Na'vi Sentence-Building Adventures

Na’vi Sentence-building Adventures
1st Edition
tsyili
NSA 1st ed • tsyili
Table Of Contents
Na’vi Sentence-building Adventures 0
Table Of Contents 1
Tips For Adventurers 4
Building Blocks of Language 4
The Periodic Table of Alphabet 6
Interjection, Your Honor! 7

May I Interject? 7
Your Verb is My Command 8
Intro to Clauses of The Non-Santa Type 8
Conjunction Junction 9
Practice with Basic Sentences 10
Using Fwew on Discord 11

Look up the translation of a Na’vi word with Fwew. 11
Look up the translation of an English word with Fwew. 11
Look up the translation of a list of (English or Na’vi) words with Fwew. 11
You Shall Not Pass 12
Why So Negative? 13
Negation and Nouns 13
Engaging the Englishisms 13
Practice with Negation 14
Adverbs: This is How We Do It 15

Practice with Adverbs 15
Fun with Fwew™ 16

Creating a List of Random Words with Fwew. 16
Creating a List of Random Adjectives/Nouns/Verbs/Adverbs with Fwew. 16
Practice with Fwew 17
Fixate on Prefixes 18
This and That 18
Every and all 18
Type of Noun 18
Making Plurals: As Easy as 2, 3, 4+ 19

Plural Pronouns 20
Asking questions 20
Audacious Adventurous Adjectives 21

Adjectives that begin or end with “a” 21
Adjectives that begin with “le” 22
1
Using more than two adjectives with a noun 22
Practice with Adjectives 23
Verbal Transformations 24
Verbs Can Be Adjectives, Too 24
Finding Infix Placement 24
Compound Verbs and Infixes 24
Finding Infix Placement with Fwew 25
Verbs Can Be Nouns, Too 26
Practice with <us> and <awn> 26
Who’s Who with Lu, Slu, and ‘Efu 27

Cindy Lu Who 27
Int-ru to the Indirect Object 28
Intro to the Direct Objec-it 29
Direct vs Indirect Object 29
‘Efu-ll of All the Feels 30
Slu 30
Practice with Lu 32
Floating Around with “A” 33
Adpositions Add Positions 34

Practice with Adpositions 34
Examining The Englishisms 34
To the Indirect Objects 35
Fun With Fwew™: Si verb edition 36

Looking up the translation of a two-part verb 36
Practice with Indirect Objects 36
Direct Your Attention To Direct Objects 37

Practice with Direct Objects 37
Possessions Of the Non-Demonic Variety 38

Possession and Pronouns 38
Parts of The Body 38
The Typical Topical 39

Topic, Comment 39
The More Nouns, The Merrier 39
Srake/Srak: You Have Two Choices 40

Practice with Srak/e 40
Modal Verbs Can’t Help Helpin’ 41

We N<iv>d You…. To Use <iv> 42
How’s My Timing? 43
How do I use the tense infixes? 43
Engaging the Englishisms 43
2
Take a Picture, It’ll Last Longer 44

Practice With <er> and <ol> 44
These Infixes will M<eyk> You H<äp>py 45

<eyk> and Intransitive (vin.) Verbs 45
<eyk> and Transitive (vtr.) Verbs 45
How do you Feel? 46

The <ei> and <äng> Infixes 46
Nang 46
Pak 46
Speaker Intent 46
Tsyìp 47
The <ats> Infix 47
Sentence Adverbs 47
It’s Gonna Be To-tally Awesome 47
What the Fwa? 48

Tips and Tricks of “Fì’u a” 48
Wait, There’s More of Them? 49

Come Here “Fì’ur a” Fun Time 49
“Fì’ul a” Me Once, Shame On You 50
The Fast and The “Fì’uri a” 50
“Fì’ut a” Last Time, I Know How to Use Case Markers 51
Practice with Fwa and Friends 51
3
Tips For Adventurers

↳ This guide teaches the Na’vi language from James Cameron’s AVATAR (2009), a
language that was developed by Paul Frommer.
↳ To use this document, I recommend that you make a copy to your Google Drive and
mark it up any way you see fit! That way you can fill in practice sections and make
margin notes.
↳ Na’vi words will have sections of the word underlined if they are more than one
syllable. This is where the emphasis of the word should be placed when spoken
(known as the stress).
↳ The goal is to make sentences, so feel free to share your creations and answers to
practice sections on the Learn Na’vi forum or Learn Na’vi Discord!
↳ For the rest of this guide, there will be superscript numbers and footnotes on
(almost) every page. These are references to the Na’vi reference guide written by
W.M. Annis, Horen Lì’fyayä leNa’vi, which compiles all of the known canon rules of
the language. The footnote will give you the section number that can be searched to
quickly locate the part of Horen that discusses that particular grammar feature.
4
The Periodic Table of Alphabet
A Ä E I Ì O
A Ä E I Ì O
🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊
U ‘Ll ‘Rr Aw Ay Ew Ey
U Ll Rr Aw Ay Ew Ey
🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊
Fä Hä KeK KxeKx LeL MeM NeN
F H K Kx L M N
🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊
NgeNg PeP PxePx ReR Sä TeT TxeTx
Ng P Px R S T Tx
🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊
Tsä Vä Wä Yä Zä tìFtang
Ts V W Y Z ‘
🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊 🔊
tìFtang, A, AW, AY, Ä, E, EW,

EY, Fä, Hä, I, Ì, Kek, KxeKx,
LeL, 'Ll, MeM, NeN, NgeNg, O, PeP,
PxePx, ReR, 'Rr, Sä, TeT, TxeTx, Tsä,
U, Vä, Wä, Yä sì Zä
🎵 Fì'u lu pamrelfya 🎵
5
Interjection, Your Honor!

The shortest sentences are called interjections. In this case, a single word is a sentence and can stand
alone, but it is usually a response to something occurring or has context understood between the speaker
and the listener. Saying hello, thanking someone, apologizing, and pleading can all be expressed in one
word.
May I Interject?
How can you know if a word can be used as an interjection? The first step is to find what kind of word it is,
known as the part of speech. In the dictionary, the part of speech directly follows the word. It will always be
abbreviated, and the abbreviation used for interjections is “intj”. HERE is a table that lists some useful
interjections. Ones that are likely to stand alone (though they do not have to) are highlighted in blue, and
those that are likely to appear at the beginning of a sentence, often introducing it, are highlighted in green.
Let’s try out some interjections! Which ones would you use in response to each of these situations?
1. Your friend bought you candy from the store.

