Lesson 8: Gender and Izafe 1

← Lesson 7 Lesson 9 →

One of the most important elements of Kurmanji is called the izafe construction. It will be tempting to sprint through the next few lessons. Don’t! The next few lessons will break down the izafe into bite-sized chunks. If you digest each bite fully before moving to the next, you’ll be well equipped build sentences soon! It is impossible to speak Kurmanji without knowing the izafe well.

The izafe serves many purposes in Kurmanji. A few are:

showing possession – my name, our house, my father’s car
describing things – a good book, a big car
relative clauses – The man who came to our house.

These, and other structures, are made with the izafe.

Gender

However, before explaining the izafe, we need to be aware that in Kurmanji nouns possess grammatical gender. In other words, some nouns are considered masculine and others feminine. (Some languages also have neuter gender, but Kurmanji does not.)

There seems to be no general logic as to why nouns are given a certain gender, but good dictionaries will provide the gender of nouns. (See the Resources section for dictionaries.) From now on, when you learn a noun, you simply need to memorize its gender.

One exception to this rule is when a noun refers to a certain person who is either male or female. For example, when “teacher” is used for a male, it is grammatically masculine, and feminine when it refers to a female teacher.

NOTE: The gender of some words is debated and you will see them used as both feminine and masculine. This is just one of the pleasant realities of Kurmanji!

Scroll through the slides below to see all forms.

Singular

Basic izafe endings for singular nouns are:

masculine = ê	feminine = a

So, if we simply want to say “my book,” the form is:

book + first izafe ending (ê or a) + pronoun second form

pirtûk + a (fem) + min

For a review of the second form of pronouns, see Lesson 7.

A few examples:

Masculine Singular

Masculine Example 1:

my name	navê min
your (sg) name	navê te
his name	navê wî
her name	navê wê

our name	navê me
your (pl) name	navê we
their name	navê wan

Izafe Masculine Singular 1Listen to Masculine Singular Example 1

Masculine Example 2:

my hand	destê min
our father	bavê me
your (sg) bread	nanê te
his house	xaniyê wî

her eye	çavê wê
their horse	hespê wan
our photograph	wêneyê me
my ear	guhê min

Izafe Masculine Singular 2Listen to Masculine Singular Example 2

Feminine Singular

Feminine Example 1:

my mother	diya* min
your (sg) mother	diya te
his mother	diya wî
her mother	diya wê

our mother	diya me
your (pl) mother	diya we
their mother	diya wan

NOTE: When used in an izafe construction, the ê in dê changes to i.

Izafe Feminine Singular 1Listen to Feminine Singular Example 1

Feminine Example 2:

my family	malbata min
our room	odeya me
your (sg) finger	tiliya te
his water	ava wî

her apple	sêva wê
their coffee	qehweya wan
our brush	firçeya me
my book	pirtûka min

Izafe Feminine Singular 2Listen to Feminine Singular Example 2

Plural

There is only one izafe ending for the plural: ên. So, the form for the basic izafe is always the same:

noun + ên + pronoun second form

my books = pirtûk + ên + min

Some examples:

my books	pirtûkên min
your (sg) books	pirtûkên te
his books	pirtûkên wî
her books	pirtûkên wê

our books	pirtûkên me
your (pl) books	pirtûkên we
their books	pirtûkên wan

Izafe Plural 1Listen to Plural Example 1

my hands	destên min
our apples	sêvên me
your (sg) fingers	tiliyên te
his houses	xaniyên wî

her eyes	çavên wê
their horses	hespên wan
our photographs	wêneyên me
my ears	guhên min

Izafe Plural 2Listen to Plural Example 2

Question and Answer with Basic Izafe

As we noted above, the izafe shows up in lots of places in Kurmanji. One of these is in short question and answer exchanges related to ownership. For example:

1. Question	Whose book is this?	Ev pirtûka kê ye?
NOTE: kî changes to kê when it is the second part of the izafe construction.
Answer	It is mine.	A min e.

2. Question	Whose book is red?	Pirtûka kê sor e?
Answer	Serdar’s	A Serdar

3. Question	Is Serdar’s house black?	Xaniyê Serdar reş e?
Answer	No, his is white.	Na, yê wî spî ye.

4. Question	Whose rooms are big?	Odeyên kê mezin in?
Answer	Theirs.	Ên wan.

5. Question	Whose guests are these? (These are whose guests?)	Ev mêvanên kê ne?
Answer	Serdar’s.	Ên Serdar.

Q & A with IzafeListen to the Examples

Izafe Chain

As you will see more in the following lessons, izafe constructions can be linked together to form a chain. In order to avoid rushing ahead too quickly, in this lesson we will only introduce a basic izafe chain.

HINT: Think “of” rather than “my” or “’s”.

In English we can say “my father’s book,” but we can also say “the book of my father,” even though it might sound a little weird. Because of the word order of Kurmanji izafe chains, it is helpful if we first think “of” in English.

An example:

Normal English: my father’s book

Alternative English: book of father of me (mine)

pirtûk + a + bav + ê + min

book + of + father + of + me (mine)

Normal English	Alternative English	Kurmanji
my father’s name	name of father of me	navê bavê min
her friend’s (fem) family	family of friend (fem) of her	malbata hevala wê
our brothers’ (pl) books	books of brothers of us	pirtûkên birayên me
your (sg) mother’s photo	photo of mother of you (sg)	wêneyê diya te
their teachers’ (pl) ears	ears of teachers of them	guhên mamosteyên wan
his daughter’s hair	hair of daughter of his	porê keça wî
your (pl) family’s house	house of family of you (pl)	xaniyê malbata we
my sister’s coffee	coffee of sister of me	qehweya xwişka min
his son’s fingers	fingers of son of his	tiliyên kurê wî
her friends’ hands	hands of friends of her	destên hevalên wê

Izafe ChainsListen to the Examples

Remember that these Quizlet sets allow for lots of study and test options. For an explanation of these options, see this page.

The vocabulary assignment for Lesson 8 is to learn the gender of all nouns covered up to this point.

Lesson 08 VocabularyVocabulary Lesson 08 Audio