Kurdish grammar

• A Kurdish noun in the absolute state, in other words without any ending of any kind, gives a generic sense of the noun.
• It is also the "lexical" form of the noun, i.e. the form in which a noun is given in a vocabulary list or dictionary.
• Nouns in Kurmanji are declined in four cases: nominative, oblique, construct (or ezafe) and vocative. The distinction of nominative and oblique doesn't exist in Sorani.
• Nouns in Sorani can be simple or compound.
• Any unmodified noun in Kurdish may be generic, i.e., it can refer to one or more than one items. Plural is not obligatory when more than one item are implied.
• For most in Sorani nouns the plural is formed through adding a suffix, some are formed through irregular endings. For Kurmanji, nominative plural is marked by verbs.
• There are 3 grammatical genders in Kurmanji: feminine, masculine and neuter. Sorani has no grammatical gender. Languages like Zazaki and Hawramani have likewise 3 grammatical genders.
• Definiteness is not formally marked in Kurmanji. In Sorani nouns may be marked with a definite marker (-aka) or an indefinite marker (-ēk).
• Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in number and case.
• Personal pronouns are marked for number and person (1st, 2nd, 3rd). They can be free-standing or take the form of clitics. Free-standing forms are used for emphasis.

Ezafe is used with nouns to indicate possession. Ezafe (-y) joins the possessive noun with its possessed noun

jēgā-y pāsā = the king's place (Lit: place of king)

Ezafe is also used alongside pronouns to show possession. Ezafe (-y) joins the possessor pronoun with its possessed noun.[7]

jēgā-y min = my place (Lit: place of me)

Oblique

Kurdish verbs agree with their subjects in person and number. They have the following major characteristics:

• Verbs have two stems: present and past.
• Present stems can be simple or secondary.
• Simple tenses are formed by the addition of personal endings to the two stems.
• Secondary stems consist of a root + suffixes that indicate transitivity, intransitivity, and causativity.
• There are 3 tenses: present, past, and future.
• There are 2 voices: active and passive.
• There are 2 aspects: imperfective and perfective. Aspect is as important as tense.
• There are 4 moods: indicative, conditional, imperative, and potential.
• Past tense transitive sentences are formed as ergative constructions, i.e., transitive verbs in the past tense agree with the object rather than the subject of the sentence.

Present and future tenses for the verb zanîn ( to know).

Past tenses for intransitive verb of hatin (to come).

If a past transitive verb accepts a nominative personal suffix, it agrees with the object of the sentence. Transitive past verbs in Sorani have OBL connected/dependent(not independent) personal pronouns on the object, if object is not mentioned they are on prefix or first part of the verb if the verb was compound, if there were not any prefix so they will be on the same place as th NOM ones. OBL connected pronouns: -m, -t, -y, -man, -tan, -yan.