Even after you have a Sorani Kurdish keyboard set up on your computer or device, it can be a challenge to find the right key to type the letter that you need. This is especially true if your physical keyboard is made for English or another language. The pictures below show how the keys on a United States English keyboard correspond to the Sorani Kurdish keyboard. You can use these pictures as cheat sheets to help you find the right key for the Kurdish letter that you want to type. You’ll also find free, printable reference sheets at the bottom of this page.
All of the Sorani keyboard diagrams on this page were made based on the default keyboard layout in Windows 10. Sorani Kurdish keyboards on other devices should have the same basic layout for the letters used in Kurdish.
Sorani versus US English keyboard layouts
Sorani Kurdish keyboard compared to US English keyboard.
To access some Sorani letters you’ll need to push the Shift key. Here’s the Sorani keyboard layout with Shift key pressed.
Sorani Kurdish keyboard, holding down the Shift key, compared to US English keyboard.
The “hamza” key for words that begin with vowels
The hardest key to find on the keyboard might be the “hamza”, the letter that is used at the beginning of words that begin with vowels. It’s found on the “U” key of an English keyboard.
Sorani Kurdish keyboard compared to US English keyboard, with the “hamza” key highlighted.
Letters on the keyboard not used in writing Sorani
Not all of the letters on the Sorani keyboard are used regularly when writing the language. Since Sorani doesn’t have capital letters, not all of the keys were needed for Kurdish letters when Shift is pressed. The leftover spaces on the keyboard were filled in with letters that are used in writing Arabic. The pictures below have these keys “blanked out”, or colored white, to make it easier to see the keys that you’ll actually need in writing Sorani.*
Sorani Kurdish keyboard, holding down the Shift key, compared to US English keyboard. Keys not needed to write Sorani Kurdish are whited out.
* Note that the letter ی, which is used in Sorani, is whited out on the Shift + B key. The better way to type this letter is by pressing the Y key (without shift).
Printable quick reference sheets
Download and print these free reference sheets to help you find the right key at a glance while you’re typing Sorani Kurdish. There are three options:
If you’re studying Sorani Kurdish, learning to read and write in the Kurdish script is an important tool. Some language learning resources for Sorani use the Latin script, but to go deeper you’ll need to take advantage of materials that use the Kurdish script. In daily life Sorani speakers nearly always use the Kurdish script to read and write their language (the exceptions being text messages and social media), so if you plan on spending time in Kurdistan, knowing the Kurdish script will make shopping, getting around, and learning more of the language much easier.
In daily life Sorani speakers nearly always use the Kurdish script. If you plan on spending time in Kurdistan, knowing the Kurdish script will make shopping, getting around, and learning the language much easier.
Learning the Kurdish script is something that you can do on your own. In this article I’m going to suggest one approach, using four different resources.
Recommended resources for learning the Kurdish script
None of these four resources introduces new letters in exactly the same order as the others so it’s not easy to use them all at the same time. Instead, I recommend using each of them to master different aspects of the Sorani script in turn, by following these steps:
1. Watch Glossika’s video
Watching this video is like joining a 45 minute class taught by a master teacher. It quickly gives an overview of the entire alphabet, which has some major differences from English or other Latin based scripts. That’s why I recommend starting with Glossika’s video, Learn to write and pronounce the Kurdish Alphabet, first. The teacher, Iman, does a fantastic job of explaining how the Kurdish alphabet works and introducing the letters in each of their different positions. The video is too fast to really master the letters though. Even with pausing the video and taking time to practice writing each letter, don’t expect to know them all by the end.
To view the letter groupings as they are introduced in this video, and for links to specific parts of the video, please click to expand the list below.
Continue mastering recognition of the letters by completing Tabea Kaufmann’s “Kurdish reading lessons”. She has generously allowed Kurdish Central to host these lessons as a free resource. Each lesson introduces a few letters and provides reading practice, using only the letters introduced so far.
