.
2,733 people have died and 4,913 people
have been wounded over the last ten
years in the south of Kurdistan.
A distinction between the two meanings of the verb bûn, ‘to be’ and ‘to
become,’ is shown in the past tense by the placement of the verb. When it
means ‘to be’ it follows the predicate, but when it means ‘to become’ the
verb comes between the subject and the predicate, as in the following:
Ew zabitekî jîr û jêhatî bû. He was a talented and worthy officer.
Ew bû zabitekî jîr û jêhatî. He became a talented and worthy officer.
§ 18.1. The Past Habitual/Progressive (Intransitive). The past habitual (‘I
used to go’) and progressive (‘I was going’) is formed by adding the habitual/progressive
prefix dí- to the simple past.
ez díhatim em díhatin ez díçûm em díçûn
tu díhatî hun díhatin tu díçûyî hun díçûn
ew díhat ew díhatin ew díçû ew díçûn
Gava diçûm dibistanê û vedigeriyam,
dêlikek teva du cewrên xwe li ser riya
min xuya dibûn û bi min da direyan.
Leşkerên tirk wek pelkên daran di ser
pişta hespan de dihatin xarê.
THE VERB
When I was going to school and coming
back, a dog and her two pups used to
appear in front of me and bark at me.
Turkish soldiers were coming down
from the backs of horses like leaves of
trees.
For past habituals in di-, the negative is regularly formed by prefixing néto
the affirmative (and not, as in the present tense, by combining the negative
prefix with di-):
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