Na’vi Course

Introduction - Part 1
How to study Na’vi

Resources Pronunciation Common Grammar

Phrases
Make yourself Learn Learn some Use resources
familiar with the pronunciation, phrases. to learn
available listen to others, Use them in grammar
resources practise chats instead concepts step
yourself. of their by step.
Find the ones translations. Practise a lot
you find Don’t go with You will and familiarise
understandable what you become yourself before
and appealing. assume it familiar with moving on,
sounds like in words, and you don’t rush
Use when your head. have a yourself.
stuck. foundation.

Pronunciation
It’s perfectly fine to make mistakes with your pronunciation, as not
everyone has perfect pronunciation, or has a perfect accent and/or
knowledge of pronouncing na’vi words.

However, you’ll find that by assuming the pronunciation of a word, you

will pronounce a word by how you hear it in your head. This is most
likely an incorrect pronunciation, and you should listen to others
pronouncing words rather than reading it from your head.

Additionally, you should practise it yourself, as to train your mind

and tongue on understanding how a word sounds, and to learn na’vi

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sounds, as many have never heard of many sounds in the na’vi
language.

The general idea is that you learn pronunciation before grammar, that
way, you won’t have to relearn the pronunciation for every word
you’ve learnt.

What about Vocab?

→ Practising a lot, specifically in grammar, will help you learn often
used words automatically.
→ Flash cards and similar resources used to revise vocab can help
you learn as a bonus, but practising grammar may be seen as more
efficient.

Practice and The Importance

The basics for each are to practise. You may end up forgetting
certain concepts whether it’s vocab, grammar, pronunciation etc if you
cram it in a day and never use it again. Like said for grammar, go
slowly, with all concepts. Familiarising yourself is a key to learning
things and being able to store it in your long term memory.

Skills require practice to develop, and when learning a language,

you require and develop multiple skills, which requires a lot of
practice. You’d be learning things like vocab, learning the rules,
knowing the roots and important concepts. However, learning Na’vi
comes down to 4 main skills.

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 Speaking Listening

Writing Reading

Speaking Practice

Practising speaking can be one of the more foreign and harder to

learn for most beginner na’vi learners. But to learn to speak in
na’vi, you cannot just write, or listen to other speakers. A key way to
practise speaking is to speak it yourself, even if it is to a pet, or a
plushie. It’s a beneficial way to practise speaking, and it’s perfectly
normal to speak to a plushie, many others do it too.

Starting off, you don’t have to speak to others. Speaking to yourself

and beginning to explore past your comfort zone is a great way to
start off. It’s better to speak on your own, rather than not speak at all.

Speaking with others, especially those who are more advanced into
their na’vi learning journey, will correct your mistakes, which will help
out a lot.

It’s okay to make mistakes! Communicate. That’s what language is

about, not about perfection.

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Listening Practice

Listening also needs to be practised on its own. There are a lot of

ways to find listening materials, and it’s easy to just go ahead and do
it. You can find several youtube videos easily, even from Karyu Pawl
himself, where you can practise listening.

Writing and Reading Practice

When having a conversation with someone in Na’vi, you can practise

both reading and writing. You cannot learn how to write simply by
just reading, as you need to actively use words you read passively,
words you can recognise when you hear or see them.

Don’t only read and listen, attempt writing and speaking too.

Learning is Work

Learning a language takes time and a lot of effort to learn a new

language, as it requires a lot of familiarising with many concepts. The
journey to learning a language can be fun, and beneficial, as you can
learn a lot of things and meet new people during your journey.

Consistency is key, and it’s vital. Cramming for 4 hours in one day
may leave you lost and confused, and unable to remember much,
compared to 10-20 minutes a day consistently learning. Spreading
those 4 said long hours of studying and taking it step by step will lead
to drastic improvement by the end of the day.

Use the language! Find a workbook, a na’vi diary or text, and go over
and practice using your contextual and new found knowledge. It’s an
enriching form of practice, if you use the language more naturally in
conversations.

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Find fun things to do with the language, communicate with others.
It’s pretty cool to be able to speak with others in an alien language,
and use it whenever you wish in your free time. You could speak with
people, and teach them, which is even better.

Mistakes are your best friends, and branching off of your knowledge
and pushing out of your comfort zone will help you learn things you
didn’t know, and you’ll naturally correct yourself. Don’t be afraid of
embarrassing yourself, as everyone has been there, and everyone
has made mistakes.

Help others to help yourself. If you know something, teach it, word it
out in your own words in an understandable way. You’ll teach others
and yourself, the more you need to use it, the more you learn. You
need to be able to prepare and understand yourself. It helps you the
most.

