Sindarin Lesson 1

"Quotes" are English [Brackets] are Sindarin

The Definate and Indefinate Articles

There is no actual word that explicitly means "A" or "An", instead the words are implied.

[edhel] means "elf" or "an elf"
[aran] means "king" or "a king"

To say "the" the word is [i] before singular nouns or [in] before plural nouns. Before consonants, the article changes the sound, but this will not be discussed until Chapter 3.

[i edhel]  "the elf"
[in edhil] "the elfs"

[i ion]    "the son"
[in ion]   "the sons"

The Genitive

To say that A owns B you can simply juxtapose the two words, [B A]. This is often done with names, but can always be done even with no names.

[aran Gondor]   "king of Gondor"
[hîr Imladris]  "lord of Rivendell (Imladris)"
[ion aran]      "son of a king"
[ion in erain]  "son of the kings"
[cabed i aras]  "leap of the deer"

You can also insert the word [en] before singular nouns or [enan] before plural nouns. They are often definate, so "the" can be implied. It CAN be used with names, but this is rare.

[cabed en aras] "leap of the deer"
[ion en aran]   "son of the king"
[aran en noeg]  "king of the dwarves"
[aran Ennorath] "king of Middle Earth" (Ennorath is grammatically plural)

[nan] and [nia] can be used instead of [en] and [enan] respectively, but this is rare. Before consonants, [nan] and [nia] change the sound, but this will not be discussed until Chapter 3.