Click below to see which letters are introduced in each lesson. Lessons that aren’t listed below are practice reading or exercises that don’t introduce new letters.
"Kurdish reading lessons" letter groupings
Lesson 1. A. ř d r a e (ڕ د ر ا ە)
Lesson 1. D. j z o u û w (ژ ز ۆ و وو و)
Lesson 2. A. s ş ê î y hamza (س ش ێ ی ئ)
Lesson 2. D. b n p t (ب ن پ ت)
Lesson 4. g k ł l m (گ ک ڵ ل م لا)
Lesson 5. A. f q v (ف ق ڤ)
Lesson 5. D. c ç (ج چ)
Lesson 6. A. ḧ x h (ح خ ھ)
Lesson 6. D. ' ẍ (ع غ)
3. “The New Alphabet” Kurdish reader
The Kurdish reader, ئەلف و بێ ی نوێ (“The New Alphabet”), is a classic that many Kurdish children still use in school. Tabea’s lessons, above, introduce letters in roughly the same order as this reader and include some example words and readings from it. For further reading practice, you can refer to the reader itself. If you are living in Kurdistan, this book is widely available at booksellers and in print shops.
Click below to see the order in which this reader introduces new letters and the page numbers where they are found.
"The New Alphabet" letter order
Page 7: d (د)
Page 7: r (ر)
Page 7: a (ا)
Page 8 (18): î / y (ی)
Page 9: w / u (و)
Page 9: y (ی)
Page 10: e (ە)
Page 11: û (وو)
Page 12: z (ز)
Page 13: o (ۆ)
Page 14: (ئ)
Page 15 (19): ê (ێ)
Page 16: ř (ڕ)
Page 17: j (ژ)
Page 20: n (ن)
Page 22: m (م)
Page 24: b (ب)
Page 26: t (ت)
Page 28: s (س)
Page 30: ş (ش)
Page 32: k (ک)
Page 34: p (پ)
Page 36: g (گ)
Page 38: l (ل)
Page 40: h (ھ)
Page 41: ł (ڵ)
Page 43: q (ق)
Page 45: (لا)
Page 46: f (ف)
Page 48: (ڵا)
Page 49: v (ڤ)
Page 51: c (ج)
Page 53: ç (چ)
Page 55: x (خ)
Page 57: ḧ (ح)
Page 59: ' (ع)
Page 61: ẍ (غ)
4. Master writing using the Complete Course
While the resources above will help you learn to read the Kurdish alphabet, the best instruction for writing is found in “Writing in the Kurdish Script”, in Book B of Şirîn and Gulzar’s Sorani Kurdish: Complete Course. “Writing in the Kurdish Script” shows how Kurdish people write each letter out by hand: where they put their pen or pencil to start, which direction they move it, etc. (Read here for how to type in the Kurdish on computers or mobile devices.) It also includes punctuation and numbers, which are not found in the other resources. The disadvantage of this resource is that the first portion uses examples in Behdini Kurdish rather than Sorani. Don’t plan on learning vocabulary items from the Behdini section, but I do recommend it strongly for learning to write the letters. There’s also a short reading section at the end that’s in Sorani only.
"Writing in the Kurdish Script" letter groupings
Lesson 1: n b t p (ن ب ت پ)
Lesson 2: î/y i punctuation (ی — punctuation)
Lesson 3: d a e ê (د ا ە ێ)
Lesson 4: m q f v (م ق ف ڤ)
Lesson 5: w/u û o (و وو ۆ)
Lesson 6: c ç x ḧ (ج چ خ ح)
Lesson 7: s ş (س ش)
Lesson 8: k g l h ł (ک گ ل ھ ڵ)
Lesson 9: r z ř j (ر ز ڕ ژ)
Lesson 10: ' ẍ (ع غ)
What resources helped you learn the Kurdish script?
Have you learned to read and write the Kurdish alphabet? Please leave a comment on our Facebook page and let us know about your experience and if the resources above were helpful or if you have others to recommend.