Common Mistakes

Literal translations are the most common mistakes. Merging

words from a dictionary into a sentence rarely works, in many
cases, you’ll get a load of nonsense. Consider your grammar
and structure, and apply it.

Word types, in English, you can have many types for many
situations. Good can be an adjective and a noun, and mean
many things. However, in Na’vi, the word types for words are
strict. Srung si, to give/do help, is a verb, but can be a noun, in
a sentence like “I thank you for your help.” However, it’s also a
verb in which it is a si verb, which is then a separate word., “I
help you.”

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Not enough practice is a very common mistake. Don’t just
consume information and not attempt to output knowledge.
Practice doing the language, speaking it, writing it, more than
you input it.

Not enough interaction is also a bit of a problem. Interaction

offers help, and you can receive tips on your mistakes and
such, and you can receive an outside view when stuck to help
yourself progress.

What grammar should a beginner learn?

Start off with Simple Sentences.

“I go”
- Word order
- Conjugation

You’ll warm up to the flexible word order of the Na’vi language, and
familiarise with basic Na’vi concepts.

Case Endings.
- Transitivity
- Subject
- Direct object
- Indirect object
- Genitive

You’ll be able to identify grammatical word types in a sentence, and

begin to build slightly more complex sentences.

Adjectives.
- Connecting with a verb

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 - Connecting with “a”

The fast dog vs, the dog is fast. These two types of sentences would
be learnt after studying Adjectives.

Clause Attribution.
- Subclauses with “a”
- F-words (futa and friends)
- Other conjunctions

Infixes.
- Infix positions
- Tense, aspect, subjunctive
- Participles
- Positive and Negative mood
- Reflexive and causative

These are small syllables which go into a verb to change a meaning.

Na’vi Course
Part 2

-l and -t endings, subject and direct object

Simple Sentences
I run. Oe tul. / Tul oe.

He runs. Po tul. / Tul po.

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The dog runs. Natangtsyìp tul. / Tul natangtsyìp .

A cat runs. Palukantsyìp tul. / Tul palukantsyìp.

Yesterday I ran. Trram oe tul. / Oe trram tul.

Tomorrow I will run. Tul trray oe. / Oe tul trray.

Which differences between English and Na’vi can

you spot?

- Flexible word order

You may have noticed that in those simple sentences, both word
orders translate to the same meaning, no matter the order.
Oe tul. / Tul oe. Both mean I run.

The word order isn’t exactly free, as in na’vi, there are certain
rules with certain words. However, as long as there are no rules,
specifically about how you need to do it, then you can do it
however you want.

- No conjugation
Oe tul - I run. The verb is the same in Po tul - He/she runs. In
English, we would add an s here, as it’s a third person singular.
In other languages, such as Italian, there are a lot more
complicated conjugations for every person. However, in Na’vi,
the verb stays the same, according to the subject, in this case,
who is running. It can change, in some cases, but not this case.

- No articles
Palukantsyìp tul - The/A cat runs. Na’vi has no a, or the, or an,
or any similar article, which makes things very easy. Compared
to other languages, with genders for articles, it doesn’t exist in

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 Na’vi. A bit of meaning is lost, as the cat runs is different to a cat
runs. Context helps you, however. When there is no context
surrounding it, we can only guess what it means. In this
sentence, the or a cat would be fine.

- Tense doesn’t have to be indicated at the verb

In English, there is the phrase I run, and yesterday, I ran. It’s
different, as the verb changes. However, you don’t have to do
this in Na’vi. You can conjugate the verb according to tense, but
you can leave it out if context makes it clear.

Oe tul - I run.
Oe trram tul. - Yesterday, I ran.

In this sentence, we have trram, which means yesterday. In this

case, we don’t have to conjugate the verb according to tense, as
we have trram, which makes it clear that this already happened
yesterday, in the past, so we do not have to conjugate the verb.

Na’vi has changes for the verb according to tense, however, for
the beginning, it can be easy, as you can put a word into the
sentence which makes it clear which tense you’re referring to,
and you won’t need to bother with word changes. Later on,
however, you will want to learn verb tense infixes, but at the
beginning, it can be easy.

Which problem does this cause?

Look at the sentence Neytiri hears Ninat.

In English, only word order tells us who hears and who is heard.
However, Na’vi has a very flexible word order. If we change the
sentence to Ninat hears Neytiri, the meaning changes
completely, and who hears and who is heard is changed.

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 Na’vi has a solution for this.

Case Endings
In the sentence Neytiri hears Ninat, there are two types of roles.

Subject - Who <verb>s? Who is performing the action?

Direct Object - Who is <verb>ed? Who is affected by the action?

In this case, Neytiri is the subject, and Ninat is the direct object.

There are two different endings to identify and show roles.

Subject Direct Object

The subject takes on the -l The direct object takes on the -t
ending. ending.

