Sentences

Dothraki 1

Course 1 · Chapter 9 · Sentences and Phrases

You now have nouns, cases, pronouns, verbs and adjectives. This chapter puts them together: how a whole sentence is built, how who-does-what-to-whom is shown, a first question, and the greetings and farewells that Dothraki characters actually use. The examples come from Peterson's own posts and a few published phrase lists.

The idea in a box

In the examples Peterson gives, the order is subject, verb, object, with adjectives after their nouns. Because nouns carry case endings, the endings, and not the order alone, tell you who did what.

A Simple Sentence

The sentences below come from Peterson's introduction to the grammar:

Anha hajak.             I am strong.            # haj + -ak: an adjective used as a verb
Chiorisi haji.          The women are strong.   # plural noun + plural adjective
Fonak tih jan.          The hunter saw the dog.
Jano tih fonakes.       The dog saw the hunter. # the object takes -es
Jano lan fonakaan.      The dog ran to the hunter.   # -aan: towards
Jano lan fonakoon.      The dog ran from the hunter. # -oon: from
Jano fonaki lavakha.    The hunter's dog is loud.    # fonaki: genitive

Adjectives as verbs. Anha hajak is "I am strong": the adjective haj takes the present ending -ak, exactly as in Chapter 8.
Order. In these examples the subject comes first, then the verb, then the object. Adjectives follow their nouns.
Endings carry the meaning. Compare Fonak tih jan and Jano tih fonakes: the hunter and the dog swap roles and the endings change (the object of the second sentence has -es).
Prepositions live in the endings. "To" and "from" are the case endings -aan and -oon from Chapter 4. The genitive fonaki gives "of the hunter".

Watch out: do not translate word for word

The pair jan and jano shows that a noun's spelling changes with its role. Always look at the ending as well as the word, and check the dictionary before building your own sentence with a noun you have only seen once.

Asking Questions

The sources give one question word, the pronoun fin, used for "who" or "what". For a yes/no question they give a full sentence rather than an explanation:

Hash yer dothrae chek?   How are you today?        # literally: Do you ride well?
Anha dothrak chek asshekh.   I feel well today.

Here hash opens the sentence, and the rest is a normal statement: yer dothrae "you ride", chek "well". A language-feature survey says Dothraki yes/no questions use a particle at the start of the sentence, and hash fits that description. The sources used here do not state it outright, so treat hash as "very probably the question particle".

Greetings and Farewells

Dothraki	Meaning	Note
Athchomar chomakea!	"Welcome!" or "Greetings to you all!"	used to outsiders and groups; one source describes it as "respect us, and you will be treated with respect"
Hash yer dothrae chek?	"How are you today?"	literally "do you ride well?"
Anha dothrak chek asshekh.	"I feel well today."	the reply
Hajas!	"Be strong!"	a farewell; informal imperative of haj
Dothras chek!	"Ride well!"	a farewell; informal imperative of dothralat
Fonas chek!	"Goodbye"	listed in one mirror of the Living Language book; treat with caution

Look at the farewells: hajas is haj + -as and dothras is dothra + -s. They are the informal imperatives you learned in Chapter 7. The phrases from Chapter 1 round out the set: Me nem nesa "it is known", Shekh ma shieraki anni "my sun and stars", Jalan atthirari anni "moon of my life", Qoy qoyi "blood of my blood".

Watch out: the source for some phrases is uneven

Fonas chek appears only in an unofficial copy of the Living Language book, and the English for Athchomar chomakea differs slightly between sources ("welcome" and "greetings to you all"). Learn them as quoted phrases, and check them in the dictionary if accuracy matters.

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise 1

Translate: Anha hajak; Chiorisi haji; Jano tih fonakes. For each, say which word is the subject and what tells you.

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Exercise 2

Explain how Jano lan fonakaan and Jano lan fonakoon differ in meaning, and why Dothraki needs no word for "to" or "from" here.

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Exercise 3

Ask someone "How are you today?" and give the reply. Then say "Be strong!" and "Ride well!" and name the verb form used in each.

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Chapter 9 Quick Reference

Order in the examples: subject, verb, object; adjectives after nouns; endings show roles
Sentences: Anha hajak (I am strong), Fonak tih jan (the hunter saw the dog), Jano lan fonakaan / fonakoon (to / from the hunter)
Question: Hash yer dothrae chek? (how are you today?); fin for "who/what"
Farewells: Hajas! (be strong), Dothras chek! (ride well), Fonas chek! (goodbye, uncertain source)

Coming next

Dothraki 1, Chapter 10 reads whole passages from the show with the glossary built up so far, and ends the course with a recap and pointers to further study.