S. basic grammar grammar.
This entry introduces the major features of Sindarin grammar. It lists these features with only minimal explanation, to provide a broader context for Sindarin grammar as a whole. Knowing these major elements at a general level is helpful for understanding the details of more specific grammatic rules, since they are often interrelated. This entry also serves as a standalone introduction to Sindarin grammar for relative beginners. Little enough is known about Sindarin grammar that a fair amount of what is described here is speculative, and thus falls into the realm of Neo-Sindarin rather than Sindarin proper.
Sindarin has the same major parts of speech as most languages: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and (less prominently than some languages) adverbs. The normal Sindarin word order is subject-verb-object (SVO), but adjectives are placed after the noun they modify, unlike English.
Sindarin is mainly a “fusional” language, a linguistic term for languages that encode multiple meanings into a single word element. In the case of Sindarin, this manifests via various sound changes called mutations. These mutations are the key to understanding Sindarin, but they can be difficult to learn for speakers of isolating languages like English (where each word more or less stands alone). There are, however, some “fusional” elements in English. For example the word “man” has an irregular plural form “men” with a vowel change of “a” to “e”, unlike most English plurals which simply add “-s”. Sindarin likewise indicates plurals with vowel changes, with singular adan becoming plural edain, but this shift in vowels is the normal plural pattern in Sindarin.
Sindarin also has a several kinds of consonant and vowel mutations, serving various grammatical functions. For example, when an adjective follows a noun, it undergoes soft mutation (sometimes called lenition), so that its initial consonant softens. S. beleg means “great, mighty”, so that “the great man” would be i adan veleg. Likewise, “the great men” would be in edain velig, undergoing both consonant and vowel mutations. To read Sindarin you need to understand how to work backwards and recognize that in edain velig = i adan-(plural) (lenited)-beleg-(plural). To make things easier for beginners, I often put unmutated forms as hints in translations: in edain velig “the great (beleg) men (adan-plural)”.
Note: In Sindarin, the term adan (or Adan) refers to “man” as a species, not a gender. A more exact translation might be “human”. English tends to use the same word for both the species (Man) and gender (man), but Sindarin distinguishes the two: adan, edhel = “man [human], elf” (of any gender) vs. benn, bess (or dîr, dî) = “man, woman” (of any species). In example sentences I often use adan and translate it as “man” since that sounds more natural in English sentences, but the Sindarin word actually refers to a human of either gender. I apologize in advance for the apparent gender bias of the examples, but that is a limitation of English, not Sindarin.
Consonant Mutations: Sindarin has several types of consonant mutations, but the most important are soft mutation, nasal mutation and mixed mutation. These consonant mutations apply to the initial consonant of a word, either when closely following another word or in compounds. They change the sound of initial consonants as follows:
| Category | Base | Soft Mutation | Nasal Mutation | Mixed Mutation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless Stops | p-, t-, c- | b-, d-, g- | ph-, th-, ch- | b-, d-, g- |
| Voiced Stops | b-, d-, g- | v-, dh-, ’- | m-, n-, ñ- (or ng-) | b-, d-, g- |
| Nasalized Stops | [m]b-, [n]d-, [n]g- | m-, n-, ñ- (or ng-) | mb-, nd-, ng- | mb-, nd-, ng- |
| Spirants | s-, h- | h-, ch- | s- (no change), ch- | h-, ch- |
| Voiceless Liquids † | lh-, rh- | thl-, thr- | thl-, thr- | thl-, thr- |
| Nasals | m- | v- | m- (no change) | m- (no change) |
† These mutations are the expected historical developments, but based on Tolkien’s notes seem to be archaic; see the entry on nasal mutation for further details. Modern forms of voiceless liquids seem to resist mutation, or in the case of mixed mutation become voiced to ’r-, ’l-.