Sounds easy? It does sound pretty simple, but it gets slightly more
complicated.

The -L ending can change depending on which sound it comes after

in the word.

After Vowel -l
After Consonant/ll/rr -ìl
After Diphthong -ìl

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The -T ending has slightly more, but -ti is always correct, you should
be default to this.

After Vowel -t(i)

After Consonant/ll/rr -ti , -it
After Diphthong -ti , -it , -ay-t , -ey-t

Neytiri hears Ninat

Back to this sentence, Neytiri hears ninat, Neytiri receives the -l

ending, as she is the one hearing, doing the action. As for ninat, she
receives the -t ending, as she is the one being heard. Ninat ends in a
consonant, so we can use -ti or -it. As for the verb, it is not affected.

So, we have the na’vi sentence,

Neytiril stawm Ninatit.

Stawm means to hear.

However, knowing that na’vi has flexible word order, we can also use
other word orders.

Neytiril Ninatit stawm. These sentences all mean the exact same
Ninatit stawm Neytiril. thing, and they are all correct, as we can
Ninatit Neytiril stawm. tell who is affected and who is doing the
Stawm Neytiril Ninatit. action. They are all correct.
Stawm Ninatit Neytiril.

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Some more examples

I eat the fruit.

Mautiti yom oel.

Here, eating or to eat is yom. The fruit, (mautiti) is the thing being
eaten, so it becomes mautiti. Oe, I, is the one eating, so it becomes
oel.

The insect follows me.

Nong hì’angìl oeti.

The dog chases a cat.

Nantangtsyìpìl fewi palulukantsyìpit.

You see him.

Poti ngal tse’a.

Tomorrow, we will find it.

Run awngal trray tsat.

- Run is the verb here, find. Trray means tomorrow.

The hunter hunts the yerik.

Taron yerikit taronyul.

Not all words here are translated, so here’s a small exercise. Look at
the case endings which word has case endings or no case endings,
and try to tell which Na’vi word corresponds to which English word.
Use a dictionary, like Reykunyu or Fwew.

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The general lesson here is always look at case
endings, not the word order for meaning.

Verb Transitivity
In dictionaries, each word is categorised as vin. or vtr.

All the verbs here are categorised with vtr. or vin.

What does that mean?

vtr = transitive verb
- Can have a direct object
An example, Neytiri hears Ninat, hear is a transitive verb, as you
can hear someone, and the verb has a target/direct object. In
the sentence the insect follows me, I/me is the direct object. So,
who is being followed? I am being followed.
- But can also be used as an intransitive verb! This is important,
as -l and -t endings are only used for transitive verbs, which
subjects and direct objects.

However…

I eat -> Oe yom.

You may think that case endings are used, and as oe is the one doing
an action, -l case ending is needed, as I am the one eating, but this is
not the case. Nothing here is being eaten, and the -l ending is only

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used if there is also a direct object. There is no direct object in the
sentence, and because of this, no -l ending is needed.
The sentence is intransitive.

But.. a counter-example.

I eat the fruit -> Oel mautiti yom.

What is eaten? The fruit is eaten. Therefore, the sentence is transitive,
and due to the transitivity, -l and -t are required.

So, even though yom is transitive, it can be used in intransitive

sentences, oe yom, and intransitive sentences.

It’s important to know if the sentence which a verb is being used in is

transitive or not.

vin = intransitive verb

- Cannot have a direct object
- Can never use -l/-t endings
As it has no direct object, it can never use -l/-t endings. As
transitive verbs can be used without a direct object (intransitive),
this cannot happen the other way round with vin.
- Certain verbs in Na’vi which appear as vin could seem vtr in
English. An example is nume, which is to learn. You could
clearly have a direct object in English, but this is wrong in Na’vi.
- Can use other endings. (This can be dealt through with other
case endings, but those will be learnt in another part of the short
Na’vi course.)
- A tip for identifying vin verbs… all si-verbs are intransitive.

Si-verbs
Si-verbs are verbs that always end in si, such as irayo si, kaltxì si. All
of these verbs are intransitive, despite how you can give thanks/thank
someone, or greet someone. A lot of them look transitive, but they’re

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all vin. You will have to use other endings to indicate who is the one
doing and who is affected. This will come in another part.

Key points
- Na’vi has flexible word order, verbs don’t get conjugated and
there are no articles. These are the base differences between
Na’vi and English if we look back to the examples.

- Case endings are used to mark the role a noun plays in a

sentence. An example is who is doing something and who is
affected by it, the ones you have learnt from this lesson.
However, there are a few more.

- -l marks the subject, -t the direct object. They have many forms
for different sounds/types of letters with (pseudo)vowels,
consonants, and diphthongs.