2. You walk in the door of a family gathering.
3. You spill a drink on the floor.
4. Your teacher explains a new concept to you.
5. You lift a heavy box at work.
The answers are hidden in the box, highlight the text to reveal them. These are the ones I would
recommend, but there often isn’t only one right answer.
Try not to peek until you’ve written down your answers!
1. Irayo.
2. Kaltxì or kxì.
3. Tsahey, ‘ä’, or wiya.
4. Tslolam, tewti, or irayo.
5. Sau
6
Your Verb is My Command

Short sentences can also be made with a single verb, but these are commands issued by the speaker to a
listener.
Hahaw. ▶️Sleep.
Yune. ▶️Listen.
Tul. ▶️Run.
The speaker is commanding the listener to do that action, and there is an invisible “you” in every
sentence that is usually left out in commands because the listener understands that they are meant to do
the verb. Very rarely, the subject is left in, as in the case of ftang nga (you stop).1
Intro to Clauses of The Non-Santa Type

If there is no context to suggest it is a command, and a “you” is included, the meaning of the sentence
changes.
Nga yom. ▶️
You eat.
Nga yune. ▶️
You listen.
Nga tul. ▶️
You run.
Those sentences showcase important parts of what counts as the most basic clause, a noun and a verb.
Nouns are people, places, and things. Verbs are action words. In the dictionary, the abbreviation for noun
is “n.” and verbs will be listed under “v.”, “vin.”, and “vtr.”. That distinction matters, and will be covered
later on.
The most basic sentence will have one clause, but sentences can have more than one clause.
In a Na’vi sentence with one verb and one noun, the order does not matter. The noun is assumed to be the
one doing the action. If there are two or more nouns doing the action, all but the first one need to be
marked with “sì” (and). This can be used to make a list of nouns doing an action, as demonstrated by these
examples.2
Nga hahaw ▶️
= Hahaw nga. ▶️
You sleep.
Nga sì oe hahaw ▶️
= Hahaw nga sì oe. ▶️
You and I sleep.**
Nga oesì hahaw ▶️
= Oe sì nga hahaw. ▶️
You and I sleep.**
** Notice how the third sentence has “sì” attached to one of the nouns. It can’t be attached to the front, but
can be added to the back of a noun.3
“You run” has one clause, but stands alone as a complete thought. “You run while I cook” is two clauses,
“You run” and “I cook”, connected by a word that tells the reader what the relationship between the two
clauses is. In this case, it is “while”, meaning that the actions are happening at the same time.
1
Horen 6.13.1
2
Horen 6.20.5
3
Horen 6.20.5.3
7
Conjunction Junction
Conjunctions set up a relationship between two or more clauses in the same sentence. Words like “and”,
“but”, “because”, “before”, and “after” are common examples of conjunctions, and the clauses on each
side of them need to keep all of their parts with them.4
Though “sì” and “ulte” are both translated to “and”, “ulte” is used in sentences with more than one clause
and “sì” is used for making lists, often of nouns (but not always).5
Nga hahaw ulte oe tul ▶️ = hahaw nga ulte tul oe. ▶️ You sleep and I run.
Each clause’s verb and noun must stick together, even if the order of the two of them isn’t what one would
expect in English.6
A sentence like the one that follows would be incorrect.
Hahaw ulte oe nga tul. ✗ Sleep and you (??) I (??) run.
Think about why it would be incorrect before reading further. Does it make sense?
If you can imagine invisible boundaries around the clauses in a sentence, it can make the sentence
easier to understand. If you do this with the following two sentences, it becomes clear why the second one
does not work.
(Nga hahaw) ~ulte~ (oe tul). ✓ ▶️ You sleep and I run.
(Hahaw) ~ulte~ (oe nga tul). ✗ Sleep and I you (??) run.
The conjunction is marked with tildes on either side because what’s on the left side must stay separate
from what is on the right. With the first sentence, both sides make sense and are correctly formed clauses
(right now, just a noun and a verb, but later it’ll get more fun). With the second sentence, the reader isn’t
able to tell who is running, “oe” or “nga”.
If the noun that’s doing the verbs is the same noun, you can condense the sentence into just one clause,
and put sì in between instead.7
Nga hahaw sì tul. ▶️ You sleep and run.

The sì needs to come between the items of the list, or it can be added to the end of the second item in the
list (and third and fourth, if there are more list items).8
Nga hahaw tulsì yomsì. You sleep and run and eat.
4
Horen 6.20.5.3
5
Horen 6.20.5, Horen 6.20.8
6
Horen 7.1.1
7
Horen 6.20.5.1
8
Horen 6.20.5.3
8
Practice with Basic Sentences

Now let’s take what we’ve learned and put it into practice. From the following list of verbs and nouns, pick
two and put them together in a sentence. What are the silliest combinations you can think of? (It doesn’t
have to make sense!)
Nouns Verbs
vawmpin n. dark color tawng vin. duck, dive

wawe n. meaning, importance, significance leymfe' vin. complain
payoang n. fish sti vin. anger (intransitive), be angry
afpawng n. grief rìkxi vin. tremble, shake, shiver
'are n. poncho, cape, shawl kllpä vin. land, reach the ground
soaia n. family txanro'a vin. be famous
palulukan n. thanator lopx vin. panic
mokri n. voice nrr vin. glow, be luminous
lie n. experience lìng vin. float in the air, hover
klltxay vin. lie on the ground
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Now let’s add more words. Make some more sentences with nouns and verbs from this new list and try
using conjunctions with them. Remember to keep everything in each clause together on either side of the
conjunction and add parentheses if it helps!
Nouns Verbs Conjunctions
kllte n. ground kanfpìl vin. concentrate, focus taluna conj. because

sätare n. connection, one's attention vaykrr conj. until
relationship 'ongokx vin. be born ulte conj. and
sopyu n. traveller paw vin. grow; germinate and sì conj. and
tì'awm n. camping develop (of a plant)
ioang n. animal vezo vin. be in order, be organized
tompa n. rain hahaw vin. sleep
taw n. sky hangham vin. laugh
hì’ang n. insect plltxe v. speak
‘eylan n. friend
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
9
Using Fwew on Discord

This guide will be using a Discord bot and computer program called Fwew for looking up words. There are
two main ways to use Fwew: private messaging Fwew on Discord and messaging Fwew in channels of the
Learn Na’vi Discord server. If you want to message Fwew in a public channel, type !fwew before the
command you give it so it knows you want a response from it. In private messages, this isn’t necessary.
Fwew has many useful functions, and this section will cover some of the most commonly used Fwew
functions.
Look up the translation of a Look up the translation of an English word

Na’vi word with Fwew. with Fwew.
1. Open a direct message conversation 1. Open a direct message conversation with Fwew.
with Fwew. 2. Enter -r English word and hit enter. (The -r stands for
2. Enter Na’vi word and hit enter. reverse, because you are reversing the direction of the
search. The default is Na’vi to English, and the reverse
is English to Na’vi.)
Look up the translation of a list of (English or Na’vi) words with Fwew.

