Describing

Dothraki 1

Course 1 · Chapter 8 · Adjectives, Numbers and Colours

You can name things, mark their roles and use verbs. This chapter lets you describe: adjectives (how they sit, agree and compare), the numbers, and the ten basic colour words. All the vocabulary here comes from Peterson's own posts and the Dothraki wiki's adjective and number pages.

The idea in a box

An adjective follows its noun. A consonant-final adjective takes -i in the plural; a vowel-final adjective never changes. Numbers come before the noun and the noun can stay singular or plural. Colours are adjectives that can also turn into verbs.

Adjectives

Position and agreement

An adjective comes after the noun it describes. Whether it agrees with the noun depends on the adjective's last sound:

Consonant-final adjectives add -i in the plural: rakh haj "strong boy", rakhi haji "strong boys".
Vowel-final adjectives do not change at all: zheana "beautiful" is the same in every form.
Case: in the singular, a noun that is not in the nominative takes an adjective ending in -a: the source's example is alegre ivezha (a wild duck as an object), where ivezh "wild" becomes ivezha. In the plural this extra -a does not appear.

rakh haj        strong boy        (noun + adjective)
rakhi haji      strong boys       (both take -i)
alegra haj      a strong duck
alegra haji     strong ducks
zheana          beautiful (never changes)

Some adjectives

Dothraki	Meaning
haj	strong
ivezh	wild
zheana	beautiful
afazh	hot
samva	broken
hakeso	famous

Comparing

Comparison uses affixes on the adjective:

Degree	Pattern	Example
positive	the adjective	haj strong
comparative	a- + adjective + -an	ahajan stronger
superlative	a- + adjective + -anaz	ahajanaz strongest
negative	o- + adjective	ohaj not strong
"less"	o- + adjective + -an	ohajan less strong
"least"	a- + adjective + -anoz	ahajanoz least strong

Adjectives as verbs

Instead of a separate word for "is", Dothraki turns the adjective into a verb with the same ending you know from Chapter 6: -at after a consonant, -lat after a vowel. Zheana becomes zheanalat "to be beautiful", and ivezh becomes ivezhat "to be wild". Those verbs then conjugate like any other.

The Numbers

0	1	2	3	4	5
som	at	akat	sen	tor	mek

6	7	8	9	10
zhinda	fekh	ori	qazat	thi

Teens: the digit followed by thi, joined together: atthi 11, akatthi 12, senthi 13, mekthi 15, zhindatthi 16, qazatthi 19.
Tens: chi- + digit, except 20: chakat 20, chisen 30, chitor 40, chimek 50, chori 80.
Hundreds and above: ken 100, akatken 200, senken 300; dalen 1,000; yor 1,000,000.
Joining parts: the word ma joins the parts of a number: 2,431 is akat dalen ma torken ma chisen m'at. The same small word appears in shekh ma shieraki "sun and stars".
Ordinals: add -(a)k to the last word, and they decline like animate nouns: mekthikes "15th" (accusative).

Numbers with nouns

The number comes before the noun, the number does not decline, and the noun can be singular or plural with no change in meaning. The wiki's example is Torthi vezhak zali… "Fourteen horselords…", where torthi "fourteen" stands before vezhak.

Colours

Dothraki has ten basic colour words, from Peterson's post on colour:

Colour	Dothraki	As a verb ("to be …")
red	virzeth	virzethat
blue	thelis	thelisat
green	dahaan	dahaanat
yellow	veltor	veltorat
purple	reaven	reavenat
pink	theyaven	theyavenat
brown	nozhoven	nozhovenat
grey	shiqeth	shiqethat
white	zasqa	zasqalat
black	kazga	kazgalat

A sourced sentence: Haz rhaggat virzetha "That cart is red", where haz is the "that (by you)" demonstrative from Chapter 5 and the colour takes the -a case ending. For lighter and darker shades, the colour is followed by dei "shallow" (lighter) or ao "deep" (darker): virzeth ao "deep red". The general word for "colour" is visshiya.

Watch out: there is no word for orange

Dothraki has no basic term for "orange". The post says it is usually covered by veltor (yellow) and sometimes by virzeth (red). The set of basic colours was also revised over time, so older lists may differ.

Watch out: at and ato

In counting, "one" is at (the cardinal on the number page). Chapter 4 used the entry ato "one" as an example of the inanimate case endings. How the two forms are related is not explained in the sources used, so check the dictionary before using either one in a new sentence.

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise 1

Write the Dothraki for: 3, 7, 10, 13, 20, 50, 100. Then say what the word ma does in a number like 2,431.

📄 View solution

Exercise 2

Build "stronger", "strongest" and "not strong" from haj. Then turn zheana and virzeth into verbs meaning "to be beautiful" and "to be red".

📄 View solution

Exercise 3

Say "strong boys" and "a strong duck" in Dothraki and explain what happens to the adjective in each. Then say "deep red" and explain why Dothraki has no single word for "orange".

📄 View solution

Chapter 8 Quick Reference

Adjectives: follow the noun; consonant-final take -i in the plural; vowel-final never change; a case -a in the singular outside the nominative
Comparison: a-...-an (-er), a-...-anaz (-est), o- (not), o-...-an (less), a-...-anoz (least)
As verbs: add -at (after a consonant) or -lat (after a vowel)
Numbers: at akat sen tor mek zhinda fekh ori qazat thi; teens digit + thi; chi- tens; ken 100, dalen 1,000, yor 1,000,000; ma joins parts
Colours: virzeth thelis dahaan veltor reaven theyaven nozhoven shiqeth zasqa kazga

Coming next

Dothraki 1, Chapter 9 puts the grammar to work in whole sentences, with greetings, courtesy and the phrases people quote.