Some voiced stops were originally in ancient times nasalized stops: compare dôr “land” (from ancient ✶ndorē) vs. dû “night” (from ancient ✶dōmē). In modern Sindarin the nasalized stops (nd-) reduced to simple stops (d-) in unmutated forms, making them indistinguishable from words that originally began with simple stops. However, the distinction is restored in mutated forms, as with i nôr “the land” vs. i dhû “the night”. The dictionary entries in Eldamo put an [nd-] in brackets after the word to indicate which words began with ancient nasalized stops, as in:
Thus soft mutation transforms:
In the case of g, the softening eliminates the sound completely, typically represented by an apostrophe [’] at the beginning of the word, so galadh “tree” → i ’aladh “the tree”. There is another special case for ñ-; this is an isolated initial velar nasal [ŋ], which Tolkien generally wrote as ng-, as in le nallon sí di’nguruthos [ŋuruθos] “here overwhelmed in dread of Death I cry” (LotR/729; RGEO/64). However, this can be confused with the initial nasalized stop ng- [ŋg], and some Neo-Sindarin writers (myself included) represent the isolated nasal as ñ- to avoid confusion: le nallon sí di’ñuruthos.
Soft mutation can be caused both for phonetic reasons (after a vowel like i “the”) or grammatical reasons (like with direct objects). I use the term “lenition” specifically for grammatical soft mutation, following the conventions of Fiona Jallings.
Nasal mutation transforms sounds as follows:
Unlike soft mutation, initial clusters resist nasal mutation, so you get i dhraug “the wolf (draug)” but in droeg “the wolves” and not **i nroeg.
Mixed mutation is a soft mutation with some nasal influence. It mostly behaves like soft mutation except (a) voiced stops and nasals do not mutate (b, d, g, m → b, d, g, m), (b) ancient nasalized stops are fully restored ([m]b, [n]d, [n]g → mb, nd, ng) and (c) apparently voiceless liquids lh, rh are voiced ’r, ’l (but this is based on only a single very tenuous example).
Vowel Mutations: The most important Sindarin vowel mutation is i-affection. This i-affection is most noticeable in Sindarin plurals, but it also plays a role in the formation of the Sindarin present tense for basic verbs. The basis for i-affection was an ancient i in the syllable following the mutated vowel, but sometimes this i has vanished, obscuring the cause of the mutation. I designate three “flavors” of i-affection: internal i-affection, final i-affection and final i-intrusion.
Internal i-affection happens to vowels in the middle of words, and is the most limited form of i-affection. The vowels a, o, u become e, e, y; other vowels remain unchanged. Internal i-affection happens to the main vowel of basic verbs in the present tense when they have pronominal suffixes, as in cerin “I make (car-)” vs. i adan câr “the man makes” or nerin “I run (nor-)” vs. i roch nôr “the horse runs”. It also happens in the non-final syllables of Sindarin plurals, as in:
Final i-affection happens in the last syllable of words. The i that caused the affection has generally vanished by the time of modern Sindarin. Final i-affection mostly occurs in the final syllable of Sindarin plurals, where a, e, o, u become e, i, y, y. Thus:
Final i-intrusion is the result of an ancient lost i intruding into the final syllable, resulting in an i-diphthong. This generally only happens when the word ends in a single consonant, since consonant clusters block i-intrusion. Due to various historical accidents, i-intrusions is largely limited to either (a) monosyllables or (b) final syllables containing short a. With final i-intrusion, the vowels a (short or long), ô, û and the diphthong au become ai, ui, ui, oe:
The last example doesn’t involve an obvious i-diphthong, because later on the phonetic developments were ǭi > oi > oe (vs. unmutated ǭ > au).
Some vowels (i, y) and most diphthongs (ae, ai, ei, oe, ui) are immune to i-affection, and never change. The vowel e is immune to internal i-affection, and it only changes to i in final syllables. Overlong ô is only subject to i-intrusion in monosyllables; short o always becomes y (in final syllables) or e (in non-final syllables). Long ó does not normally occur (having become ú historically), but where it appears (as a reduction of au in non-final syllables) it does not mutate.
