Borîya dûdar · Past with present relevance
Use hatime, çûme and dîtiye in context.
By the end of this lessonForm affirmative and negative perfect forms and preserve ergative agreement with transitive verbs.
The idea
Borîya dûdar presents past events as relevant to the present or the current topic. After a consonant-final past stem, use -ime with ez, -iye with tu or singular ew, and -ine for plural subjects: ez hatime, tu hatiye, ew hatiye, em hatine. After a vowel-final stem, use -me, -ye, -ne: ez çûme, tu çûye, em çûne. Transitive verbs remain ergative: Min ew dîtiye; Wê ez dîtime.
See it in a sentence
Negate with ne-: nehatime, neçûme, nedîtiye. Tu and singular ew have the same perfect ending here. Depending on context, Turkish -miş or English “have/has done” can be useful translations, but this form does not mean that every event was merely heard from somebody else. Keep dûdar (hatime) distinct from the past perfect (hatibûm).
Build it step by step
- Decide whether the past event is presented as relevant now or to the current topic.
- Check whether the past stem ends in a consonant or vowel before selecting the perfect ending.
- For a transitive verb, choose the ending from the object and keep the doer oblique.
| Person / object | hatin | çûn |
|---|---|---|
| ez | hatime | çûme |
| tu | hatiye | çûye |
| ew (singular) | hatiye | çûye |
| em / hûn / ew (plural) | hatine | çûne |
| negative with ez | nehatime | neçûme |
Take a sentence apart
she: oblique doer
us: plural object
has seen: perfect agreeing with em
English present perfect and Turkish -miş are useful approximations; Kurmanji use also depends on relevance to the topic.
A common trap
Incorrect: Min ew dîtime.
Correct: Min ew dîtiye.
With singular ew as object, use -iye, not the ending for ez.
Grammar reference: Thackston, §§ 20–20.1 · Perfect forms and their use