Verbs 1

Quenya Grammar 1

Course 1 · Chapter 8 · Verbs 1

Quenya Grammar 1, Chapter 7 gave the pronoun endings and the verb "to be". This chapter turns to ordinary verbs: how they are built, the two tenses of "now" (the aorist and the present), how they agree with their subject, and how to give a command or forbid something. Quenya Grammar 1, Chapter 9 covers past, perfect and future.

The idea in a box

A Quenya verb has a stem (car- "make, do"), a tense form, and a pronoun ending: carin "I make". Commands are not endings but little words in front of the verb: á "do!" and áva "don't!".

Two Kinds of Verb

Wikipedia describes two types, using Tolkien's terms:

Root verbs (also "weak", usually transitive): built straight from a root, such as car- "make; do".
Derivative verbs (also "strong", usually intransitive): stems that usually end in -ta, -na or -ya, such as henta- "to eye".

A form with no pronoun attached is called "impersonal" (carë); a form with a pronoun ending is "personal" (carin "I do").

The Aorist and the Present

The aorist is the general tense: what a verb does as a fact or habit, with no focus on the moment. The present is the "happening now" tense. Both are shown here for one verb of each type. The forms are as printed on the page.

Tense	car- singular	car- plural	henta- singular	henta- plural
Aorist	carë (cari-)	carir	henta	hentar
Present	cára	cárar	hentëa	hentëar

Two patterns are visible. The plural adds -r (carë to carir, henta to hentar), which matches the noun plural of Chapter 3. And the present of car- lengthens the stem vowel (cára), while the present of henta- inserts -ë- (hentëa). The page gives no general rule for forming the present, so these are patterns from two verbs.

Agreement and Person Endings

The plural -r appears when the subject is a separate plural noun or pronoun. A dual ending -t also exists.

# Examples from the Wikipedia article (glosses as given there)
Finwë carë.             Finwë is making.
Quendi carir.           The Elves are making.
A ar B carir.           A and B are making.
Carinyë.                I am making.
carin  /  cáran      I do / I am making   (the ending -n, "I")
Nai siluvat elen atta.  May two stars shine.   (dual -t)
utúvie-lye-s            You have found it/him/her

The ending -n (long form -nye) is "I", as in Chapter 7. The pronoun endings -lye "you" and -s "it/him/her" also attach to verbs, but the page does not say that they attach in the same way in every tense, so this course teaches them from the examples only.

Commands

The imperative and prohibitive are made with particles, not verb endings:

Meaning	Pattern	Example (page's gloss)
Command	á (or a) + verb	Á carë! "Do it!"; A laita te! "Bless them!"; Á hyame rámen! "Pray for us!"
Prohibition	áva + verb	Áva carë! "Don't do it!"
"Don't!" alone	avá or ává	(on its own)
For absent persons	á + plural verb	Á carir "let them do it"
Wish	nai	nai tiruvantes (the page gives no translation)

Number is not marked in the command itself. Wikipedia also gives áva márië! "Go (away) happily!", where áva is the imperative of the irregular verb auta- "depart", so the same sound áva can be a command to go or a ban, depending on the verb.

Saying No: ua-

Quenya negates a verb with a separate negative verb, ua-, which carries the pronoun, and the main verb stays in its impersonal form. Wikipedia suggests that this may be borrowed from Finnish.

Tense	Affirmative	Negative	Meaning
Aorist	carin	uan carë	I do not make
Present	cáran	uan cára	I am not making

The page lists variants (for example uin carë for the aorist) and negatives of the other tenses, which Chapter 9 revisits.

Watch out: only two verbs fully modelled

The tables are for car-, henta- and the irregular auta-. A verb you meet elsewhere may not follow these patterns, and the page gives no rules for the present beyond the examples. The page also does not discuss the infinitive.

Watch out: two dates, two grammars

The page says the impersonal paradigms were written in the late 1960s and are given for the singular only. Some forms, such as carë (cari-), show alternate stems without a rule. Treat the paradigm as Tolkien's late sketch, not a complete system.

Not yet verified

All forms are from a summary of Wikipedia's "Grammar of late Quenya"; I did not read the page itself. The summary reported that the page does not cover the infinitive, the endings -ro, ávë or alë, the sample verbs tulë and tuluva, or a general rule for the present; I have not checked other sources, so none are taught. My glosses "general tense" for the aorist and "happening now" for the present are my own plain-language explanations. The statement that the plural -r matches the noun plural is my observation.

Sources for this chapter

Wikipedia, "Grammar of late Quenya" (verbs, negation, moods and agreement sections), read through a summary.

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise 1

Give the aorist and present, singular and plural, of car- and of henta-, then say what the plural ending is and how the present of each verb differs from its aorist.

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Exercise 2

Translate "Do it!", "Don't do it!", "I am making" and "The Elves are making" using the patterns in the chapter, and say which of your answers are attested on the page.

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Exercise 3

Negate "I do not make" and "I am not making" with ua-, and explain how the negative sentence differs structurally from the affirmative. Then say why the particle áva is ambiguous between "go" and "don't".

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Chapter 8 Quick Reference

Root verbs (car-) and derivative verbs in -ta -na -ya (henta-)
Aorist: carë, plural carir; henta, hentar. Present: cára, cárar; hentëa, hentëar
Person endings: -n (-nye) "I"; plural -r; dual -t
Commands: á + verb; prohibition áva + verb; nai for a wish
Negation: ua- with the pronoun + the verb in its impersonal form (uan carë)

Coming next

Quenya Grammar 1, Chapter 9 completes the verb system: the past, perfect and future forms, and the gerund.