100 Essential Kurdish Words

These are 100 essential Kurdish words, curated for learners: the pronouns, verbs, and everyday nouns that unlock simple sentences. Core-first learning works: a small set of essential words does most of the work in daily speech, so mastering this list with spaced repetition gives you the fastest possible start.

#	Word	Pronunciation	English meaning
1	ez	ez	I
2	tu	too	you
3	ew	ehw	he / she
4	em	em	we
5	hûn	hoon	you
6	ev	ev	this
7	çi	chee	what
8	kî	kee	who
9	na	nah	no
10	û	oo	and
11	an	ahn	or
12	lê	leh	but
13	di	dee	in
14	bi	bee	with
15	yek	yek	one
16	du	doo	two
17	mezin	meh-ZIN	big
18	biçûk	bee-CHOOK	small
19	baş	bahsh	good
20	nû	noo	new
21	mirov	mee-ROHV	person
22	av	ahv	water
23	roj	rohzh	day
24	sal	sahl	year
25	dem	dem	time
26	mal	mahl	house
27	kar	kahr	work
28	jiyan	zhee-YAHN	life
29	peyv	payv	word
30	bûn	boon	be
31	hebûn	heh-BOON	have
32	kirin	kuh-RIN	do
33	gotin	goh-TIN	say
34	zanîn	zah-NEEN	know
35	dîtin	dee-TIN	see
36	çûn	choon	go
37	hatin	hah-TIN	come
38	dan	dahn	give
39	girtin	gir-TIN	take
40	xwestin	khwes-TIN	want
41	xwarin	khwah-RIN	eat
42	vexwarin	veh-khwah-RIN	to drink
43	niha	nee-HAH	now
44	vir	vir	here
45	wir	wir	there
46	çima	chee-MAH	why
47	hemû	heh-MOO	all
48	gelek	geh-LEK	many
49	îro	EE-roh	today
50	sibe	sih-BEH	tomorrow
51	dirêj	dee-REZH	long
52	çêkirin	cheh-kee-RIN	make, create
53	tişt	tisht	thing, object
54	nîşandan	nee-shahn-DAHN	show, display
55	her	her	every, each
56	bin	bin	under, below (bottom)
57	loma	loh-MAH	therefore, so
58	nêrîn	neh-REEN	look, direct one's gaze
59	zêde	zeh-DEH	more, a greater amount
60	pir	pir	very, much
61	karîn	kah-REEN	can, be able to
62	şêwe	sheh-WEH	form, shape (manner)
63	fikirîn	fee-kee-REEN	think
64	alîkarî	ah-lee-kah-REE	help
65	nizm	nizm	low, not high
66	deng	deng	sound, voice
67	xêz	khehz	line
68	herî	heh-REE	most (superlative marker)
69	hejmar	hezh-MAHR	number
70	berî	beh-REE	before, earlier than
71	ser	ser	over, on top of (head, top)
72	zivirîn	zee-vee-REEN	turn, rotate
73	sedem	seh-DEM	cause, reason
74	ji	zhi	from (also: than in comparisons)
75	bang	bahng	call, summons
76	yekem	yeh-KEM	first (ordinal 1st)
77	gel	gel	people, folk
78	heman	heh-MAHN	same, identical
79	jêr	zhehr	down, below
80	alî	ah-LEE	side
81	cuda	joo-DAH	different
82	livîn	lee-VEEN	move, stir
83	vedîtin	veh-dee-TIN	find, discover
84	kur	koor	boy, son
85	kevn	kevn	old (of things)
86	hevok	heh-VOHK	sentence (grammatical unit)
87	beş	besh	part, portion
88	sê	seh	the number 3
89	standin	stahn-DIN	get, receive
90	cih	jih	place, location
91	hewa	heh-WAH	air (also: weather)
92	jî	zhee	also, too
93	ku	koo	where (question word; also: that, which)
94	piştî	pish-TEE	after, following
95	paş	pahsh	back, behind
96	lîstin	lees-TIN	play
97	tenê	teh-NEH	only, alone
98	gilover	gee-loh-VER	round, circular
99	mêr	mehr	man, adult male (also: husband)
100	dawî	dah-WEE	end, final part

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Curated for learners: Kurdish has no reliable public frequency corpus, so this list is ordered by usefulness, not by measured frequency. Pronunciation is a respelling guide, not phonetic notation.

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Frequently asked questions about Kurdish words

How many Kurdish words do you need for a basic conversation?

Across languages, a small core of words does most of the work in everyday speech: the first few hundred words carry the bulk of simple conversation. You can manage basic exchanges with a few hundred words; this list is the foundation to build on.

What is the fastest way to memorize these 100 words?

Spaced repetition: review each word just before you would forget it, at growing intervals. It moves vocabulary into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list. Turn the 100 words into flashcards and review a small batch daily; the whole list fits into two to three weeks.

Are 100 words enough to speak Kurdish?

No. One hundred words let you recognize the skeleton of most sentences, but not hold a real conversation. They are the right starting point: after this list, keep growing your core vocabulary and start speaking practice early, even with simple phrases.

Where does this Kurdish word list come from?

It is curated for learners rather than corpus-ranked: Kurdish has no reliable public frequency corpus, so we selected the words that unlock everyday sentences and ordered them by usefulness. These are essential words, not a measured frequency ranking.