1. Open a direct message conversation with Fwew.
2. Enter word word word (however many you’re looking up) and hit enter.
In addition to lists of words, you can copy

and paste Na’vi sentences into Fwew for a
quick translation of each word!
10
You Shall Not Pass

The previous section about commands showed how to tell someone to do an action, but this one will show
how to tell someone not to do an action.
To change a command for someone to dance into a command that someone does not dance, add rä’ä
before the verb.9
Rä’ä srew. Don’t dance.
Some verbs have two parts, a noun or adjective part followed by “si”, often referred to as “si verbs”. With
these verbs, the rä’ä will appear before the “si” part.10
Rä’ä sngum si. Don’t worry. ✗

Sngum rä’ä si. Don’t worry. ✓
In cases of really extreme urgency, in this case maybe your friend is standing on the edge of a swimming
pool and you’re afraid they’ll dance off the edge (It’s a Wonderful Life, anyone?), you can add rä’ä after the
verb.11
Srew rä’ä! Don’t dance! (You’re wearing an expensive suit!)

Sngum si rä’ä! Don’t worry! (No worrying allowed!)
9
Horen 6.13.3, 6.16.1.2
10
Horen 6.13.3.2
11
Horen 6.13.3.1
11
Why So Negative?
In the previous situation, if you are standing still and watching the dancers fall into the pool, you might
think to yourself, “I don’t dance”. Probably a good choice here.
To do this in Na’vi, ke is used to create a negative form of a sentence.12 Place the ke before the verb.
Oe srew. I dance.
Oe ke srew. I don’t dance. ♫ I know you can! ♫
When negating si verbs, the ke goes in the same place as the rä’ä does.13
Oe ke sngum si. ✗ I don’t worry.

Oe sngum ke si. ✓ I don’t worry.
Negation and Nouns

In a similar way to ke marking a verb as negative, a noun can be made negative using kea. In these cases,
ke needs to be present before the verb.14 The “a” at the end of kea points to the front of the noun it
modifies, and cannot come after the noun it modifies. The two (kea and the noun) can’t be broken apart
but can be moved as a single unit within the clause.15
Kea> palulukan ke kar. No thanator teaches.**
**Notice this does not mean “No thanator doesn’t teach”, which would be the same as “Every thanator
teaches” with the way English treats double negatives. In Na’vi, unlike English, the “kea” and “ke” do not
cancel each other out to make a positive.
Engaging the Englishisms

When a negative word is used, the verb still needs a “ke” in front of it. This doesn’t change the meaning to
be positive, like it would in English, because in Na’vi a double negative stays negative.16
Kawtu ke hahaw. Nobody sleeps.
Note that this ^ does not mean “Nobody does not sleep”/”Everyone sleeps”: that would be translated as:
Hahaw frapo. Everyone sleeps.
Negative Words in Na’vi

↳ kawtu (pn.) noone
↳ kawkrr (adv.) never
↳ kekem (pn., adv.) no action or activity
↳ ke'u (pn.) nothing
↳ kawtseng (adv.) nowhere
12
Horen 6.16.1
13
Horen 6.16.1.1
14
Horen 6.16.2
15
Horen 7.1.1
16
Horen 6.16.2
12
Practice with Negation

Next let’s practice negating sentences and commands!
Place the negative particle (rä’ä, ke, and/or kea) in each of these sentences. Not every blank will need to be
filled so be sure to check the English sentence and match it to the Na’vi. Note that rä’ä is for commands
only.
Commands
1. latem . Don’t change.
2. ronguway . Don’t howl!
3. Kxap si . Don’t threaten!
4. klltxay . Don’t lie on the ground.
5. pxor . Don’t explode!
Sentences
1. Hì’ang ‘asap si. The insect does not startle.
2. Yerik tsngawvìk mawfwa zup utral. No hexapedes cry after the tree
falls.
3. Tìslan srung si. Support doesn’t help.
4. ‘ewll paw ulte tätxaw ‘eylan. The plant doesn’t grow and the friend
doesn’t return.
5. Prrnen ‘evengsì uvan si slä mefo taksyokx. The child and the baby
don’t play but they clap hands.
Highlight to check your answers below!

Commands
1. Rä’ä latem . Don’t change.
2. ronguway rä’ä. Don’t howl!
3. Kxap si rä’ä. Don’t threaten!
4. Rä’ä klltxay . Don’t lie on the ground.
5. pxor rä’ä. Don’t explode!
Sentences
1. Hì’ang ‘asap ke si. ▶️
The insect does not startle.
2. Kea Yerik ke tsngawvìk mawfwa zup utral. ▶️
No hexapedes cry after the
tree falls.
3. Tìslan srung ke si. ▶️
Support doesn’t help.
4. ‘ewll ke paw ulte ke tätxaw ‘eylan. ▶️
The plant doesn’t grow and the
friend doesn’t return.
5. Prrnen ‘evengsì uvan ke si slä mefo taksyokx. ▶️ The child and the
baby don’t play but they clap hands.
13
Adverbs: This is How We Do It

Adverbs are words that can be placed in a sentence to describe:
↳ how a verb is done (quietly, enthusiastically, happily, angrily)

↳ how frequently a verb is done (always, never, sometimes)
↳ the time that a verb is done (right now, yesterday, last night, tonight, tomorrow)
↳ the place that a verb is done (here, there, everywhere, nowhere)
↳ how much a verb was done (a little, a lot, almost)
Adverbs do not need to be placed next to the verb they are describing but can be placed anywhere in the
clause, because there is not any confusion about what they are describing. However, adverbs describing
how much a verb was done very often are placed after the verb.17
You can add as many adverbs to the same clause as you want!
Pìwopx fìtxon tul nìwin nìfnu. ▶️ Tonight the cloud runs quickly and quietly.
Adverbs are created from adding nì- to the front of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs.18 Not every
adverb starts this way, but Fwew will tell you it’s an adverb with the abbreviation “adv.”.
Anyone who uses the language can freely add nì- to adjectives to make adverbs that aren’t listed in the
dictionary, but we can’t do the same with nouns and verbs, those will be found in the dictionary.19
Here are some examples using adverbs doing what is listed in the blue box, with the adverb highlighted in
green:
Hì’ia> hì’ang nìfnu heyn. The small insect sits quietly.
Rol ikran <aean frakrr. The blue ikran always sings.
Ngeyna> yerik fìtrr yom. The tired hexapede eats today.
‘Oma> syulang <amawey fìtseng pey. ▶️
The calm purple flower waits here.
Pamrel si nìtxan oe. ▶️
I write a lot.
Practice with Adverbs

Complete these sentences with an adverb (or two, or more) of your choice!
1. Kaltxì si ‘eveng. The child says hello.

2. Hì’ang tsìsyì. The insect whispers.
3. Tìran nga. You walk.
4. Sop soaia. The family travels.
5. ‘Ewll paw. The plant grows.
17
Horen 6.6.1
18
Horen 5.1.1.2
19
Na’viteri: Dimunitives; Conversational Expressions.
14
Fun with Fwew™

Fwew can give you a list of random words, and you can choose what kind of word Fwew gives you in the
list. This is great for practicing, as you can generate a handful of nouns and a handful of verbs to make
sentences.
Creating a List of Random Words with Fwew.

