man "who"

mana "what"

manen "how" (instrumental)

manan* "why" (dative)

massë "where" (locative)

manna "where to" (allative)

mallo "where from" (ablative)

*literally meaning "what for"

The word for "when", íre, is not an interogative pronoun, but a relative one. Therefore, the expression lú manassë, meaning "at what time", is used.

They and them

They and them are formed by -ntë and -t to verbs. -Ta is inserted before -t when it is added to the infinitive form of a verb. Note that verbs with a pronominal ending do not take on the plural -r.

Postpositions

Yá, meaning "ago", and pella, meaning "beyond", are the two known postpositions. They are placed after the word they connect with.

Verbs ending in -ya (past tense)

This type of verb, when intransitive (no object), drops the -ya, and when transative (with object), keeps this ending. This is only for the past tense.

Passive participle

An adjectival word, derived from a verb, that describes nouns. For primary verbs, the ending -ina is added to the verbs ending in -c, -t, and -p. Other consonants take on the ending -na, except for -l, which takes on -da. A-stem verbs take on the ending -ina. The passive participle agrees in number.
Note: Because some may have trouble with active and passive participle, here are some tips. When the participle is active, it is the object that does the action (A walking Elf), but the passive is the opposite (The trodden soil).

The imperitive

This tense expresses a command or a request. Though there are some old forms of this tense, ending in -a, imperitives are mostly all formed with á. A-stems use á + verb stem, and primary verbs use á + verb stem ending in ë. The negative form uses áva, the negative particle.
Wishes are expressed with nai "be it that" with the future tense of the verb.

Impersonal verbs

These verbs are caracterised by the fact that the person affected by them, mentioned in the dative case, is not the grammatical subject of the phrase. An example is óla-, meaning "to dream".

U-stem verbs

Verbs ending in -u, which are rare, are verbs of which only the active participle is known. The active participle of these verbs is obtained by adding -la to the end of the verb. The following are u-stem verbs:

palu-, meaning "to open wide", "to spread", "to extend", "to expand"

hlapu-, meaning "to fly", "to stream in the wind"

fifíru-, meaning "to slowly fade away"

nurru-, meaning "to murmur", "to grumble"

Lesson 7-Quenya cases

Quenya cases and case endings denote the function of a noun in a sentance, and also replaces certain prepositions such as like to, from, on. An English example is 's, used to denote possession (The child's ball). These case endings are added to the nouns to change their meaning.

The genitive case

This case is used for the following in Quenya:

family relationships

relation between a ruler and what is ruled

relation between a place and what is in that place

to show that something is a part (physically) of something else

to show that something is a part of a group of something else

to denote origin, source, former* ownership

to denote of in the sense of about, concerning

after the preposition ú ("without")

after the adjective arwa ("possessing", "in control of")

*It is important to remember that the genitive case is not used to denote current ownership. That role goes to the possessive case.

The singular ending for this case is -o. If a noun ends in -a, the -o replaces it. If the noun ends in -o, it stays the same. If the noun has a particular verbal stem, the -o is added to the end of it.

For dual, the ending -o is added to the dual form of the noun, and for plural, the ending -on is added to the plural form of the noun.

Note: the genitive can either come before or after a noun, as long as it is added to the main word. The article i "the" is the only article necessary in a genitival sentance.

The possessive case

This case is used for the following:

current ownership caracteristics, permanent attributes

the material which consists something

the object of a verbal noun

The singular ending for this case is -va, which changes to -wa if the noun ends in a consonant (these endings are added to the special noun stems if applicable).

For plural, the ending -iva is added to the singular form of the noun. If the noun ends in -ë or -i, this ending is dropped and the -i of -iva becomes long (making it -íva).

Exception:

If the second-to-last syllable of a noun contains the dipthong ui, the ending -va is added to the final vowel, which is lengthened.

The dative case

This case is used for:

indirect (dative) object of a sentance

to denote for in the sense of for someone

with gerunds to denote a purpose

with impersonal verbs

The singular ending for this case is -n, if the noun ends in a vowel. If the noun ends in a consonant, the ending becomes -en.

For plurals ending in -r, this ending is dropped and the ending -in is added. For plurals ending in -i, only -n is added.

For dual, the ending is -nt.

The gerund, when used with the dative case, denotes the idea of in order to, or with purpose of.

Lesson 8-Quenya cases continued

The allative case

This case is used to denote to in the sense of towards and on, upon, into.

The singular ending is -nna, which becomes -enna before a consonant.