Vowel Lengthening Mutation: There is an additional vowel mutation resulting from ancient vowel lengthening, due to the differences in the phonetic development of short and long vowels in Sindarin. In particular lengthened a, e, o became ó, í, ú, vs. lengthened i, u which simply become í, ú. This vowel lengthening mutation plays a role in the Sindarin past active participle of basic verbs:
This vowel lengthening mutation also plays a role in the Sindarin past tense of basic verbs, but there the vowel shortens again as it usually does in final syllables:
The Sindarin definite article “the” is either i (singular) or in (plural), as in i adan, in edain “the man, the men”. There is no indefinite article “a, an” in Sindarin, so “a man” is simply adan. When the singular definite article appears before a consonant, it causes soft mutations, as in i baur “the fist” vs. paur “a fist”. When the plural definite article appears before a consonant, it causes nasal mutation and the n (usually) vanishes: i phoer “the fists”. Thus before consonants the only sign of the n in in is (usually) the nasal mutation of the following word.
Some examples of singular and plural definite articles:
The greatest challenge in Sindarin is recognizing all these mutations as being different forms of the same word.
Noun Plurals: The Sindarin general plural is the “normal” plural used in most circumstances for groups of things, and it is produced using i-affection as described above:
For example:
In the case of a in final syllables, the plural depends on whether the noun ends in a cluster (amarth → emerth) or a single consonant (rath → raith) with the caveat that some clusters behave like single consonants (lass “leaf” → lais “leaves”) and some single consonants behave like clusters (cam “hand” → cem “hands”). Indeed, there are numerous special cases and irregularities in the Sindarin plural system, too many to cover in an introductory discussion like this one.
Class Plurals: The Sindarin class plural is used for an entire category of beings or things. Perian is a hobbit, Periain is a group of hobbits, but the class plural Periannath refers to all of hobbit-kind. The basic class plural suffix is -ath, used for most nouns and some types of people, but there are additional suffixes -rim and -hoth used with certain types of people (Rohirrim, Glamhoth), just as English has a variety of suffixes for the people of different nations (Germans, Flemish, Belgians). With -ath the ending of the word is frequently altered when the suffix is added, but the variations are too numerous to discuss here.
The class plural uses the plural definite article in, which triggers nasal mutation as usual. Thus i Pheriannath “[all] the Hobbits”. Without any context, the class plural refers to all of a given thing in existence: elenath “all stars”. But within a given context, it can mean all members of a group in that context, as in: Iorhael, Gelir, Cordof, a Baravorn, ionnath dîn “Frodo, Merry, Pippin and Hamfast, [all] his sons” [with a “and” instead of ar as in the original]. Here the class plural ionnath refers to all the sons in this context, which is all the sons of Samwise.
Subjects and Objects: When a noun is used as the subject of a sentence, it precedes the verb as in adan nôr “a man runs”. However, if it is the direct object, it follows the verb and undergoes soft mutation, as in cenin ’aladh “I see a tree (galadh)”. This a “grammatical mutation” (sometimes called lenition), not originating from any specific phonological phenomenon.
The indirect object can be marked by word position alone, and it follows the direct object, as in: annon higil adan “I give a man (adan) a knife (sigil)”. These Sindarin words are in the opposite order from English, where the indirect object precedes the direct object. It is, however, more common to mark the indirect object in Sindarin using the preposition an “to, for” (which causes nasal mutation), in which case the placement of the indirect object in the sentence is more free as in: an adan annon higil “to a man I give a knife”. With an the indirect object can even intervene between the verb and direct object (which still undergoes lenition): annon an adan higil “I give to a man a knife”.
To summarize:
Genitive: A genitive relationship (“of”) in Sindarin can be marked in several ways. The most straightforward is to have the related noun follow the noun it modifies, so that aran Moria means “king [of] Moria”, with “of” not explicit in the Sindarin phrase. This would be analogous to saying “Moria king” in English, except the order of the Sindarin words is reversed.