You can pick any number to put after the word “random”, and this is the number of words Fwew will list.
2. Enter /random 8 and hit enter.
Creating a List of Random Adjectives/Nouns/Verbs/Adverbs with Fwew.

Fwew uses the abbreviations from the dictionary that tell you the kind of word a particular word is. In my
example, I use the abbreviation for adjective (adj.), but you can also use “n.”, “v.”, “adv.”, “vin.”, “vtr.”, and
other part of speech abbreviations. The “pos” that you see after “where”, stands for part of speech, or the
kind of word.
You can pick any number to put after the word “random”, and this is the number of words Fwew will list.
2. Enter /random 8 where pos is adj. and hit enter.
15
Practice with Fwew

Let’s try out the random feature of Fwew! Get Fwew to give you a list of ten nouns, a list of ten adverbs, and
a list of ten verbs (use the abbreviation “vin.” for now).
Copy and paste the words into this table, and make five sentences using these words. You don’t have to
use the first set of words Fwew gives you, keep going until you find some words you want to use.
Nouns Adverbs Verbs
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
16
Fixate on Prefixes
The prefixes discussed in this section come before nouns (pre = before) and serve several functions.
↳ specifying what noun is being discussed (this dog, that dog)

↳ referring to all instances of a noun (all dogs/every dog)
↳ referring to a type of noun (type of dog)
↳ making plurals (two dogs, three dogs, dogs)
↳ asking questions about nouns (which dog?)
This and That

The prefixes fì- and tsa-, this and that, can be used to refer to things close to the speaker and things
further away from the speaker.20 Fìnoun means “this noun”, and will be closer to the speaker, and tsanoun
means “that noun” and will be further from the speaker.
You’ll notice two words commonly used: fì'u and tsa’u These are the fì- and tsa- prefixes placed on ‘u, a
very generic word meaning “thing”. They can be used to refer to things in conversation when you and the
listener know what you’re talking about, to simplify and shorten what needs to be said.
Example conversation:
Person A: Tsakilvan lor lu nìwotx. That river is totally beautiful.

Person B: Mllte, slä fìtxon pay wew lu. I agree, but the water is cold tonight.
Person A: Frakrr tsaw ngay lu fratxon. That’s always true every night.
Tsanantangtsyìp hona lu slä txopu si (po)**. That dog is cute but (they are)** afraid.
**When the noun doing an action in the first clause of a sentence is also doing the action in the second
clause, you don’t need to include a reference to them in the second clause. “Tsanantangtsyìp hona lu slä
txopu si” (That dog is cute but afraid) is perfectly valid, the reader knows it’s the dog that’s afraid.
Every and all

Another prefix, used in the same way as fì- and tsa-, is fra-. It means “every, all”21 and can be applied to a
noun to refer to all instances of a noun.
Franantangtsyìp hona lu nìwotx. Every dog is completely cute.
Type of Noun
A prefix that means “type of”, fne-, can be used to refer to a type of noun.
Fnenantangtsyìp <awin tul fratrr. The fast kind of dog runs every day.**
**Fratrr (every day) is an adverb, but can you tell where it comes from?
20
Horen 3.3.1, Horen 3.3.2
21
Horen 3.3.4
17
Making Plurals: As Easy as 2, 3, 4+

A prefix can be added to the front of a word to say there are two of the same noun doing an action, three of
the same noun doing an action, or an unspecified number greater than three nouns doing an action.22
For two nouns, add me+.

↳ Menantangtsyìp. Two dogs.
For three nouns, add pxe+.

↳ Pxenantangtsyìp. Three dogs.
For an unspecified number (greater than three), add ay+.

↳ Aynantangtsyìp. Dogs.
For some words, the sound changes when you add the prefix. It generally stays in the same part of the
mouth but becomes softer.
This process is called lenition.23 Prefixes that are written with plus signs after them instead of a dash are
the ones that will cause these changes, but only to words starting with these eight letters.24 “-pe+” can be
written with a dash before and plus sign after because if added to the end of the word it doesn’t cause
lenition, but it does at the beginning of a word.
➔ All of the ejective consonants change to a non-ejective form.

◆ px → p
◆ tx → t
◆ kx → k
➔ These four consonants become softer sounding.
◆ p→f
◆ t→s
◆ k→h
◆ ts → s
➔ The tìftang disappears.
◆ ‘→
Here are some examples of plurals softening the beginning of a word:
Mesray. Two villages. Metsray → Mesray.
Pxehelku. Three houses. Pxekelku → Pxehelku.
The ay+ prefix is special when used with lenition. Only on words whose sounds change via lenition, you
can drop the “ay” and it will be understood or assumed to be there anyway.25
22
Horen 3.1.3
23
Horen 2.2
24
Horen 2.2.3
25
Horen 3.1.3.1
18
Plural Pronouns
These plural prefixes can also be applied to pronouns to form plurals!26
Po, oe, and nga can be altered to form plurals that create a system of “we” and “you” that’s very specific.
Po (they) → mefo (they two) / → pxefo (they three) / → ayfo/fo (they 3+)
These include the person spoken to: Oe (I, me) → oeng (us two, you and me) / → pxoeng (we
three) / → ayoeng/awnga (we/us, including you)
These don’t include the person spoken to: Moe (me and someone else, not you) / →
pxoe (me and two others, not you) / → ayoe (me and others, not you)
These don’t include the person speaking: Nga (you) → menga (you two but not me), / pxenga
(you three but not me), / → aynga (you more-than-three, but not me)
Can you figure out how these pronouns were made? Does it make sense to you?
Asking questions
Question words like why, how, what, when, who, and where are found by adding -pe+ to these nouns.27
↳ Pefya/fyape? ▶️ What/which way?

