Shops and hotels in Kurdish
Open, closed, a bag, the wifi password: the checkout and the front desk. 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
- ... heye?HE-ye
- Do you have...?
- ... li ku ye?li KU ye
- Where is...?
- Vekirîve-ki-REE
- Open
- Girtîgir-TEE
- Closed
- Tûrikek?too-ri-KEK
- A bag?
- Pir biha yePIR bi-HA ye
- Too expensive
- Min rezervasyon kiriyemin re-zer-vas-YON ki-RI-ye
- I have a reservation
- Taştê tê de heye?tash-TE te de HE-ye
- Is breakfast included?
- Şîfreya wifiyê çi ye?shee-fre-YA wai-fai-YE CHI ye
- What's the wifi password?
- Ez dikarim...?ez di-KA-rim
- Can I...?
Put the item first, then heye: nan heye? (do you have bread?). Heye means "there is" and tune (TU-ne) means "there is not", which is the answer you will get about half the time.
Item first, then li ku ye. Şîr li ku ye? (where is the milk?). Note the word order: Kurmanji puts the question word late, where English puts it first.
What the shopkeeper asks at the counter. Tûrik is a bag or sack; for the thin plastic kind you will just as often hear the loanword poşet in Türkiye. Answer erê or na, spas.
Bargaining is normal in bazaars.
Breakfast is fresh bread, cheese, honey, eggs and tea.
"Ez dikarim li vir rûnim?", can I sit here?