- Only transitive verbs can use these two case endings. If there
are intransitive verbs, you cannot use -l and -t endings. You will
need to use other case endings that will be learnt.

- Transitivity of a verb needs to be learned, use a dictionary, to

identify vin. or vtr. verbs. The answer is often very logical,
however, like with nume, to learn, there is no direct object in
na’vi, so it’s vin. This makes the verb different in Na’vi to English.
This is why it makes sense to look words and their transitivity up
in a dictionary.

- Tip for studying transitivity of verbs: All si-verbs are intransitive.

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Na’vi Course
Part 3
Indirect Object -ru case ending

To fully understand this lesson, it’d be better to learn -l and -t case

endings, and vin. and vtr. verbs. These topics will be mentioned.

What is -ru?
The -ru ending is a case ending. A case ending is something which
goes at the end of a noun which shows the role it has in a sentence.
It is the indirect object, or, also known as the dative. It is translated as
“to someone/something.” This is important, as it is used in a wide
variety of situations in na’vi.

How do I use -ru?

As mentioned before, it is a case ending, so it is placed at the end of a
noun. It changes depending on the letter or sound the noun ends in,
similar to -l and -t case endings.

After Vowel -r(u)

After Consonant/ll/rr -ur
After ‘ -ur , -ru
After Diphthong -ru , -ur, -awr, -ewr

Adding -ru to a noun

Oeru, Ngar, Neytiriru, Neytirir.
Mo’atur, nantangur, ‘ewllur.
Olo’ru, olo’ur.

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Wayru, eyktanayur, tìreyur,
Tsu’teyru, ‘etnawr.

What do I use it for?

We will look at a variety of situations where you can use -ru, such as:
- -ru plus the verb lu. It sounds specific, yet you’ll see it make
sense, as -ru in function with lu serves a very important function.
- -ru with intransitive verbs in general.
- -ru with si-verbs, -ru works well with si-verbs, and this will help
you understand si-verbs better.
- -ru with transitive verbs. Other than -l and -t, -ru can be used
with both transitive and intransitive verbs.
- Double dative.

Usage of the Dative/-ru

-ru in combination with lu

lu (vin.) = to be. You can use lu to say things like I am a teacher, or

you are fast, or she is smart. It connects nouns with other nouns, or a
noun with an adjective. It is similar to that of the equality sign (=).

She is smart (adj) - Po lu kanu → She = smart.

I am a teacher (n) - Karyu oe lu → I = teacher.
You are fast (adj) - Lu nga win → You = fast.

lu (vin.) can be used with a singular noun to also express general

existence. Such as, ikran lu / lu ikran. Then, it would mean there is
an ikran.

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However this is where -ru becomes important.
Consider these two sentences.
I have an ikran.

You have a book.

Your first instinct may be to look into a dictionary and search for the
na’vi word have, as in English, possession has its own verb. This is
not the case in na’vi, there is no verb for this.

I have an ikran. Lu ikran oeru. → “To me, there is an ikran.

You have a book. Ngaru lu puk. → “To you, there is a book.”

With what we learnt before, we can translate this.

Lu ikran, there is an ikran. Oeru, to me, as we know that -ru means to

someone or something in English. In Na’vi, the sentence means “to
me, there is an ikran,” and that basically means I have an ikran, so it
is the na’vi way of saying I have an ikran.

The same is for the second sentence, to you there is a or the book.

But, there are more ways to use -ru and lu.

More Examples
To me, that is easy! Oeru, tsaw lu ftue!

Oeru, to me, tsaw, meaning that. Lu has the connection to show that it
is easy (ftue).

I love you. Nga yawne lu oer.

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This may seem strange, why do we have to use dative for this?
However, this sentence actually translates as to me, you are beloved.
Or, you are beloved to me. There’s no verb for to love in Na’vi, but
there is the adjective yawne, beloved. In Na’vi, they say, you are
beloved to me. Again, we see how -ru is used to show to something
or someone.

He/she misses you. Poru lom nga lu.

Poru, to him or her. Then, nga lu lom. You are missed, to him or her,
as there is no verb to miss, rather the adjective missed. They are
missed to someone else.

The mother trusts the warrior. Lu tsamsiyu mal sa’nokur.

The same applies here. The warrior, tsamsiyu, is trustworthy to the

mother, sa’nok. So, if someone is trustworthy to the mother, this
means the mother trusts them.

So, the verbs to have, to love, to miss and to trust

are translated as lu combined with the -ru case
ending!

-ru in combination with intransitive verbs

Reminder: intransitive verbs cannot use -l / -t case endings.
→ You may use -ru instead. Many may seem like they are
transitive and you think that you can use -l and -t case endings
because in English they have a direct object, but this is not the
case.

