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4.4.3.2 Verb agreement
Verbs in nominative-accusative sentences agree with the subject in person and
number, while verbs in ergative-absolutive sentences agree with the person and number
of the object. The following examples illustrate these differences. In (43), a present tense
transitive sentence, the verb, bînim, ‘I see,’ having the 1SG ending -im, agrees with the
subject ez, 1D. Example (44) is in the past tense; the verb ending, again -im, agrees with
the object ez, 1D. Examples (45) and (46) are two more examples of present and past
tense sentences showing verb agreement. Example (47) shows a past tense intransitive
sentence. Intransitive verbs are always in the nominative case, agreeing with the subject.
Northern Kurdish does have some irregular verbs that always follow ergative-absolutive
agreement; these are discussed in § 4.4.3.5.
(43) ez wî bîn-im
1D 3OM see.PRS-1SG
‘I see him.’
(44) te ez dît-im
2O 1D see.PST-1SG
‘You saw me.’
(45) Cemal nan-î firoş-it
Jemal nan-OBL.M sell.PRS-3SG
‘Jemal sells bread.’
(46) Dapîr-ê çend sêv kirrî-n
grandmother-OBL.F some apple buy.PST-3PL
‘The grandmother bought some apples.’
(47) ez çu-m=e Dohuk-ê
1D
go.PST-1SG=DIR Dohuk-OBL.F
‘I went to Dohuk.’
Verb suffixes are summarized in Table 7 according to the parameters of the tense
of the verb and the final phonemic segment of the stem. These endings are generally what
you will hear in the Bahdini subdialect of Northern Kurdish. Resources on Northern
Kurdish reveal that the language varies from area to area. This is true for aspects of the
language other than verbs. The endings for non-past and past tenses vary only in the third
person singular.