For plural, the ending is -nnar, which becomes -innar before a consonant.

The dual ending is -nta. For dual forms in -u, there are two possible endings: -nta and -nna.

The ablative case

This case is used to denote from, but can also mean of, out of. The preposition et "out" and the verb ruc- "to fear" are followed by the ablative case.

The singular ending is -llo.

The plural ending is -llon, however -llor can also be used.

For dual, the ending is -lto. When a dual noun ends in -u, either -lto or -llo can be used.

Note: Another way to avoid impossible consonant combinations in a noun is to simply drop the consonant appearing originally in the noun, instead of adding another vowel to the case ending.

The locative case

This case is used to denote, of course, location in time or space, translated to in and sometimes on.

The singular ending is -ssë, which becomes -essë before a consonant.

The plural ending is -ssen, becoming -issen before a consonant.

The dual ending is -tsë.

Note: Since there are some nouns that end in -ssë without being locatives, it is easier to use the prepositions mi "in" and mí "in the" rather than the locative endings.

The instrumental case

This case is used for saying how something happened, or how something was done, in the sense of by what means, using what, by who. It is not used to mean with, in the sense of together with.

The singular ending is -nen, which becomes -enen if the noun ends in a consonant other than -n and -r.

The plural ending is -inen.

The dual ending is -nten. For nouns with a dual ending in -u, the ending might possibly be -nen (not sure).

Lesson 9

Demonstratives

Demonstratives are words that demonstrate things, that point things out. They are, to name a few, this/that/these/those. These demonstratives are placed after the noun, and form their plural like adjectives ending in -a. Quenya has various words for that, each with a particular meaning.

sina- "this", as used in English (example: this Elf)

tana- "that", as used in English (example: that Elf)

enta- "that", as in over there, in the future

yana- "that", as in formerly, in the past

These demonstratives are to be used as adjectives only. Quenya case endings can be added to demonstratives to change their meaning. If the noun is plural, the regular plural ending is added to it, even though the case ending is attached to the adjectival word.

U-stem nouns

Some nouns ending in -o have special stems ending in -u, used when a case ending is added. U-stems ending in -go/-co change to -gwi/-qui when the case ending begins in -i. If not, the case ending is added to the regular form of the word.

Ordinals

The following are the Quenya numbers and ordinals:

minë- one

atta- two

neldë- three

canta- four

lempë- five

enquë- six

otso- seven

tolto- eight

nertë- nine

minya- first

attëa- second

neldëa- third

cantëa- fourth

lempëa- fifth

enquëa- sixth

otsëa- seventh

toltsëa- eighth

nertëa- ninth

The particle lá

This particle can mean two things; beyond, used to compare two things, or not, used to negate sentances. For the latter, lá is placed before the verb in the sentance, and can be interchanged with the negative verb um-. Lá is mostly used in the present and perfect tenses.

Lesson 10

Independent pronouns

There exist independent forms of Quenya pronouns, which were seen in Lesson 5. They are the following:

As subject

ni "I"

le "you" (plural and polite singular)

ce* "you" (familiar singular)

ta "it"

me "we" te* "they" (becomes tie with case endings)

*these are not certain

These pronouns are used when a case ending is necessary, when the copula is left out and as the subject of a sentance (pronominal endings are prefered).

As object

nye "me"

le "you" (plural and polite singular)

tye "you" (familiar singular)

ta "it"

vme "us"

te "them"

These pronouns are used when the verb has an object but no pronominal ending for the subject, in imperitive phrases and after gerunds in the dative case denoting in order to.

Pronouns in imperitive phrases

Pronouns are used in imperitive phrases when one wishes to specify to who the command (or request) is directed at, and to who (or what) the person adressed is asked to do something.

For the subject, the ending -t is added if there is one person adressed, or the ending -l if there are several persons adressed.

For the object, the object form of the independant pronoun is added to the particle á (or áva for negative requests), or is used as a seperate word. If a direct and an indirect pronoun are used, one must be a seperate word, because only one pronoun to be added to the particle.

Empathetic pronouns

These pronouns put an emphasis on themselves. The verb does not take any pronominal ending when used with an empathetic pronoun as a subject, but can still take the plural ending -r with a plural subject. The empathetic pronouns are:

inyë "I"

elyë "you"

eryë* "he", "she", "it"

elme* "we" (exclusive)

elvë* "we" (inclusive)

emmë "we" (dual)

entë* "they"

* these are not certain

There also exist possessive empathetic pronouns: menya "our" and ninya "my" are the two existing examples.