I like the flower. Sunu oeru syulang.

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I know him. Smon oeru po.

I pray to Eywa. Eywaru aho oe.

This may make a lot of sense, as in both English and Na’vi, it is to
someone, in this case, to Eywa.

It/that is important to him/her. Tsaw poru tsranten.

Here’s another easy case, as something is important to her.

The action surprises the mother. Tsakem loho sa’nokur.

These three underlined sentences may seem a lot harder, as in

English, they seem like they’d have a direct object, they are transitive
in English, where you’d think they’d need -l and -t endings.

So, why doesn’t Na’vi just use these verbs as

transitive?
You need to look at it more literally.

The flower is likeable to me.

Sunu oeru syulang.
The flower is the subject. What is likeable? The flower. Who is it
likeable to? To me. The sentence makes a lot more sense this way.
Syulang, is flower, sunu, is likeable, and oeru, to me.

To me, he is known / He is known to me.

Smon oeru po.
Smon, to be known. Who is known? He is known, and the intransitivity
does not allow him to have a case ending. To whom is he known? To
me.

I pray to Eywa.
Eywaru aho oe.

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This is important to her.
Tsaw poru tsranten.

This action is surprising to the mother.

Tsakem loho sa’nokur.
The same is here. Loho means to be surprising to someone. To whom
is it surprising to? The mother.

These sentences are equal and literal translations to each other.

Always look at the literal translation, it will help

you a lot!

-ru in combination with si-verbs

Si-verbs

Si verbs are made from the helping word si.

- If you don’t have the linguistics general knowledge of what’s
shown in the picture, looking up si will not really help you.

- Si is a helping verb, it cannot be on its own. It’s bound to another

word, such as an adjective, or a noun.

- You’d normally find an adjective or noun with si infront of it,

which is identifiable as a si verb.

- We cannot make our own si verbs, it has to be in the dictionary.

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 Examples
Irayo thank/thanks (n./intj) → irayo si to thank

Kaltxì hello! (intj.) → kaltxì si to greet

Laro clean (adj.) → laro si to clean

Law clear (adj.) → law si to make clear

Uvan game (n.) → uvan si to play

Kelku house, home. (n.) → kelku si to live, to dwell

These are all in the dictionary, they are all possible to use. You cannot
just randomly get a noun or adjective and put si infront of it, it’s just
not allowed.

Why are these intransitive?

There is a direct object with many of these verbs. Laro si, you can
clean something. However, if we look at the literal translation:

Irayo thank/thanks (n./intj) → irayo si to do a thank to smo/smth

Kaltxì hello! (intj.) → kaltxì si to do a greet to smo/smth

Laro clean (adj.) → laro si to do clean to smth

Law clear (adj.) → law si to do clear to smo/smth

Uvan game (n.) → uvan si to do a game

Kelku house, home. (n.) → kelku si to live, to dwell

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Again, literal translation helps in Na’vi.

-ru back with si-verbs

After learning more about si-verbs, you should perhaps now have a
general grasp on how to use it in combination with -ru.

The child thanks the mother. → Sa’nokur irayo si ‘eveng.

So, literally, the child does thank to the mother.
He greets them. → Po foru kaltxì si.
He does a greet/hello to them.
I clean the house. → Laro si oe kelkuru.
I do clean to the house.
They make it clear. → Tsaru fo law si.
They do clear to that.
I experience Neteyam. → Li sie oe Neteyamur.
From the Songcord. I do experience to Neteyam.
I play Elden Ring. → Oe uvan alu Elden Ring si.
I do the game which’s name is Elden Ring. Alu.
The Elden Ring is placed before si along with alu.

-ru in combination with transitive verbs

Reminder: Transitive verbs can have -l and -t, it can have a direct
object.
These sentences may come off as confusing, as they have both -l and
-t endings, and the -ru ending. The subject, who is doing what, the
direct obect, who is affected by the verb of the subject, and the
indirect object, to whom.

I give the book to you. → Ngaru pukit oel tìng.

They show the way to him. → Fol poru wìntxu fya’ot.

The man shows a message to me. → ‘Upxareti fpe’ oeru tutanìl.

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I teach the student the language. → Kar oel lìfya’ti numeyuru.

The mother tells the story to you. → Ngaru peng vurti sa’nokìl.

The forest provides everything to us. → Vun na’rìngìl fra’ut awngar.

Mostly, -ru marks the reciever of something. The

student recieives the teaching, I recieve the story, etc.

3 Case endings in a small sentence may be sort of

confusing, so here’s a deeper look.

I give the book to you. → Ngaru pukit oel tìng(verb).

Who is giving? What is given? The book! To whom is

Who’s the subject? I! Puk → pukit. it given? You!
Oe → oel. Nga → ngaru.

