Neo-Quenya/Personal pronouns

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Personal pronoun endings[edit]

Most personal pronouns are used as endings with a conjugated verb. These can be found on the pages about Verbs and Imperative.

One special use of these endings exists: they can be added to a preposition. Let's use the preposition ara "against" as an example:

-nyë: aranyë "against me"
-lyë: aralyë "against you"
-lmë: aralmë "against us" (exclusive)
-lvë: aralvë "against us" (inclusive)
-mmë: arammë "against both of us" (dual)
-ntë: arantë "against them"
-ryë: araryë "against him/her/it"

(In the Quenya exemplified in the Lord of the Rings however -mmë is the 1st person plural exclusive; -lmë the 1st person plural inclusive and -lvë the 1st person dual — See the Problem of the Canon Middle-earth canon).

When the preposition ends in a consonant we use the connecting vowel e (and as with verbs i in the first person singular) (or is a preposition meaning "over, above"):

orinyë "over me"
orelyë "over you"
orentë "over them", ...

Independent personal pronouns[edit]

These are used when no ending is possible or when the personal pronoun has to be in a case other than the nominative, e.g.

nin antalyes "you give it to me"

Here "to me" has to be in the dative case so we use the personal pronoun ni with the dative ending -n.

1st pers. singular 1st pers. plural 1st pers. dual 2nd pers. 3rd pers. singular male 3rd pers. singular female 3rd pers. singular neuter 3rd pers. plural
nominative nye me met lye so se ta te
dative nin men ment lyen son sen tan tien
ablative nillo mello melto lyello sollo sello tallo tiello
allative ninna menna menta lyenna sonna senna tanna tienna
locative nissë messë metsë lyessë sossë sessë tassë tiessë
instrumental ninen menen menten lyenen sonen senen tanen tienen
respective nis mes metes lyes sos ses tas ties


  • the forms of the 3rd person singular depend on the gender:
Oromë sonna lendë "Orome went to him"
Oromë senna lendë "Orome went to her"
  • the cases of ta cannot be translated litteraly, i.e. tallo isn't translated by "from it" but by "from there", ....
Oromë tanna lendë "Orome went (over)there"
Oromë tassë hamë "Orome sits thereupon/therein"
  • the difference between the 1st person plural and dual is translated by using "both" with the dual:
imbë me "between us"
imbë met "between us both"

The nominative of these independent pronouns is used in the following situations:

  • when the verb has a direct object that is a personal pronoun and a subject that isn't:
i lië te latuva "the people will bless them"
Note the difference with:
i lië latuvantë "they will bless the people"
  • when a gerund or a active participle has a personal pronoun as direct object:
utúlien le cenien "I have come to see you"
me cénala vánes "while he saw us (seeing us), he left"
i elda se suilala "the her greeting elf"
  • after prepositions (but in that case we mostly apply the ending to the preposition):
ve nye "like me"
  • with the copula the verb can be omitted and replaced by a personal pronoun:
nye aran "I am king"
le halla "you are long"

The word order is again quite free, but in principle the nominative always immediately precedes the verb (except of course when used with prepositions). The other cases either immediately precede the verb or immediately follow the verb:

órenya quéta nin / órenya nin quéta "my heart says me"

Emphatic personal pronouns[edit]

Sometimes we want to emphasize the personal pronoun and in that case we don't use endings but separate words.

Let's look at an example, non-emphatic we use endings:

hiruvalyes "you shall find it"

When we want to emphasize that "you" found it, we change this into:

elyë ta hiruva "even you shall find it"

Note: ta is an ordinary independent pronoun because it cannot stay an object ending if no subject ending is present.

An example in the first person:

inyë tye méla "even I love you"

These forms can also be used as direct object:

mélalyë inyë "you love even me"

An overview of the emphatic personal pronouns:

inyë "even I, even me"
elyë "even you"
eryë "even he/she/it, even him/her/it"
elmë "even we, even us" (excl.)
elwë "even we, even us" (incl.)
emmë "even we, even us" (dual)
entë "even they, even them"

When we use an emphatic pronoun we do not add a personal ending to the verb:

elyë lala "even you laugh"

But in the plural we still use the ending -r:

elmë lalar "even we laugh"

So emphatically we can see a difference between singular "you" and plural "you":

elyë matë "even you eat" (singular)
elyë matir "even you eat" (plural)

The negation of a verb with an emphatic pronoun always uses instead of um- (see Verbs):

elyë lá linda "even you don't sing"

Note: The emphatic pronouns can be declined in all cases, e.g.:

elmen "even for us" (dative)
inyenna "even towards me" (allative)

The informal second person[edit]

There is a poorly attested form in Quenya that is used for the informal second person singular (in English we see no difference, but some examples of other languages are French "tu", German "du", Dutch "jij"). The normal second person is more neutral, i.e. it can both be informal and formal (French "vous", German "Sie", Dutch "u").

The informal forms are only used when the person spoken to is very close, a brother, sister or very good friend.

The personal pronoun subject ending is -ccë:

maticcë "you eat"

The object ending doesn't have an (attested) informal form, so we always use -l:

ceninyel "I see you"

The independent forms are based on the stem ce-:

Dative: cen, Ablative: cello, Allative: cenna,
Locative: cessë, Instrumental: cenen, Respective: ces.

An example with the dative:

antan cen lótë "I give you a flower"

The nominative has an exceptional form: tye.

atar tye canë "father commands you"

The emphatic form is:

eccë "even you"

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