“How”, because how something is done is the same as what way it is done.
↳ Peu/’Upe? ▶️ What/which thing?
“What”, because which thing something is, is the same as what it is.
↳ Pehrr/Krrpe? ▶️ What/which time?
“When”, because when something is done is the same as what time it is done.
↳ Pelun/lumpe? ▶️ What/which reason?
“Why”, because why something is done is the same as what reason it is done.
↳ Pesu/tupe? ▶️ Which person?
“Who”, derived from pe+tute or tute+pe, because who does something is the same as which
person does something.
↳ Peseng/tsengpe? ▶️ What/which place?
“Where”, because where something is done is the same as which place it is done.
This prefix is special because it is a suffix, too, meaning it can also be added to the end of a word (but isn’t
ever added to the beginning and end simultaneously), and also because it causes lenition when it is
applied to the beginning.28
Let’s go through some examples of lenition caused by -pe+, though it is not the only feature of the
language that does this. We’ll talk about more as they come up!
Pehelku kllkxem tsatseng? Which house stands there? Kelku → helku.
Pesmuk hahaw? Which sibling sleeps? Tsmuk → smuk.
Pefayoang <apxa slele fìtrr? Which big fish swims today? Payoang → fayoang.
26
Horen 3.2.2
27
Horen 3.4.1
28
Horen 3.3.3
19
Audacious Adventurous Adjectives

To add some detail to your sentences, words called adjectives can be used to describe nouns. It is the
difference between saying “The cat jumps” and “The soft adorable cat jumps”. The first sentence is more
simple, and the second has more descriptive details.
All of these words will be marked with “adj.” before their definition in the dictionary.
Since Na’vi lets you reorder words in a clause, there is a special marker used with adjectives to make it
really clear what they are describing. An adjective can be placed on either side of the noun, but it will have
an “a” on the side that points towards the noun.29
Keep in mind that these are not full sentences, just phrases. I have added angle brackets pointing to the
noun, visually similar to the parentheses to mark clause boundaries.
Tstunwia> palulukantsyìp. The kind cat.

Palulukantsyìp <atstunwi. The kind cat.
Both of these phrases mean the same thing. In a sentence, the adjective and the noun must stick together,
but you can move them around within the clause. They become an unbreakable unit in the clause.
There are two slots for adjectives, one on either side of the noun. You can use two different adjectives for
the same noun, or you can have the same adjective on either side of the noun. If it’s the same adjective
twice, it strengthens the adjective; “The kind cat” vs. “The extremely kind cat”.30
Tstunwia> palulukantsyìp. The kind cat.

Tstunwia> palulukantsyìp <atstunwi. The extremely kind cat.*
When the adjective is repeated on both sides like this, the stress or emphasis of this phrase goes on the
last word.31
Adjectives can have a few quirks and special features that will be discussed here:
Adjectives that begin or end with “a”

If the side of the adjective pointing towards the noun has an “a” already, don't add another “a”, just keep
the one that was already there.32
Hona> palulukantsyìp. The cute cat.

Palulukantsyìp <apxa. The large cat.
If you place the adjective so that the side without an “a” is pointing at the noun, you should still add an “a”
on that side.
Palulukantsyìp <ahona. The cute cat.
29
Horen 3.5.1
30
Horen 6.2.5.5
31
Horen 6.2.5.5
32
Horen 2.3.1.1
20
Adjectives that begin with “le”
Some adjectives start with “le”, a prefix that turns a noun into an adjective33 (you can find them in the
dictionary, it isn’t something speakers of the language can do freely). The “a” is usually34 dropped when
this kind of adjective comes after the noun, so long as “le” points to the noun.35
Hì’ang <lekye’ung rol. The crazy insect sings.

Lekye’unga> hì’ang rol. The crazy insect sings.
Using more than two adjectives with a noun

To have more than just two slots for descriptive words for a noun, you can attach a list of descriptions to
the noun using slightly different version of “a” and the verb “lu”.36
This “a” does not attach to a word, but stays floating in between the noun being described and the
description.
This kind of “a” is only used when there is a verb involved. When describing a noun with an adjective, use
the connected “a”. When describing a noun with a verb (even if there’s more than just a verb), use the
floating “a”.
Compare these two examples:

Hì’ang <apxayopin. The colorful insect.
Hì’ang <a (hahaw). The insect that sleeps.
One uses an adjective to describe the noun (colorful), and one uses a verb to describe the noun (sleeps).
A verb called “lu” can be used to equate a noun and an adjective.37 To do so, place a noun in a sentence
with lu and an adjective:
‘Eylan tstunwi lu. The friend is kind.
The order of the words in this sentence does not matter at all.
Using the floating “a”, the next step could be:
‘Eylan <a (tstunwi lu). The friend <that (is kind).
The final step is adding more adjectives, and using “sì” (between or at the end of) the items of the list. This
lets a noun be described with any number of adjectives, not just the two allowed by the slot on either side.
(Tstunwi, honasì tstewsì lu) a> ‘eylan hahaw.

The (is kind, cute, and brave) > friend sleeps.
‘Eylan <a (tstunwi sì hona sì tstew lu) hahaw.
The friend <that (is kind, cute, and brave) sleeps.
Notice that just like a noun and adjective pair, the “a” and everything that goes along with it (lu and its
adjectives) need to stick together and become a unit.38
It’s a subclause, meaning it’s like a clause but it’s incomplete without the context of a bigger sentence.
Within a subclause, the words can be shifted around as long as no units get broken up, and the same is
true of the rest of the sentence.
33
Horen 5.1.1.1
34
Adding the “a” to the front anyway is legal, but uncommon.
35
Horen 3.5.1.1
36
Horen 6.2.5.4
37
Horen 6.2.6
38
Horen 7.1.1
21
Practice with Adjectives

Connect the adjectives to their noun and add a verb (adverbs can be added, too!) to complete the sentence.
1. Ngeyn nantangtsyìp lehrrap

2. Tstew ‘eylan nawm
3. Hona palukantsyìp hona
4. Leyr ‘ora txanlal
5. Ean syulang lafyon
Highlight in the box to see if your adjectives are connected properly!

1. Ngeyna nantangtsyìp lehrrap ▶
2. Tstewa ‘eylan anawm ▶
3. Hona palukantsyìp ahona ▶
4. Leyra ‘ora atxanlal ▶
5. Eana syulang alafyon ▶
Make one sentence for each of these prompts. Try to make them descriptive, and they can be as silly as
you want them to be!
↳ a sentence that uses a list of adjectives to describe a noun

↳ a sentence about the ocean
↳ a sentence that has more than one clause
↳ a sentence that uses a verb to describe a noun
↳ a sentence about dogs
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
22
Verbal Transformations
Verbs Can Be Adjectives, Too
Though the floating “a” is a good way to describe a noun using a verb, you can also change the verb into
an adjective, allowing you to use the attached “a”.
To change the verb into an adjective, one of two infixes (in = inside) can be used, <us> or <awn>. An infix is
a syllable placed inside a word (infix).
With the <us> infix, the noun is doing the verb modified with <us> (breathing, being afraid, attacking).
Another infix, <awn>, also turns verbs into adjectives, but this time the noun isn’t doing the action but it’s
having the action done to it. Because of this, <us> is “active”, and <awn> is “passive”. Does it make sense
why this is? Note: <awn> cannot be utilized with verbs that are marked “vin.” or “vim.” in the dictionary.39
Finding Infix Placement

↳ Find the second to last vowel, diphthong (ey, ew, ay, aw), or pseudovowel (ll or
rr).40 Place the infix before the second to last vowel.
↳ If there is only one vowel, find that vowel. Place the infix before the vowel.
The following examples use <us>:

