Introduction

Syllabus

Part I

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Part II

Chapter One

Back to Realelvish

I want to teach you the inner-workings of non-active verbs and negation. In English, infinitives are un-conjugated verbs preceded with "to", like "to teach"; gerunds are verbs being nouns, often with the special suffix "-ing", like "working" or "-ion", like "communication"; and negation is words like "no, not, un-, and non-". Infinitives and gerunds are non-active verbs, and there always must be another active verb in the sentence.

Infinitives

Infinitives are pretty much useless in Sindarin. The only time you will see them is when Tolkien was listing words. But, they exist and you should know how they are made.

A-verb Infinitives are very easy. They are exactly the same as the A-verb Imperatives.

From the root thora- "fence" we get thoro "to fence".

I-verb Infinitives are very easy as well. They are I-verbs in their Present tense conjugation, without any pronoun suffix added.

From the root dar- "halt" we get deri "to halt".

As you can see, this is why dictionaries should never list verbs by their Infinitive forms. When the A, E, and O all are an E in the infitive, how are you to know how to correctly conjugate it? If you've been using a dictionary that lists Sindarin verbs only by their infinitive forms, then throw it out. It is useless.

Gerunds

A-verb gerunds are very easy to make. Add a -d to the root.

From the root thora- "fence" we get thorad "fencing"

I-verb gerunds are nice and easy too. Add -ed to the root.

From the root dar- "halt" we get dared "halting".

Gerunds take the place of infinitives in Sindarin grammar. Watch the accusative pronoun carefully. When the gerund is happening to an accusative pronoun, the pronoun goes besides it like it was any other verb. It does not go before the active verb. Be careful with the gerund, sometimes in English we leave the "to" out of infinitives. To make certain, add (-ing) onto the verb. If the sentence still makes sense, then it is a hidden infinitive and you need the gerund.

Example

The orcs want to kill you. → In yrch anírar daged gen.

When the gerund is being a noun, it can't be made plural, but otherwise it acts as though it is a normal noun and undergoes mutation.

Stop the killing. → Nuitho i naged.

The Abstract Suffix

The abstract suffix is another sort of gerund, or perhaps it is another sort of plural. Either way, it works to widen the scope of nouns, and to make adjectives and verbs into nouns. Oddly enough, it can be pluralized, unlike its cousin the gerund, which I take as evidence that it isn't a plural form.

The suffix is "-as" and it attaches to words the same way that "-ath" does.

Adjectives:

Belt "strong" → Bellas "strength"
Maen "skilled" → Maenas "skill"

Nouns:

Pân "wooden plank" → Panas "wooden floor"
Certh "rune" → Certhas "runic alphabet"

A-Verbs:

Toba- "to cover" → Tobas "roof"
Fara- "to hunt" → Faras "hunting"

I-Verbs:

Car- "to build" → Caras "city"
Gad- "to catch" → Gadas "trap"

What it does to adjectives and verbs is pretty straight forward, but what it does to nouns is a little more complex. What I meant by "to widen the scope of nouns" means that it makes the noun a word for a group of itself, or it makes a noun stand for something grander, greater, more, but yet, still limited. It does things like take a stone, sarn, and turn it into a pile of stones, sarnas. It takes resting, send, and turns it into a guest house where lots of resting takes place, sennas. It takes a hall, tham, and turns it into a great hall, thammas. It takes one's personality, ind, and turns it into one's will, innas. Because this isn't a grammatical concept that occurs in English, it will take some time to get used to the idea.

Negation

Negation is another one of those foggy areas in Sindarin. Everyone you go to will have a different system. There is one thing that people tend to agree on, and that is that negation is done through prefixes, after which follows Soft Mutation. Which prefixes, however, changes according to who you speak to.

First, there is the prefix "ú-", the most widely accepted for negating just about everything.

• Put it on a verb, and you get the same effect that you would by using "don't" in English.
• Stick it on a noun, and it carries the same meaning as "no" or "none". When it's added to nouns, the nouns are never plural.
• Some people like to put it on adjectives too, for the meaning "not, un-, or non-", but I prefer a different prefix for that.

Examples

I didn't halt. → Ú-adhoren.
I didn't fence any gardens. (I fenced no gardens) → Thorannen ú-hant.
He fenced nothing. → Thorant ú-nad.
No one halted them. → Ú-ben di adhor.
We halted no one. → Adhorem ú-ben.
The unfenced garden halted no animals. → I hant ú-thorannen darn ú-lavan.
That is not yours. → Ta ú-gîn.

Second, there is av- or avo- which is used only on the imperative verb. Soft Mutation follows it. Because it is based on the verb ava- "to refuse", it has the connotation of "refusing" or "resisting" doing something, so it doesn't replace ú-, but it does make a stronger, more forceful command.

On the note of "refusing", a stronger way to say, "I don't do it" (in English, "I won't/wouldn't do it") would be to say "I refuse to do it" "Avon cared." Note that I used a gerund and didn't mutate it as well.

Examples

Don't halt! → Avo dharo!
Don't open the gate! → Av-edro i fennas!
I won't halt! → Avon dared!

Third there is al-. This prefix is only added to adjectives.

Examples

The unfenced garden halted no animals. → I hant al-thorannen adhor ú-lavan.
That is not yours. → Ta al-gîn.

Lastly, there is an odd bit that showed up in Parma Eldalamberon 17 and is supported by something similar in Quenya in the Etymologies. While Sindarin doesn't seem to have a copula (a verb for equating one thing to the other, in English it is "to be") it apparently has a negative copula, based on the prefix ú-. It is conjugated kinda like an I-verb. Using it is rather iffy though, and I would suggest using the above prefixes instead.

Examples

The flower was not red. → I loth ûn naru.
I am not a little bird! → Uin aew!

Homework

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