Double Dative
Some verbs can have -ru two times!

I have words for everyone. → Lu oeru aylì’u frapor.

To me, there are words to everyone.

Everyone has words for me. → Lu frapor aylì’u oeru.

To everyone, there are words for me.

These first two messages have the same meaning due to the flexible
word order, however, the solution to figuring out the meaning is very
boring. The case is that word order here matters, as lu needs to be in
the clause of who has the words.
Notice how frapor and lu are together in the second sentence to show
the possession of words to/for me.

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I write a message to him. → Oe poru ‘upxareru pamrel si.
Po needs a ru, this is more clear, as to whom do I write a message?
To him. However, ‘upxareru is slightly more complicated. As pamrel si
means to do a writing, and the -ru on ‘upxareru is to the message. I
do a writing to the message.

So, there’s two times -ru due to the reciever of the message and
the message itself being written.
This is not that ambigious or too hard to mix up, as the thing being
written is usually a message or a letter, etc, whilst the one
recieving it is a human or a living thing.

She confirms that to us. → Po tsar awngaru kangay si.

The same is here. Kangay is to validate, kangay si is to do a validate.
It’s easy to tell what is being validated/confirmed, and who it is
being confirmed to.
She does a confirmation to that, to us, the reciever. Which makes it
two times -ru.

-ru vs. ne
ne (adp.) to(wards) Ne also means towards, and this may cause
confusion, as -ru also means to something or can mostly be translated
as this.

Looking at the following sentences with what you’ve learnt today, you
may think to use -ru, because it’s to something. But actually, you will
need ne.

I go to school. → Ne numsteng oe kä.

The dog swims to the island. → Nantangtsyìp ne spono slele.

The yerik runs to the forest. → Tul ne na’ring yerik.

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Ne is used when you can replace to by towards. You will also notice
that swim, run and go are all verbs of some form of motion. If you can
replace to by towards, and you have a verb of motion, you will most
likely need ne.

Key points
- -ru is a case ending, jusy like -l/-t.
- after a vowel, it is r(u), after a conosant, -ur
- it is the so called indirect object, and often marks the reciever of
something
- in English, it can almost always be translated as to
someone/somebody. of course it doesn’t always work, and very
often you may have to use english in a strange grammatical
sense, yet it works efficiently, you may need to think outside of
the box.
- looking at the literal translation of a verb can help you a lot.
translating it in beautiful, grammatical english may make it not
make sense, however the literal translation makes a lot of
sense.
- it is used with all kinds of verbs, but si-verbs use it a lot.
- if you can replace to by towards, very often you will need the
adposition ne, towards.

Na’vi Course
Part 4

Adjectives and Comparisons

These are two topics heavily connected to each other.

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Adjectives
Adding an adjective to a noun
Adjectives are words that describe a noun, for example, the fast dog.
Fast is an adjective, describing the noun, the dog.

The blue flower.

The fast dog.

The black bow.

A smart learner.

The small, blue flower.

The beautiful, small, blue flower.

What they all have in common is that the noun is directly infront of all
of the adjectives. Of course in English, we can say the flower is blue.
However, the difference here is that a verb connects the adjective, the
noun, is blue. Whilst the blue flower is just a noun phrase.

In English, the adjective is always before the noun. Yet in Na’vi, it’s
different, as it can be both, before and after the noun.

We’ll look at noun phrases first.

The blue flower. → Eana syulang / Syulang aean

Ean - blue and green. We see here that ean changes, and becomes
eana. There is the small a which is always in the direction of a noun.

The fast dog. → Nantangtsyìp awin / wina nantangtsyìp

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Win gains the a in the direction of the noun, on the end of the
adjective.

The black bow. → Layona tsko / Tsko alayon.

A smart learner. → Numeyu akanu / Kanua numeyu

The small, blue flower. → Hì’ia syulang aean / Eana syulang ahì’i
We can also have an adjective on both sides, which has the a to
connect the adjectives to the noun.

The beautiful, small, blue flower. → Hì’ia syulang aean sì lor

Here, we have sì, which means and. We have an adjective on both
sides with a, but the lor has no a.

Everything after sì does not have an a.

Connecting adjectives to a noun

→ The a connects the adjective to the noun.
♦ lora -> syulang / syulang <- alor
The a acts like a small arrow, always next to the npun to show they’re
connected.
→ One adjective can be connected that way per side, so you can
have two.
♦ lora -> syulang <- aean
→ More adjectives can be added with sì(and), but without the a.
♦ lora -> syulang <- a(ean sì hì’i)

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Why the a?
Consider this sentence:

Ikranìl ean syulangit tse’a.

The (blue?) ikran sees the (blue?) flower.

