Counting to ten in Kurdish
One to ten, for prices, platforms, rooms and how many beers. Play the ten Kurdish words against the clock, with a note on how locals really use each one after every answer. All ten are written out below.
All 10 Kurdish phrases in this lesson
- yekYEK
- One
- duDU
- Two
- sêSE
- Three
- çarCHAR
- Four
- pêncPENJ
- Five
- ŞeşSHESH
- Six
- HeftHEFT
- Seven
- HeştHESHT
- Eight
- NehNEH
- Nine
- dehDEH
- Ten
Numbers never change for gender in Kurdish, whatever a phrasebook may tell you. When one means "a", it becomes the ending -ek instead: çayek, one tea. Yek stands alone for counting and phone numbers.
Didu (di-DU) is the form used when counting out loud with nothing after it: yek, didu, sisê. In front of a noun it shortens to du.
The vowel is the one in "say". Counting alone: sisê (si-SE). The pattern repeats: the bare counting forms of two and three are longer than the forms used with a noun.
Said "char". It shows up again in the days of the week: çarşem, the fourth day, is Wednesday.
Twenty is bîst (BEEST), thirty sî (SEE), forty çil (CHIL), fifty pêncî (pen-JEE). The tens are irregular enough that they are worth learning as a block.