Alternately, the genitive can be expressed via the preposition na(n) “of”: aran na-Moria. The preposition na(n) has a definite variant en “of the”. These indefinite/definite forms cause a variety of mutations:
The plural form of indefinite na(n) is not clear, but there are examples of na(n) being used before plural nouns: aran na chîr lim “king of swift ships”; for simplicity I recommend using indefinite na(n) before plurals as well: na thail “of feet”, nan erain “of kings”.
Sindarin pronouns are still poorly understood, so the following is rather speculative. Sindarin has five basic sets of pronouns: independent, subject, object, dative and possessive:
| Independent | Subject | Object | Dative | Possessive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st sg. | *ni “I/me” | -(o)n “I” | nin “me” | annin “to me” | nín “my” |
| 2nd sg. | ci “you” | -(o)g “you” | *cin “you” | *echin “to you” | *cín “your” |
| 2nd sg. (polite) | le “you” | -(o)l “you” | *len “you” | *allen “to you” | lín “your” |
| 3rd sg. | *te “he/she” | - “he/she” | *ten “him/her” | *athen “to he/she” | tín “his/her” |
| 1st pl. | *me “we/us” | -(o)f “we” | men “us” | ammen “to us” | mín “our” |
| 2nd pl. | de “y’all” | -(o)dhir “y’all” | *den “y’all” | *annen “to y’all” | *dín “your” |
| 3rd. pl. | ti “they/them” | -r “they” | *tin “them” | *ethin “to them” | *tín “their” |
Forms marked with a * are not attested, and some of the “attested” forms may only be attested for other functions, such as de which is attested as an archaic 2nd sg. polite form. The gaps in the chart are filled in based on other attested forms, though some of them (especially 3rd. sg.) are based on thin evidence; see pronouns for a more detailed discussion.
Sindarin, like Quenya, distinguishes between three kinds of “you”: familiar ci “you” (used with friends and family), polite le “you” used respectfully or reverentially, and plural *de “y’all” (exact form unattested). Tolkien sometimes used English “thou/thee” for both the familiar and polite forms, but in practice le is best translated “you” since English no longer distinguishes familiar from polite “you” (technically, English “thou” was originally familiar but is now perceived as reverential given its association with the Bible).
The object forms are most often used for direct objects of verbs, generally appearing after the verb as in tiro nin “watch me (nin)” or in edhil cenir ven “the elves see us (men)”; note the usual soft mutation of the direct object. They are also used as the object of prepositions and imperatives: sui men “as us (men)”. The independent forms are mainly used as the subject when the verb is unexpressed, as in a “to be” statement: ni glassui “I [am] happy” (see below for a discussion of “to be”).
The subject form is a suffix used with verbs that do not have an explicit noun as a subject, as in tirin “I watch” vs. i adan tîr “the man watches”. The (o) in the pronoun list above indicates that derived verbs change their final a to (o) as in i adan anna “the man gives” vs. annon “I give”. The dative form is used with indirect objects, as in anno annin hîdh “give to me (annin) peace (sîdh)”, though as mentioned above the indirect object can be indicated by position alone, in which case I suspect the object form is used: anno hîdh nin “give me (nin) peace (sîdh)”.
Possessive pronouns follow the possessed noun, but unlike English the possessed noun is also preceded by the definite article as in i higil nín “my (nín) knife (sigil)”, or more literally translated: “the knife my”. Like adjectives, the possessive pronoun undergoes soft mutation, which means it almost always appears in mutated form, as in i degil dín “his (tín) pen (tegil)”.
Sindarin has a number of other more specialized pronouns beyond the scope of this introductory discussion.
In vocabulary lists, verbs are typically shown in the stem form with no inflections added (nor-, padra-). Verbs in Sindarin are inflected for both tense and subject, using the subject suffixes given above. The inflections for tense depends on the verb class. The “base vowel” (first vowel in the verb stem) is also important for inflecting verb tenses. There are three major verb classes:
There are probably additional verb classes, but we don’t know enough about them to say anything meaningful. These first two classes are sometimes called i-stem (after their present-tense forms) and a-stem verbs, but I prefer basic and derived as more consistent with Quenya terminology. The half-strong verb class is still poorly understood and many Neo-Sindarin writers don’t formally recognize it. The Sindarin verb forms are rather different for basic and derived verbs, and also vary depending on whether or not they have a subject suffix.
