Borîya têdeyî · Completed past events
Bring together past stems, negation and who did what.
By the end of this lessonTell a short past sequence and distinguish subject agreement from ergative object agreement.
The idea
Use the past stem for a completed event: hatin → hat-, çûn → çû-, ketin → ket-, dîtin → dît-. Intransitives agree with their direct subject: ez hatim, tu hatî, ew hat, em/hûn/ew hatin. With transitive dîtin, the doer is oblique and the verb agrees with the direct object: Wê ez dîtim; Min ew dît. This unit combines the earlier past and ergative lessons in complete sentences.
See it in a sentence
Negation is ne- before the past verb: nehatim, neçûm, nedîtim. No di- is needed for the simple completed-event pattern. Duh means yesterday; paşê means then. Do not identify this tense solely with eyewitness reporting: it also states past facts. Turkish -di is a useful learning comparison, not an exact rule about whether an event was witnessed.
Build it step by step
- Choose the past stem and identify whether the verb takes an object.
- For intransitives, match the subject. For transitives, use an oblique doer and match the direct object.
- Add ne- for negation; use separate clauses to tell events in order.
| Subject / roles | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| ez | hatim | nehatim |
| tu | hatî | nehatî |
| ew (singular) | hat | nehat |
| em / hûn / ew (plural) | hatin | nehatin |
| she → me | Wê ez dîtim. | Wê ez nedîtim. |
| I → them | Min ew dîtin. | Min ew nedîtin. |
Take a sentence apart
she: oblique doer
me: direct object form
saw: agrees with the object
English keeps the subject form in “she saw me”; Kurmanji uses wê ez and object agreement in this past construction.
A common trap
Incorrect: Wan ez dîtin.
Correct: Wan ez dîtim.
A plural doer does not force a plural verb; the object ez controls this ending.
Grammar reference: Thackston, §§ 18 and 18.2 · Simple past and ergative agreement