Adjectives

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 In Quenya, the adjective goes before the noun, just like in English.
     calima Anar      the bright Sun

If the noun is plural, the adjective should also be in the plural. Change the adjective ending:
     -a → -ë
     -ë → -i
     -ëa → -ië
 

     linda óma (a beautiful voice)     lindë ómar (beautiful voices)
     lissë orva (a sweet apple)           lissi orvar (sweet apples)

Practice – Your Turn 

Highlight the shaded box to see the answer. 

┌───────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────┐

│                  useful vocabulary                  │

│ morë    black                 │ celva  animal       │

│ helwa   pale blue             │ aiwë   (small) bird │

│ carnë   red                   │ huo    dog          │

│ ninquë  white                 │ yaxë   cow          │

│ varnë   brown                 │ lótë   flower       │

│ sindë   grey                  │ yávë   fruit        │

│ vanya   beautiful (of looks)  │ orva   apple        │

│ linda   beautiful (of sound)  │ vinë   young child  │

│ lissë   sweet                 │                     │

│ melda   dear, sweet, beloved  │                     │

└───────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────┘

a white flower      ninquë lótë
pale blue flowers   helwë lóti 
beautiful flowers   vanyë lóti
red apples          carni orvar
sweet apples        lissi orvar
a black cow         morë yaxë

sindë huo           (a) grey dog
varni huor          brown dogs
linda aiwë          (a) beautiful-sounding bird
melda vinë          (a) dear child
lissi yávi          sweet fruits

Extra Material for the Geeks:

There are some common endings that signal that a word is an adjective, and perhaps give a hint about how it relates to other words.  You don't usually have to make adjectives yourself; you look them up in the dictionary.

Adjectives usually end in -a, or sometimes -ë

   -ya      a common adjective ending, though not all words ending in -ya are adjectives

   -ima    sometimes means “able to ~” or “apt to ~”

   -inqua   ~-full

   -itë     often means “having ~”, “having the quality of ~”

   -lóra    ~-less

for example:

   er (one) →               erya (single, sole)

   formen (north, right side) → formenya (northern, right)

   fir- (die) →              firima (mortal)

   cal- (shine) →            calima (bright)

   alcar (glory) →           alcarinqua (glorious)

   ma (hand) →            maitë (-handed):

                            Angamaitë (Ironhanded)

                            formaitë (right-handed)

   na- (is) →               naitë (true)

   óma (voice) →           ómalóra (voiceless)

«‹◊›»

Now that we have done simple nouns and adjectives, you can make names.  Next lesson, we will start simple verbs, and then you can do sentences.

After that, we will come back an pick up some of the trickier things that we skipped over:  cases, the other plurals, and the rest of the pronouns.  

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