‘Usekoa> ioang zawng. The attacking animal screams.
Tsngusawvìka> ‘eylan lor lu.* The crying friend is beautiful.*
Hona> syulang <asyeha-susi** lrrtok si. The cute breathing** flower smiles.
*A verb can be used to describe a noun as if it were an adjective, but it can’t be used with lu like adjectives
can.41 “Tsngusawvìk lu ‘eylan” (the friend is crying) is not grammatical, instead one should use “Tsngawvìk
‘eylan” ▶️ (the friend is crying).
** With a two-part verb ending in “si”, the <us> goes into the si part and a dash is put in between the two
parts of the word.42
The following examples use <awn>:

‘Awnekoa ioang zawng. The attacked animal screams.
Hì’ang <atawnungzup spä. The dropped insect jumps.
Compound Verbs and Infixes

In some verbs, the infix is placed differently because two words were combined to make the verb.
For example, fe’pey (feel dread, expect something bad to happen) is made from fe’ (bad) and pey (wait).
Only one of these parts is a verb, and infixes can only go in verbs, so the infixes go there.
39
Horen 6.1.2.1
40
Horen 3.6.1.1
41
Horen 6.9.1
42
Horen 6.9.1.2
23
Finding Infix Placement with Fwew
The infix placements are listed in Fwew if there is any doubt about where an infix should go.
1. Open a DM conversation with Fwew.
2. Enter -i Na’vi word and hit enter. (-i stands for “infix”)
Here is the result for fe’pey.
fe'p<0><1><2>ey
The infixes we’ve talked about so far, <us> and <awn> are called position <1> infixes because they fill a
particular slot in a verb. Other categories of infixes will go before or after position <1>.
When there is only one vowel in a word, all the infixes will go before the only vowel.
In other cases, the position <2> infix can come before the last vowel and the position <0> and <1> infixes
will come before the second to last, like with fewi (to chase).
f<0><1>ew<2>i
Notice how the infixes are not all in the same place anymore, so it’ll be important to pay attention to which
infixes go in slot <2> and which go in slot <0> and <1>.
Verbs with unexpected infix placement aren’t always a combination of a noun and a verb, sometimes they
are two verbs put together, like yomtìng (to feed, as in to give food to someone or something) which
comes from yom (eat) and tìng (give). In this case, there’s no way to predict where the infixes go, but you
can find it in Fwew.43
Sometimes infixes go in the first part, sometimes the second part, and in rare cases, infixes go into both
parts.44 This is why it’s really useful to look it up.
Where do the infixes go in yomtìng? Use Fwew to find out, and paste the result in this box:
Check your answer here:
yomt<0><1><2>ìng
43
Horen 3.6.1.4
44
Horen 3.6.1.5
24
Verbs Can Be Nouns, Too
The <us> infix can also be used to turn verbs into nouns when it is paired up with tì-, a marker that gets
added to the front of the verb being changed into a noun.
The tì- marker denotes nouns and is at the front of some nouns you’ll see in the dictionary45, but it can’t
be used freely to make new nouns on its own.46
To make a verb into a noun with tì- and <us>, apply tì- to the beginning of the word and put <us> into slot 1
of the verb.47
Tìtswusayon sunu. Flying is enjoyable.
When you use tì- and <us>, the noun you’ve created can’t take its own direct object or subject anymore.48
It’s not enough of a verb anymore to have that ability.
Tìyusom syuveti ‘o’ lu. Eating food is fun. ✗

Tìzusa’u tìreyn srätx. The train coming is annoying. ✗
Practice with <us> and <awn>

Place the infixes in the verb and attach them to the nouns. Note whether the noun being described with a
verb is the subject of the verb or not. If it is, use <us>! If not, consider going with <awn>.
Example:
H<us>ahawa> palulukantsyìp rikx. The sleeping cat shakes.
1. Pxor srungsiyu ‘efu ohakx. The exploding assistant feels hungry.

2. ‘Eveng heyn pängkxo. The sitting child chats.
3. Nantangtsyìp spä zup. The jumping dog falls.
4. Kur täftxu pxen. The woven clothing hangs.
5. Tatep palulukantsyìp lang. The lost cat explores.
6. Ftxìlor lu starsìm pasuk. The collected berry is delicious.
45
Horen 5.1.1.5
46
Horen 5.1
47
Horen 5.1.4.1
48
Horen 6.9.2
25
Who’s Who with Lu, Slu, and ‘Efu

These three verbs are special, and can be used to connect a subject (the noun doing the verb), to an
adjective or noun. Let’s take a look at each and their uses.
Cindy Lu Who
Lu is listed in the dictionary as “is, am, are, to be,” but that definition isn’t extremely useful. Even though
lu is defined as “is, am, are, to be,” Na’vi doesn’t use “lu” for all the things English does (it’s not someone’s
name and it isn’t a toilet). Let’s take a look at what lu is used for, and then a few that it is not.
→ Lu is used to state that there is a noun.

It exists, there it is.
Lu utral <atswusayon! There’s a flying tree!
→ Lu is used to state that two things are the same.

Those two things can either be a noun and a noun, or a noun and an adjective. Here are some examples
of sentences using lu:
Numeyu lu ‘eveng. The child is a student / The student is a child.

Tsawke hona lu. The sun is adorable.
The first example links a noun (marked in purple) to another noun, and the second links a noun to an
adjective (marked in blue).
→ Lu is used to state that someone or something possesses something.
Lu is used for sentences like “I have a book”, “you have a flower”, and other such statements of someone
owning something.49
When making a sentence about identity (I am a teacher, you are a friend, etc.) with lu or slu, and the
subject is marked with a plural (me+, pxe+, ay+) there’s no need to mark the identity with a number, too.50
English has a tendency to make things agree (You two are teachers), making both plural, but in Na’vi only
one is needed (You two are a teacher).
For example:
Mehelku karyu lu. The two houses are teachers.
Pxehì’ang ‘eylan slu. The three insects become friends.
49
Horen 6.4.4.3
50
Horen 6.2.1.4
26
Int-ru to the Indirect Object
This is a special construction. Translated more literally, it means “a book/flower exists to you”.
First, use the structure talked about next to the first arrow.
There’s a book. Lu puk.
Next, add nga. Lu puk nga (You are a book). Hold on, that means that you’re a book?! Something’s not right
there. We need a way to tell what your relationship is to the book, and it’s definitely not that you are the
book (or maybe you are, I don’t judge).
To make this construction, you need to add a marker to the end of “nga”. It is known as the indirect object
marker, because “you” are indirectly affected by the verb (lu).51 It affects you that this thing exists, but only
indirectly.
The marker is -ru for words that end in vowels, and -ur is for words that end in a consonant or
pseudovowel (ll or rr). The -ru can be shortened to -r, but doesn’t need to be.52 When a word ends in ew or
aw, you should use -r.53
After all of this, the final product would be:
Ngaru lu puk. You have a book.