Present Tense: For basic verbs, the (unsuffixed) third singular present form is simply the verb stem, with the vowel lengthened (but not mutated) if it is monosyllabic: i adan nôr “the man runs (nor-)”, i adan orthor “the man conquers (orthor-)”. With a pronominal subject suffix, the verb (a) adds an -i- between the verb stem and suffix and (b) the base vowel undergoes internal i-affection, a, o, u → e, e, y: nerin “I run”. This i-affection does not extend to any recognized prefixes: ortherin “I conquer”. With a plural subject, the verb also adds the suffix -r to agree in number with the subject, which again triggers internal i-affection: in edain nerir “the men run”, in edain ortherir “the men conquer”.
* Sindarin basic verbs with u are incredibly rare (none are attested), and this example verb *run- “to rub” is invented for demonstration purposes.
For derived verbs, the third singular (unsuffixed) present form is simply the verb stem: i adan padra “the man walks (padra-)”. With a suffix, the final a become o: padron “I walk”. The one exception is -r, which is added to derived verbs without changing the vowel: in edain padrar “the men walk”. The half-strong verbs omit the final a in the third singular: i adan tangad “the man confirms (tangad(a)-)”. The a is restored with subject suffixes but (probably) does not become o as with derived verbs: tangadan “I confirm”.
Past Tense: Derived verbs have the most straightforward past tense. For intransitive verbs (those without a direct object) add the suffix -s in third singular, or -sse + the subject suffix: i adan padras “the man walked (padra-past)”, padrassen “I walked”, in edain padrasser “the men walked”. For transitive verbs (those with a direct object) add the suffix -nt in third singular, or -nne + the subject suffix: i adan teithant dîw “the man wrote (teitha-past) letters”, teithannen dîw “I wrote letters”, in edain teithanner dîw “the men wrote letters”. Half-strong verbs change their final -d(a) to -nt in the past tense or -nne + the subject suffix: i adan tangant “the man confirmed” (tangad(a)-past), tangannen “I confirmed”, in edain tanganner “the men confirmed”; these half-strong pasts are the origin of the -ant suffix for derived verbs.
Basic verbs are divided into two groups for the past tense. The first group consists of verbs whose stems ends in b, d, g. These verbs originally had stems ending in ancient p, t, c [k], which are restored in the third singular (unsuffixed) past tense with a nasal infix: -mp, -nt, -nc. With a suffix, these become -mme-, -nne-, -nge- + the suffix. In addition to the sound shifts at the end of the word, the past form also adds the base vowel to the stem as a vocalic augment, which causes soft mutation of the initial consonant. No augment occurs if the verb already has a prefix. For example:
The second group consists of all other basic verbs. These verbs (a) prefix their base vowel to the verb as a vocalic augment, (b) mutate their initial consonant according to soft mutation and (c) alter the base via vowel-lengthening mutation, though the modified vowel later shortened: i, e, a, o, u → i, i, o, u, u (< í, í, ó, ú, ú). If there is a pronominal suffix, add an -e- + the suffix. If the verb already has a prefix, no vowel augment is added, and no soft mutation occurs. For example:
Note that the reason why the lengthened base vowel mutates in the past tense but not in the present is because the lengthening in the past tense was ancient, whereas in the present it is recent.
Future Tense: The basic Sindarin future is formed by adding the suffix -(a)tha to the verb stem. The final a becomes o when suffixes are added for reasons similar to those for the present tense of derived verbs (and with the same exception for -r). Thus:
Imperative: The Sindarin imperative is straightforward. Simply add -o to basic verbs, or change the final -a to -o for derived and half-strong verbs: noro “run!”, padro “walk!”, tangado “confirm!”.
