Verbs 2

Sindarin Grammar 1

Course 1 · Chapter 8 · Verbs 2: Past and Future

The past tense is the most poorly attested part of Sindarin verbs. Tolkien gave a few forms and a few patterns, and the rest is the work of scholars. This chapter shows the two summaries' patterns for the past and the future, and is plain about which is which. Pronoun endings are those of Chapter 6; the present tense is in Sindarin Grammar 1, Chapter 7.

The idea in a box

The future is the easy one: add -tha to the stem. The past is the hard one: derived verbs add -nt, but basic verbs change their stem in ways that vary from verb to verb.

The Future: -tha

Both summaries agree that the future is made with -tha (the second adds that a basic verb may take -atha). Pronoun endings and the plural -r then follow as in the present.

# Real Elvish Academy pattern (reconstructed)
i adan noratha          the man will run
norathon                I will run
in edain norathar       the men will run
i adan padratha         the man will walk
padrathon               I will walk
in edain padrathar      the men will walk

# elvish.org pattern, a different stem vowel
peditha                 he will speak
pedithan                I will speak
peditham                we will speak
pedithar                they will speak

The elvish.org summary also has a "future continuative" in -tho- (pedithon "I will be speaking"). That form is a proposal with no firm support.

The Past

Derived verbs: -nt

For verbs in -a, both summaries add -nt in the third singular, and the nt becomes nn before a pronoun ending:

# derived verbs (reconstructed)
i adan padrant          the man walked
padrannen               I walked                (Real Elvish Academy)
in edain padranner      the men walked
linnant                 he sang                 (elvish.org)
linnen                  I sang                  (elvish.org: a different ending again)

Basic verbs: a changed stem

Basic verbs form the past by adding a vowel in front and changing the stem, in several ways. The Real Elvish Academy page lists:

# reconstructed: present → past (third singular, then "I")
tîr     watches    →   idir        idíren      watched, I watched
cên     sees       →   egin        egínen      saw
câr     makes      →   agor        agóren      made
nôr     runs       →   onur        onúren      ran

# stems ending in b, d, g use a nasal
pêd     says       →   ebent       ebennen     said
dâg     slays      →   adhanc      adhangen    slew
câb     leaps      →   agamp       agammen     leapt

The elvish.org summary gives a different, simpler picture (pent "he spoke", pennin "I spoke") and a short list of irregular verbs: onen "I gave", aun "he gave", agor "he did". Where the two meet is agor "he made/did", a good sign that the form is genuine.

Participles and the Perfect

Neither summary gives a true perfect tense. The nearest thing is the participle. These forms come from the elvish.org summary and are reconstructed:

Form	Ending	Example
Present participle	basic -el; derived -ol	pedel speaking; linnol singing
Perfective participle	-iel	linniel having sung
Passive participle	-en, plural -in	pennen / pennin spoken; linnen / linnin sung

The same summary forms a "may it be" mood from aen plus the future: peditha aen "may it be that he speaks".

Watch out: past forms disagree

"I sang" is linnen in one summary and padrannen-type (-nnen) in the other. Do not combine endings from the two. Pick one summary, state it, and treat the forms as reconstructions.

Watch out: the past looks nothing like the present

idir does not look like tîr. When you meet a verb you cannot find, strip any front vowel and undo the vowel changes before looking it up.

Common myths

"Sindarin has a complete past tense." It has a few attested forms and several proposals.
"There is a perfect tense." Only a perfective participle is proposed.
"The future is just as shaky." It is the best agreed: -tha.

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise 1

Make the future of nor- and padra- for "the man", "I" and "the men". Name the part both summaries agree on.

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Exercise 2

Make the past of padra- for "the man" and "I", then explain why the -nt becomes -nn- in the second.

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Exercise 3

Give the past "the man saw" and "the man made", and say what agor tells you about how far to trust the pattern. Then state why a perfect tense is not a safe thing to teach.

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Chapter 8 Quick Reference

Future: stem + -tha, endings as in the present (norathon, padrathar)
Past, derived verbs: -nt, becoming -nn- before an ending (padrant, padrannen)
Past, basic verbs: front vowel and a changed stem (idir, egin, agor)
Participles: -el/-ol present, -iel perfective, -en/-in passive
The two summaries disagree on the past: pick one

Coming next

Sindarin Grammar 1, Chapter 9 puts the pieces together: word order, questions, negation and joining clauses.