In Neo-Quenya the nominative case is used for:

  • The subject
  • The predicate
  • The direct object
  • After most prepositions
  • (only `V1 = `C6nE = 7~C = ~M et, arwa, and ú take another case)

The nominative is the basic form that can be found in a dictionary. The plural, dual and partitive plural of this case can be found on the main page about nouns.

The use of the nominative for the direct object has implications for the word order:

in a normal sentence the word order is subject - verb - object, or SVO:
  • `B 5~V6 7lY1E `B 7Ya;Y i nér roita i rocco "the man chases the horse"
  • `B 7Ya;Y 7lY1E `B 5~V6 i rocco roita i nér "the horse chases the man"


All other parts of the sentence can be in any order:

  • `B `C7E5 `C4# 7Ya;Y `B 7YzF5$5 i aran anta rocco i roquenen "the king gives a horse to the knight"
  • `B `C7E5 `C4# `B 7YzF5$5 7Ya;Y i aran anta i roquenen rocco "the king gives to the knight a horse"
  • `B `C7E5 `B 7YzF5$5 `C4# 7Ya;Y i aran i roquenen anta rocco "the king, to the knight, gives a horse"
  • `B 7YzF5$5 `B `C7E5 `C4# 7Ya;Y i roquenen i aran anta rocco "to the knight, the king gives a horse"

It purely depends on the emphasis one likes to express.

Accusative case edit

In qE6t#zR81E Parmaquesta "Book Quenya", an ancient form of Quenya dating centuries before the Noldor's departure from Valinor, there existed an accusative case that was used for the direct object and after prepositions. This disappeared from spoken Exilic-Quenya and was replaced by the nominative, but was retained in some formal writing and documentations, and was possibly obsolete in Exilic-Quenya during the time period of The Lord of the Rings. It may have continued use within the Vanyarin Dialect of Quenya, where many ancient features of Quenya persisted.

It was formed as follows:

  • When the nominative singular ends in a consonant, the accusative singular is identical to the nominative, the accusative plural ends in \~B -í
  • When the nominative singular ends in a vowel, this vowel is lengthened in the accusative singular, in the accusative plural we add \`B -i
  • But when the nominative singular ends in `B -i or \`B`V -, the accusative plural ends in \~B -í
  • When the nominative dual ends in `M -u, this `M u is lengthened to ~M ú; when it ends in \1 -t, the Accusative dual is identical to the nominative dual
  • In the accusative partitive plural we always find \~B -í


Accusative Case
Singular Plural Dual Part. Plural
`Cm#
alda "tree"
`Cm~C
aldá
`CmlD
aldai
`Cm~M
aldú
`Cm#j~B
aldalí
t#aGj
macil "sword"
t#aGj
macil
t#aGj~B
macilí
t#aGj$1
macilet
t#aGj°~B
macillí
j%`V
lië "people"
j%~V
lié
j~B
j%`V1
liet
j%`Vj~B
lielí



>> Neo-Quenya >> Nouns >> Nominative