Those are the only uses for lu, so be sure not to reach for lu if the meaning you’re going for isn’t covered
by those three points.
It’s tempting to reach for lu when translating a sentence like “I am eating”, but the “am” is included in the
verb. How should you actually translate “I am eating”? Highlight to check: (“Oe yom”; present tense “am
eating” is inherent in the verb itself.)
Additionally, sentences like “I am angry” might lead you to reach for lu.
In Na’vi, “angry” isn’t an adjective. If it was, you could use lu and say “oe lu sti”, but angry is a verb so this
structure does not work.
Instead, “I am angry” is “oe sti”. It feels weird coming from an English language perspective, but with
practice and paying attention to part of speech, it gets easier.
51
Horen 6.4.4
52
Horen 3.1.1
53
Horen 3.1.1.5
27
Intro to the Direct Objec-it
Last, “I am here”, “I am at school”, “I am at home”, and other such sentences. Na’vi treats this differently
than English. Na’vi uses a verb when the subject is at a place, and the place is directly affected by that.
Therefore, the place is referred to as the direct object, and both the subject and direct object need to be
marked.
The subject54, the one doing the verb, is marked with -l if the word ends in a vowel, and -ìl if the
word ends in a consonant, diphthong (ey, ew, ay, aw), or pseudovowel (ll or rr).55
To make the sentence “I am here”, we can start out with “oel” (I marked as a subject). Note that oe is two
syllables typically, but when you add something to the end it is pronounced “wel”, as one syllable.56
Next is the direct object, the noun that’s being verbed.57
It’s marked with -ti/-t if the word ends in a vowel or the “ay” or “ey” diphthongs. It’s marked with -it if the
word ends in a consonant, the “ew” or “aw” diphthongs, or pseudovowel (ll or rr).
You can always use -ti, so if in doubt it is a great option. The -ti ending can shorten to -t if it’s added to a
word ending in a vowel.58
When the verb “tok” (be at a place) is added, the full sentence is:
Oel fìtsengeti tok. I am here.
Direct vs Indirect Object

Now that direct and indirect objects have been discussed, how do you know which to use?
In the beginning, you may have noticed that verbs are separated into three categories. The abbreviations
are “v.”, “vin.”, and “vtr.”. The “vin.” stands for intransitive verb, and the “vtr.” stands for transitive verbs.
Intransitive verbs can’t use direct objects, and the subject will never be marked.
Transitive verbs can use direct objects but don’t have to, and some of them use indirect objects, too.
Verbs that aren’t marked one way or the other can sometimes have both abilities, but some are marked
with both, like ‘efu.
A transitive verb (vtr.) transfers action directly to an object, therefore it can use a direct object.
An intransitive verb (vin.) doesn’t transfer action directly to an object, therefore it can’t use a direct object.
“The dog eats food” makes sense, but not “The dog sleeps me” or “The dog sleeps food”.
54
Horen 6.4.2
55
Horen 3.1.1
56
Horen 3.2.2.1
57
Horen 6.4.3
58
Horen 3.1.1
28
‘Efu-ll of All the Feels
English gives it many uses, like saying “I am sad”. Na’vi doesn’t use lu for this, it uses ‘efu (to feel).59
In sentences like this, just like sentences like “The dog is cute”, the three words are placed into the
sentence in any order. This is a common trait between lu, slu, and ‘efu (though ‘efu has another usage, as
a transitive verb).
Keftxo oe ‘efu. I feel sad/I am sad.

Ngeyn oe ‘efu. I feel tired.
Oe spxin ‘efu. I feel sick.
‘Efu oe ohakx. I feel hungry.
If the feeling is a noun, ‘efu needs to be used with a marked subject and direct object. This verb is marked
as vin. and vtr. in the dictionary.
Mark the one doing the feeling with the subject marker, and the feeling (as long as it’s a noun) with the
direct object marker.
Oel fkxarat ‘efu. I feel stressed.
59
Learn Na’vi Wiki: A Collection
29
Slu
Slu is used to say that something becomes something else. “I become a student”, “The student becomes a
teacher”, and other statements about identity are formed using slu. The three words are placed into the
sentence with no marker, and can be moved around in any order within the clause.
Utral <ahusahaw karyu slu tengkrr unil si. The sleeping tree becomes a teacher while
dreaming.
Pay wew slu txonam. The water became cold last night.
With the second example, it’s pretty clear which thing is becoming the other. Water can become cold, but it
doesn’t make much sense for cold to become water. With a sentence like “The teacher becomes a
student”, someone could read it as “The student becomes a teacher”, because the word order can be
shuffled around.
To make it especially clear which is which, you can mark what the subject is being transformed into with
“ne” (to/towards). Ne is a type of word called an adposition, a marker that sets up the relationship of the
noun to the verb. The verb is happening “towards” something. In this case, the subject is “becoming
towards” something else.
Numeyu karyune slu. The student becomes a teacher.

Karyu numeyune slu. The teacher becomes a student.
Adpositions can go before a noun with a space (ne kelku) or after the noun without a space (kelkune).
They need to stay next to each other, and a direct object or indirect object marker can’t be applied because
the relationship of the noun to the verb is already defined (verbing to/towards something in this case).
An adjective can go in between the adposition if the adposition comes before its noun (ne hì’ia> kelku)
but will come after if the adposition is attached on the end (kelkune <ahì’i).
Karyu ne numeyu slu. The teacher becomes a student.

Numeyu ne kanua> karyu* slu. The student becomes a smart teacher.
* An adjective can be placed between the adposition and noun, because it is a part of the noun.
30
Practice with Lu
Let’s practice with the three uses for lu.
“What is there?”
Answer this question using lu to state that something exists. Feel free to be as silly as you like!
Example:
“Lu lekye’unga> palulukan <ahusahaw.” There’s a crazy sleeping thanator.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
“Who am I?”
Use Fwew to find a few random adjectives, and pick a few that you think describe you. Make a sentence
with them using lu to describe yourself. Be careful to avoid adjectives with nga’, they tend to be allowed
only for objects and not people.
Use Fwew to find a few nouns that you think describe you. Make a sentence using lu to describe yourself.
Example:
“Lu oe nim.” I am shy.
“Lu ikran oe.” I am an ikran.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
“What does she have?”

Use Fwew to find a few random nouns, and pick a few that interest you. Make a sentence with them about
ownership using lu and the -ru/-r/-ur marker.
Example:
“Lu por payìva.” She has a drop of water. (Literally: Exists to her drop of water)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
31
Floating Around with “A”

Previously on NSA:
Adjectives describe nouns and use a connected “a”:
Tsranten eylan <amal. Trustworthy friends matter.
Adjectives use an attached “a” to point at the noun they’re describing, but more than just an adjective can
be used as a description! In a sentence like “the dog that runs quickly is cute”, there seem to be two verbs,
but one is being used as a descriptor of “dog”. In Na’vi, you use an “a” that floats in between the word
you’re describing and the description.60
If you slip the part about running to the left side of dog, it looks even more like a weird adjective.
“The runs-quickly dog is cute.”
Leronsrela kllrikx <a (palulukanit* tsre'i) za’u.

