Kurdish phrasebook
Kurdish (Kurdî / کوردی) is the language of the Kurdish people who live in the region known as Kurdistan, which includes parts of four countries Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
Kurdish is an Indo-European language, part of an enormous language family that includes many languages of the Indian sub-continent and most of the languages of Europe. Its branch of that family includes the other modern languages Persian, Pushtu and Balochi, but none of those are mutually intelligible. Kurdish is completely unrelated to Turkish and Arabic, though it includes some loanwords from those languages.
This phrase book is for the Kurmanji dialect which covers most of Bhadinan area of Iraqi Kurdistan and Kurdistan of southern Turkey.
Pronunciation guide
Vowels
Consonants
Common diphthongs
Phrase list
Basics
- Hello.
- Rojbaş! : Ev dema te xweş be!
- How are you?
- Tu çawa yî? (singular): Hûn çawa ne? (plural)
- Fine, thank you.
- Spas, ez baş im!
- What is your name?
- Navê te çi ye?
- My name is ______ .
- Navê min ______ e/ye.
- Nice to meet you.
- Ez gelek kêfxweş bûm.
- Please.
- Zehmet nebe.
- Thank you.
- Spas. : Destxweş bî!
- Thank you very much
- Gelek spas
- You're welcome.
- Spasxweş!. : Ser çawa!
- Yes.
- Erê.
- No.
- Na.
- Excuse me. (getting attention)
- Ca bala xwe bide min! : Ji min re binêre!
- Excuse me. (begging pardon)
- Li min bibore/bibihure!
- I'm sorry.
- Li min bibore/bibihure!
- Goodbye
- Bi xatirê te!: Emê hev bibînin!
- I can't speak name of language.
- Ez nikarim bi (îngilîzî, tirkî, erebî, kurdî...) biaxivim. : Ez bi (îngilîzî, tirkî, erebî, kurdî...) nizanim. (Literally "I don't know 'the language'.")
- Do you speak Kurdish?
- Gelo (ma) tu bi kurdî dizanî? (Literally "Do you know Kurdish?")
- Who speaks English here?
- Li min bibore, li vir kî bi îngilîzî dizane? (Literally " Excuse me, who knows english here?")
- Help!
- Hawar!
- Look out!
- Berê xwe bide!
- Good morning.
- Rojbaş! : Beyanîbaş!
- Good evening.
- Êvarbaş!
- Good night.
- Şevbaş! : Şevxweş!
- Good night (to sleep)
- Şevxweş!
- I don't understand you.
- Ez te fehm nakim.
- Where is the toilet?
- Hemam li kû ye?
- Right now.
- niha
- I Love you
- Ez ji te hez dikim.
- Do you have .... ?
- .... heye ?
- I am hungry.
- Ez birçî me.
- I am a foreigner.
- Ez biyanî me. : Ez xerîb im. : Ez ne ji vir im.
- Please notice
- In kurdish language, pronouncation of "x" is not like in english. It sounds like "r" in german. Simply a thick "h" which comes from deep throat.
Problems
Numbers
½ - nims
0 - sifir
-1 - dibin sifirin de yek
1 - yek
2 - du
2½ - dula nims
3 - se
4 - char
5 - penc
6 - shesh
7 - haft
8 - hesht
9 - nuh
10 - deh
11 - yazdeh
12 - duazdeh
13 - sezdeh
14 - chardeh
15 - pencdeh
16 - shesdeh
17 - hafdeh
18 - hesdeh
19 - nuzdeh
20 - bisd
50 - pencih
60 - sheshdi
90 - noavad
100 - sad
200 - dusad
300 - sesad
400 - charsad
500 - pencsad
600 - sheshsad
700 - haftsad
800 - heshtsad
900 - nuhsad
1000 - hezar
2000 - du hezar
Time
Clock time
Duration
Days
Monday - Dushem
Tuesday - Seshem
Wednesday - Charsem
Thursday - Pencsem
Friday - Ini
Saturday - Semi
Sunday - Yeksem
Months
Writing time and date
Colors
Red:Sor
, Yellow:Zard
, Green:Saoz
, Black:Resh
, White:sepid
, Blue:kaow
Transportation
Bus and train
Bus : Pass Train : Kitar / Shamenafer
Directions
right: rast Left: cep Turn:bsurewe Go Straight: rast bro Street: sheqam Lane:kolan neighborhood: gerek city: shar Market : bazar
Taxi
Lodging
Money
Para or dinar
Eating
Xwardan
Bars
Shopping
Driving