—Kurmanji Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings

tu hatibûyî hun hatibûn tu çûbûyî hun çûbûn
ew hatibû ew hatibûn ew çûbû ew çûbûn
The negative is formed by prefixing né- to the verb:
ez nehatibûm em nehatibûn ez neçûbûm em neçûbûn
tu nehatibûyî hun nehatibûn tu neçûbûyî hun neçûbûn
ew nehatibû ew nehatibûn ew neçûbû ew neçûbûn
Tu caran neketibû bîra min ku ezê
rojekê ji hîvê jî nefret bikim.
Pirraniya mirovên bajêr çûbûn havîna
xwe li ber lêvên derî û dengizên
başûr derbas kin.
Heta demek pir dirêj bi heval û dostên
xwe re jî nepeyivîbû.
Never had it occurred to my mind that
one day I would hate the moon.
Most of the people of the city had gone
to spend their summers on the shores of
the seas in the south.
He hadn’t spoken to his friends and buddies
for a very long time.
§ 21.1. The Past Perfect Tense (Transitive/Ergative). The past perfect
tense of transitive verbs is formed, like that of intransitive verbs, from the
past stem + -i- + the past tense of bûn on the ergative model. Past stems that
end in vowels add bû directly without the -i-.
min dîtibû I had seen (it) me dîtibû we had seen (it)
te dîtibû you had seen (it) hun dîtibû you had seen (it)
wî dîtibû he had seen (it) wan dîtibû they had seen (it)
wî ez dîtibûm he had seen me wî em dîtibûn he had seen us
wî tu dîtibûyî he had seen you wî hun dîtibûn he had seen you
wî ew dîtibû he had seen him wî ew dîtibûn he had seen them
Îngilîzan zimanê hindiyan qedexe
nekiribûn. 1
KURMANJI KURDISH
The English had not banned the Indians’
language.
Wî pirr caran biryar dabû ku… Many times he had decided that…
1
For the reason for the plural verb, see §18.3.
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