—Kurmanji Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings

tu bíhatibûya hun bíhatibûna te bídîtibûya we bídîtibûya
ew bíhatibûya ew bíhatibûna wî bídîtibûya wan bídîtibûya
ez néhatibûma em néhatibûna min nédîtibûya me nédîtibûya
tu néhatibûya hun néhatibûna te nédîtibûya we nédîtibûya
ew néhatibûya ew néhatibûna wî nédîtibûya wan nédîtibûya
(2) The second past conditional is formed by prefixing the subjunctive bíor
né- and substituting ba- in place of bû in the past perfect.
INTRANSITIVE ERGATIVE
ez bíhatibam em bíhatiban min bídîtiba me bídîtiba
tu bíhatibayî hun bíhatiban te bídîtiba we bídîtiba
ew bíhatiba ew bíhatiban wî bídîtiba wan bídîtiba
ez néhatibam em néhatiban min nédîtiba me nédîtiba
tu néhatibayî hun néhatiban te nédîtiba we nédîtiba
ew néhatiba ew néhatiban wî nédîtiba wan nédîtiba
The past conditional mood is used in the following instances:
(1) In past contrafactual conditional sentences, the verb of the protasis
(the “if” clause) is in the past perfect conditional mood (with or without
bi-), and the verb of the apodosis (the result clause) is in either the past perfect
conditional or the future perfect conditional. When either part of a past
contrafactual conditional contains the verb bûn, it is in the past conditional,
not the past perfect conditional. When the apodosis contains the verb karîn,
it is usually in the future perfect conditional.
Ma eger Aristo ne yunanî, lê çînî bûya,
wê bikaribûya felsefa xwe pêk bîne?
Mewlana eger ne parsî, lê meselen bi
tirkî nivîsandibûya, ma wê bikarîbûya
Mesnewî biafirîne?
Ger ez neçûbûma Dêrikê, min Girê
Tûrcelê nedîtiba.
KURMANJI KURDISH
64
If Aristotle had been not Greek but
Chinese, would he have been able to
put his philosophy together?
If Mevlana had written not in Persian
but, for instance, in Turkish, he
wouldn’t have been able to create the
Masnavi, would he?
If I hadn’t gone to Dêrik, I wouldn’t
have seen Turjel Hill.