Sentences

Sindarin Grammar 1

Course 1 · Chapter 9 · Sentences

This chapter joins the pieces: nouns (Chapter 3), mutation (Chapter 4), adjectives (Chapter 5), pronouns (Chapter 6) and verbs (Chapters 7 and 8). The elvish.org summary covers questions, negation and joining words; the Real Elvish Academy page does not, and says so. Where only one source speaks, the chapter says which.

The idea in a box

Ordinary Sindarin order is subject, verb, object, with adjectives and possessors after the noun. A word that changes a following word (an object, an adverb) usually softens it.

Word Order

# reconstructed (Real Elvish Academy): subject, verb, object
i adan nôr            the man runs
cenin 'aladh          I see a tree        (object softened: galadh → 'aladh)
gohenam di            we forgive them     (pronoun object may come after)

# attested names show noun + noun for "of"
Ennyn Durin           Doors of Durin
Condir i Drann        Mayor of the Shire
Ónen i-Estel Edain    I gave Hope to the Men     (verb, object, then the person given to)

The person receiving can follow the object, or be introduced by an "to": Gurth an Glamhoth! "Death to the Orc-host!". That an brings a nasal change (Chapter 6).

Adverbs and Mutation

# reconstructed
mae garnen            well done           (mae "well" softens carnen)
nerin vregol          I run suddenly      (an adverb after the verb is itself softened)
noro lim Asfaloth     ride swiftly, Asfaloth   (attested)

Questions

A question is made with a question word, and the word order does not change (elvish.org summary):

Word	Meaning
man	who, what
ias	where
ir	when
manen	how

# the summary's examples
Man agorech?          What did you do?
Mas barech?           Where is your house?

Negation

The negative word la (or law) goes before the verb, and the verb softens. The prefix ú- also gives a negative sense ("cannot"):

# elvish.org summary, cited there to Vinyar Tengwar 42
La chebin estel anim       I do not keep hope for myself      (cebin → chebin)
Ú-chebin estel anim        I cannot keep hope for myself

Joining Words and Relative Clauses

Word	Meaning
ar	and (a is also seen before a consonant, as in pedo mellon a minno)
dan	but
egor	or
sa	that

The article i does the work of "who" or "that" in a relative clause: Dor Gyrth i chuinar "Land of the Dead that Live". The Real Elvish Academy page offers another way, with a participle: i adan norel "the running man" (reconstructed).

Numbers, Briefly

Numbers follow the noun: corvath nêl "three rings". The first ten cardinals in the elvish.org summary are môn, tôd, nêl, canad, leben, eneg, odog, tolodh, neder, pae, and the summary gives twelve-based and ten-based forms for the rest; since the sources are thin, they are left out of this chapter.

Watch out: one source for most of this

Questions, negation and the conjunctions come from a single summary. The Real Elvish Academy page covers none of them. Treat the forms as reported, not as established, and check Eldamo before building a sentence.

Watch out: mutations are easy to miss

After you build a sentence, go back through it asking, for every word: "did the word before me demand a change?" Objects, adverbs and words after la are the usual ones.

Common myths

"Questions invert the order." They do not; a question word does the work.
"Sindarin has a word for 'not' that never changes anything." La softens the verb.
"There is a word for 'who' that is separate from the article." Both exist: man asks, i joins.

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise 1

Say "the man runs", "I see a tree" and "I run suddenly", marking which mutation each one needs.

📄 View solution

Exercise 2

Explain Man agorech? and La chebin estel anim word by word, and say what la does to the next word.

📄 View solution

Exercise 3

Analyse Dor Gyrth i chuinar and Ónen i-Estel Edain: which word is the relative marker in the first, and what is the order of the second?

📄 View solution

Chapter 9 Quick Reference

Order: subject, verb, object; adjective, possessor and number after the noun
Object and adverb soften (cenin 'aladh, mae garnen)
Questions: man, ias, ir, manen, no change of order
Negation: la before a softened verb; ú- "cannot"
Joining: ar, dan, egor, sa; relative: the article i

Coming next

Sindarin Grammar 1, Chapter 10 reads the surviving texts and closes the course.