Tse’a, to see, our subject, the ikran sees our direct object, the flower.
Ean is just floating, and is dividing our two nouns, with the flexible
word order. In this case, you don’t know what noun the adjective
belongs to without our connecting a.

The a connects adjectives to nouns, to clarify which noun the

adjective belongs to.

Ikranìl aean syulangit tse’a.

The blue ikran sees the flower.

Or.. we can say:

Ikranìl eana syulangit tse’a.

The ikran sees the blue flower.

Exceptions - excuse ma.. Get it?

Na’vi in most cases doesn’t want two of the same vowels next to each
other.
If you place an a on your adjective where there is already an a, you
won’t need to add it.

Two ‘a’ can combine into one.

apxa - large axpa na’rìng / na’rìng apxa
→ large forest

hona - cute hona ikran / ikran ahona

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 → cute ikran
In the second alternative of cute ikran, the a is needed, as on that end
of the word hona, there is no a, so we must add one.

Adjectives starting with le- don’t need the a when after the noun.

Le- is a small syllable which usually shows if something is an

adjective.

If something starts with le-, it’s useful to know that very likely it will be
an adjective. It basically creates adjectives out of other words.

We cannot create adjectives with le- on our own.

Only Karyu Pawl can do that. Lehrrap can be used as it is in the na’vi
dictionary.

lehrrap - dangerous

Tseng (a)lehrrap / lehrrapa tseng - dangerous place.

When putting lehrrap after the noun, we don’t need to put the a there,
as le is in the direction of the noun. You can put the a there, if you’d
wish.
It is common to leave out the a in this situation in Na’vi, as putting it in
is kind of strange. However, if you put lehrrap infront, with the
adjective a, then everything stays normal.

Another exception: Reef Na’vi dialect.

The Reef Na’vi dialect is the recent dialect from Avatar : The Way of
the Water. It has a few more exceptions, such as hona as an adjective
with two a’s, honaa.

This course is mainly written in the Forest Na’vi dialect, as it is

the one I know more about.

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Connecting adjectives with verbs
This topic of adjectives is pretty straight forward, perhaps more easier
in English. In Na’vi, we have flexible word order. In such cases, we
don’t need the a, so we can smash the words together in any order.

You are fast. → Lu win nga.

He feels sick. → Po ‘efu spxin.

The sky becomes dark. → Slu taw vawm.

Become, sky, dark. The word order is quite flexible.

The sentence below is slightly more complicated, as it contains

structure for a seperate lesson.

However, Kilvanìri translates to something along the lines of as for

the river / regarding the river. It stays at the front. Fkan translates to
resemble in a sensory modality, come to the senses as.. And lor
translates as pleasant to the senses. Fahew means smell.

If you cannot understand this example, refer to the topical lesson,

otherwise just ignore this example.
Fkan in this case can also have an adjective.

The river smells good. → Kilvanìri, fahew fkan lor.

In conclusion.. There is no a for connecting verbs

to adjectives. It is only used to connect adjectives
to noun.

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Comparisons
Comparisons are sentences along the lines of:
→ He is faster.
In English, -er is added to show they are more of something, in this
case, he is “more fast.”
→ She is the fastest.
Here, -est is added to show they are the most of something, is this
case, she is “the most fast.”
In English, we use endings on the adjective to indicate this.

Or, direct comparisons along the lines of:

→ She is faster than him.
→ She is as fast as he is.
For this, in English, we just use a special structure.
However, in Na’vi, we simply just use adverbs.

nì’ul and frato

ni’ul (adv.) = more frato (adv.) = than all.
You are fast → Lu win nga.
He is fast. → Lu poan win.

He is faster. → Poan win nì’ul lu.

Without nì’ul, the sentence means he is fast. But if we add nì’ul, we
basically say that he is more fast, using the adverb ni’ul, which
means more.

She is the fastest. → Lu win frato poe.

frato - Fra means all, everyone. The to is a comparitive marker which
means than/compared to. (Will be explained later in the lesson.) So
frato means compared to all/everyone. Faster, smarter, taller, bigger
etc than all, basically.

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So, this may be translated to she is fast compared to everyone.

You run fast. → Nga nìwin tul.

Here, we use nìwin instead of win. Win is the adj. fast, whilst nìwin is
the adverb fast. Whilst adjectives describe nouns, such as, you are
fast, the dog is fast, adverbs describe other things, such as verbs.
In this case, how do you run? You run fast, therefore, we need an
adverb.

He runs faster. → Nìwin nì’ul tul poan.

Alone, nìwin tul poan means he runs fast, but adding nì’ul as more,
he runs more fast.
Which, could be translated as he runs faster.

She runs the fastest. → Poe frato nìwin tul.

