That's it.

(II you want details about where this all comes Irom, look at the bottom oI
this page.) You only need to know a Iew more things and you're ready to go. The most
important thing is that vowels go above (or below) the consonants. That's what the
gray arrows signiIy in the alphabet shown above. You can put the vowels above the
letter they Iollow (Quenya style) or above the letter they precede (Sindarin style).
Take your pick. I do the Quenya style. Look at this example.
. rite the name: ROBERT.
2. Shift the vowels up and to the leIt, so they are
above the letters they Iollow.
3. Substitute the letters using the alphabet
provided above. Notice there are two forms for
the letter R. One is Ior the R sound as in RED.
The other is Ior the R sound as in CAR. The name
ROBERT starts with the R-as-in-RED sound and
near its end it has the R-as-in-CAR sound.
4. Here's the text notation. I Iind it useIul to use a
plain text representation oI the characters when
I'm explaining things via email. The underscores
at the beginning and end show where the baseline
is.
J E
_ R B R T _
. All the examples on this page are use the
Quenya style, but here's the text notation Ior
Sindarin (not shown in calligraphy) so you can
see how the vowel positions shiIt to the right.
J E
_ R B R T _

Generally the vowels go above the consonants, but sometimes, in the case oI Y and
silent E, they go below. Here's another example. This one includes a special symbol, a
straight line underneath the consonant, that indicates a doubled consonant. Use this
"doubling symbol" with any consonant.
. rite the name: LYNNE.
2. Shift the vowels down and to the leIt, so they
are below the letters they Iollow.
3. Make letter combinations. Doubled
consonants can be combined into one space.
4. Substitute the letters using the alphabet
provided above. Use the bar underneath the N to
signiIy it is doubled.
. Here's the text notation. Most oI the action
occurs below the baseline. I'm using square
brackets to indicate letter combinations that result
in a single letterIorm.
_ L NN` _
Y E

The straight line underneath is iust one way to make one character do the work oI two.
There are a number oI Elvish letters that stand Ior two letters oI our alphabet. Think oI
this as a supplementary alphabet.

The line above a consonant means that a nasal N or M precedes the consonant in
question. In the next example, we use the nasal modiIier and we see what to do with
vowels when there's no consonant in the right place to put it above.
. rite the name: ANDY.
2. Shift the vowels. The Y goes down and to the
leIt. Since the letter A has no consonant to slide
above, it goes on a carrier, which is iust a straight
line that Iills in Ior the iob a consonant would
normally do. Note that the carrier is iust a
graphical convention and has no bearing on
pronunciation.
3. Make letter combinations using the
supplementary letters: N D ND.
4. Substitute the letters. The vowel placeholder
is a short straight line. The nasal N preceding D is
denoted by a straight line above the D.
. Here's the text notation. I'm using the colon
symbol : Ior the vowel carrier symbol.
A
_ : ND` _
Y

Here's one last example with two diIIerent letter combinations.
. rite the name: SHELDON.
2. Shift the vowels.
3. Make letter combinations using the
supplementary letters: S H SH. L D
LD.
4. Substitute the letters.
. Here's the text notation.
E 0
_ SH` LD` N _

I am oIten asked how to handle double vowel situations. Remember to use the carrier
as shown above in the ANDY example. Here are some examples that illustrate some
oI the situations that come up.
ame: ADRIAN
Text notation:
A I A
_ : D R : N _

ame: EILEEN
Text notation:
E I EE`
_ : : L N _
omment: This is a dramatic example oI doubled
up vowels. The name starts with two vowels,
leaving us no choice but to use two carriers in a
row. We use a little artistic Ireedom with the
double E at the end, since they Iit nicely over the
L. It would have been, however, perIectly
reasonable to spell it like this.
Text notation:
E I E E
_ : : L : N _

ame: DIETRICH
Text notation:
I E I
_ D : T R CH` _

ame: AMELIE
Text notation:
A E I
_ : M L _
E
omment: Here again we're using a little
expressive Ireedom Ior compactness. The silent E
at the end is placed under the L and assumed to
Iollow the voiced I above the L. You can always
spell it like this iI you want to be absolutely clear.
Text notation:
A E I E
_ : M L : _

That's all you need to get started. II you take a real interest in Elvish and want to learn
more, there's a lot oI good inIormation out there Ior you.
!lease be aware that there are many ways to write English words in Elvish. This is
iust the one that I use. I have tried to keep it very simple here. There are dozens oI
sites that can lead you through the nitty-gritty details. The best one I have come across
yet is Tolkien Script !ublishing. You can learn about all details that I glossed over
here.