Gerunds and Infinitives: The basic Sindarin verbal noun is the gerund, formed by adding -ed to basic verbs and -d to derived and half-strong verbs, as in cared “making”, padrad “walking”, tangadad “confirming”. The gerund can function as a noun in most respects, acting as a subject, an object, etc. The Sindarin gerund is also used as an infinitive/verbal object: nidhin mened “I intend (nidh-) to go (men-)”.
Verbal Participles: Sindarin has three basic verbal participles: the active participle (present and past) and the passive participle (past only). The (present) active participle is formed by adding -ol to basic verbs, derived and half-strong verbs, replacing any final a: norol “running”, padrol “walking”, tangadol “confirming”. The active participle can function as an adjective where the modified noun is the one performing the action: i adan norol “the running man”, i adan badrol “the walking man”.
The past active participle has a function similar to the present active participle, but for completed actions. It is formed with the suffix -iel and (for basic verbs) vowel lengthening mutation of the base vowel: núriel “having run”, i adan núriel “the having run man” = “the man who has finished running”. It is not clear how it is formed for derived and half-strong verbs, but probably the final a is replaced with -iel with vowel-lengthening if possible: padriel “having walked”, tangódiel “having confirmed”.
The passive participle is formed by adding the suffix -nnen to derived verbs and -nen to basic and half-strong verbs, the latter causing various mutational effects (discussed in detail in the entry on the passive participle). Thus tir- “to guard” → tirnen “guarded”, ortha- “raise” → orthannen “raised”, tangad(a)- “to confirm” → tangannen “confirmed” (the last two are identical to the 1st sg. past tense). The passive participle can function as an adjective where the modified noun is the object of the action: i adan dirnen “the guarded man”, i baur orthannen dín “his (tín) raised fist (paur)”.
English uses the verb “to be” to equate a subject with its predicate as in “Arwen is an Elf”, “Arwen is beautiful”. The verb “is” is a copula, a linking word that joins the subject to the adjective or noun to which it is equated. In Sindarin, the copula is omitted, and the two words simply appear next to each other: Arwen edhel “Arwen [is] an elf” and Arwen bain “Arwen [is] beautiful”. The sentence “Arwen is beautiful” may be distinguished from the noun phrase “beautiful Arwen” by the lack of soft mutation: Arwen bain “Arwen [is] beautiful” vs. Arwen vain [tôl sîr] “Beautiful (bain) Arwen [comes today]”.
Sindarin does have a verb na- “to be”, but it is used in limited circumstances. For example, its imperative form no is used in commands and wishes: no lim “be quick!”, no aer i eneth lín “hallowed (aer) be thy (lín) name (eneth)” = “may your name be hallowed”.
The Sindarin adjective follows the noun it modifies, and undergoes soft mutation: i edhel veleg “the mighty (beleg) elf”. It is also declined into the plural to match its noun, using the same pluralization rules as nouns: in edhil velig “the mighty elves”. In a “to be” expression with an omitted copula, the adjective does not undergo soft mutation, but does agree with a plural noun: i edhel beleg “the elf [is] mighty”, in edhil belig “the elves [are] mighty”.
Sindarin does have some specialized adverbs, such as mae “well” and *dae “very” (a neologism adapted from a rejected Noldorin word). However, when they follow a verb, adjectives can function as adverbs, as in noro lim Asfaloth “run swift[ly] Asfaloth”. If an adverb precedes an adjective or verb, the modified word undergoes soft mutation: mae garnen “well done (carnen)”, i oron dae varadh “the mountain [is] very steep (baradh)”. If, however, the adverb (or an adjective functioning as an adverb) follows the verb, then the adverb/adjective is not mutated: nerin bregol “I run (nor-) sudden[ly] (bregol)”. This makes such adverbs distinct from direct objects, which are mutated: cenin ’aladh “I see a tree (galadh)”.
@@@ TBD: Conjunctions and Prepositions
Elements
| pronunciation and transcription |
| stress |
| word order |