Again, adding frato as a comparitive adverb, compared to everyone
else, she runs fast. This leaves us with the sentence “she runs the
fastest (compared to everyone else.)”

Nìnän, nì’ul’ul and nìnänän

Nì’ul (adv.) = more nì’ul’ul (adv.) = more and more
Nìnän (adv.) = less nìnänän (adv.) = less and less

There are more adverbs, they’re useful to use for the occassion, yet
they are not too important.

You run faster and faster. → Nga tul nìwin nì’ul’ul.

He is less fast. → Poan win nìnän lu.

She runs less and less fast. → Tul nìwin nìnänän poe.

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to - the comparitive marker.
to (part.) ‘than’, ‘compared to’ comparitive marker

What does it do? What is it?

to is a particle which can be translated as than, or compared to. It is a
comparitive marker.

We use the comparitive marker to (part.) to make a comparison. We

add the to onto what we are comparing something to.

Comparisons are sentences such as he is faster than you, the dog is

faster than the cat, the ikran is faster than the thanator, and so on.

You are fast. → Lu win nga.

He is faster than you. → Poan to nga lu win. / Poan ngato lu win.

This sentence literally translates as he compared to you is fast.
We can also add the to behind what we are comparing to, ngato and
to nga.

Note here that there is no nì’ul, as in English, we say faster, in Na’vi

we don’t do this, and here we just use the bare adjective, wìn.

We don’t say poan to nga win nì’ul. We just say poan ngato/to nga
lu win. Where we aim to say he in comparison to you is fast.

You run fast. → Nga nìwin tul.

He runs faster than you. → Nìwin to nga tul poan. / Nìwin ngato tul
poan.

The same is for adverbs. No nì’ul needed. We just say nìwin to nga
tul poan. / nìwin ngato tul poan. (Both phrases mean the same.)
Where here, we translate, fast in comparison to you, he runs. (In
comparison to you, he runs fast.)

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This leaves no use for nì’ul, as the comparison of him being faster is
already made with to.

So, you always have to infront of, or after the thing you are
comparing to. Someone compared to something is
adjective. So, someone is more adjective compared to
someone else.

nìftxan na.
nìftxan (adv.) = so / to such an extent. na (adp.) = like.
With these two words, we can build sentences such as “I am as fast
as you.” Or describe two people or things being on the same level of
something.

Here’s an example:

You are fast. → Lu win nga.

I am as fast as you. → Oe lu nìftxan win na nga / ngana.

Ngari oe lu nìftxan win.

Let’s break down the sentence for a clearer grammatical

understanding to say ‘I am as fast as you:’

1st structure:
Oe lu nìftxan win → I am fast to such an extent…
Na nga → Like you.

So, our literal translation of the sentence is Like you, I am fast to such
an extent. Or, I am fast to such an extent like you, which basically
means I am as fast as you.

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Like to, na can also go at the end of something, so I can say ngana
or na nga.

2nd structure:

Ngari oe lu nìftxan win.

Regarding you, I am fast to such an extent.

It means exactly the same as the sentence above → I am as fast

as you.

This is another structure which uses ngari.

-ri is a topical case ending, we won’t go into detail for this lesson, but
remember is can be used for specifically this structure to compare
people and say they are the same level.

It also works with adverbs.

You run fast. → Nga nìwin tul.

He runs as fast as you. → Nìwin nìftxan na nga tul poan.

Ngari poan tul nìwin nìftxan.

Here, including the adverb, the sentence translates to:

Fast, to such an extent, like you, runs he. This is the same as he
runs as fast as you.

Again, we can also say ngana here too. Again, we can also use
topical.
Ngari poan tul nìwin nìftxan. → Regarding you, he runs fast to such
an extent.

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Summary - useful words to learn
- Nì’ul (adv.) = more. We can use it to build things like ‘faster’ or
‘more beautiful. For exampe, I can say, you are faster. Lu nga
win nì’ul. Literally just saying you are more fast.
- Nì’ul’ul (adv.) = more and more. For example, you run faster and
faster. Nì’ul’ul nga tul nì’win.
- Nìnän (adv.) = less. Nga lu win nìnän. For example: You run
less fast.
- Nìnänän (adv.) = less and less. For example: Nga tul nì’win
nìnänän. You run less and less fast/slower and slower.
- Frato (adv.) = than all. Nga lu win frato. You are fast compared
to everyone. Fra comes from everything/one. To is the
comparitive marker.
- To (part.) = ‘than’, ‘compared to’ comparitive marker. We can use
this for comparisons between two things or people. For example.
Nga win oeto lu. You are faster than me. What is literally being
said, you are fast compared to me, becomes you are faster. In
English, we use faster. In Na’vi, we use the bare adjective.
- You only just say you are fast compared to me, not you are
faster compared to me in Na’vi.

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