The imaginary earthquake <that (throws the thanator) comes.
*If the thanator is the one throwing the earthquake, thanator should be marked as the subject (-ìl/-l).
Kllrikx isn’t marked, but it plays the part that the thanator isn’t playing (whether that’s being thrown or
doing the throwing).61
The clause highlighted in purple is describing the earthquake. It could be rephrased as “The imaginary
throws-the-thanator earthquake comes”, because the purple clause acts like a big adjective. Because it’s
a clause of its own, you can mix around the word order within the purple.
The clause needs to stay on the left or the right of its noun, with the floating “a” placed on the side that
points towards the noun. You can let the noun and the purple clause float around the sentence as a unit,
but the black clause can’t mix in among the purple.
Let’s practice! Replace the type of word listed with a word of that type. Feel free to pick your own words!
1. Noun <a (verb) verb.
2. (Verb adverb) a> noun verb.
3. Verb noun <a (verb nounit)
Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs
karyu (n.) teacher zawng (vin.) scream koak (adj.) old, aged nìkelkin (adv.) unnecessarily
numeyu (n.) student pey (vin.) wait kanu (adj.) smart, nì'al (adv.) wastefully
ikran (n.) banshee zung (vin.) crouch intelligent nìmal (adv.) trustingly, without
tsamsiyu (n.) warrior yawo (vin.) take off, txur (adj.) strong hesitation
pongu (n.) a group or launch tsawl (adj.) big (in size), tall nìyo' (adv.) perfectly, flawlessly
party of people kar (vtr.) teach lehrrap (adj.) dangerous nìnrra (adv.) proudly, with pride
Now try making some of your own!

1.
2.
3.
60
Horen 6.18.1
61
Horen 6.18.2
32
Adpositions Add Positions

Adpositions add more detail and specificity to a sentence. They can tell you things like time ("I walk to the
park before sunset") or the direction/position something happens (She flies above the forest"/"She sleeps
in the hammock"). There are others still that give other information, but all of them introduce a noun that
has a relationship with what’s happening defined by which adposition it is.
Adpositions can be attached to the end of their noun, but not the beginning. They can be placed before
their noun, but if they are, there needs to be a space between the adposition and the noun.62
Tìran ne txep oe. I walk to(wards) the fire.

Txepne oe tìran. I walk to(wards) the fire.
Adpositions will be marked “adp.” in the dictionary. If the adposition is followed by a plus sign, it means
that they will cause lenition if they come before their noun (but not if they are attached to the back of the
noun)63,64. More of them don’t do this than do, but still keep an eye out for that pesky little plus sign!
Hahaw po mì helku. She sleeps in the house.

kelkumì* hahaw po. She sleeps in the house.
*The “k” stays the same because “mì” is attached to the back, and the word coming after “kelkumì” in the
sentence will stay the same. No changes needed.
Practice with Adpositions

Use Fwew to gather a list of the adpositions (!fwew “/list pos is adp.”). Pick out two with lenition plus
signs and two without, and create a sentence including them.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Examining The Englishisms

The word “to” can mean multiple things in English. Remember to use “ne” (to/towards) when movement is
involved. You can go “ne” something, walk “ne” something, but you can’t be surprising “ne” someone.
The relationship between the surpriser and the surprisee is different than it is between someone and the
place they’re walking towards.
It’s known as an indirect relationship, because the surpriser is not directly acting on the surprisee.
This relationship is marked on the person or thing the verb is acting on indirectly. In this case, the
surprisee is marked as the indirect object.
The -ru marker makes its return! It’s used with intransitive verbs, and some transitive verbs can use it too.
62
Horen 6.5.1
63
Horen 6.5.2.1
64
Horen 2.2.2
33
To the Indirect Objects

In a sentence, each word has a relationship to the other words that (in English) is understood by the order
of the words. In Na’vi, the order isn’t as important.
The relationships are vital.
When you have a noun and a verb in a sentence, any noun and any verb, it will mean that the thing (or
place, person) is acting (specified by what word the verb is).65
Often, a sentence needs more information than this. There’s more going on!
A subject is doing an action, but what if that action affects someone? Like in the example of being
surprised, there’s more than just someone doing something, they do something to someone or something
else. They don’t do an action someone. The relationship is different.
For example:
Srung si oe ngaru. I (do)* help (to)* you.

*If you take out the words in parentheses, it sounds more natural. If you leave them in, it shows you the
structure the Na’vi text is using. Stay tuned for more on “srung si” and its two-word-verb companions.
The “oe srung si” part is a clear relationship. I help. I do helping.*

*Srung si is two words but it’s one verb. Some verbs are like this, and they are usually a combination of a
noun (“srung”, help, in this case) and “si”, which does not have meaning or function outside of these
verbs.66 It can be translated to “do/make” but shouldn’t be used on its own.
Okay.. so I help. But who do I help? You. I need a way to show that you are being helped, and that you aren’t
the one helping me. To do so, I put the -ru marker on “nga”.
Ngaru can be translated as “to you”, because you are receiving an action (the action of help).
The receiver of action is marked with -ru if ending in a vowel, and -ur if ending in a consonant.67
The -ru can be shortened to -r. When a word ends in ew or aw, you should use -r.68
This sentence structure works with verbs that are marked vin. in the dictionary (vin. is short for
“intransitive”).69 It doesn’t work with every one, because some verbs don’t need more than a person doing
the action. Sleeping is a pretty solitary action, though you can use an adposition to specify where it’s
happening! Keep in mind, si-verbs are always intransitive.70
Not all intransitive verbs have two parts like the “si verbs”, but they will be marked in the dictionary as
“vin.” Be careful to pay attention to what the subject of the verb means. Sometimes it is straightforward but
sometimes it is not! (kelku si doesn’t mean “make a house”, it means “dwell [in a place]”)
65
Horen 6.4.1
66
Horen 5.3.3
67
Horen 3.1.1
68
Horen 3.1.1.5
69
Horen 6.4.4
70
Horen 6.4.4.1
34
Fun With Fwew™: Si verb edition

To search for a two-part verb, you need to enclose it in quotes. If you don’t, Fwew will look for each word
separately (the noun and “si”), and that’s not always the same as the meaning of “noun si”.
For example, kelku si.
Use kelku si first and take a look at the results.
It doesn’t make much sense, does it? Does kelku si mean build a house?
Now try using quotes. Use “kelku si”. Kelku si doesn’t mean build a house, it means “live”, as in, to dwell
somewhere. Presumably a house.
Looking up the translation of a two-part verb

To find the definition of any two-part verb, you can enclose it in quotes.
2. Enter “si-verb” and hit enter, with whatever verb you are looking for in the quotes.
Practice with Indirect Objects

Use Fwew to gather a list of nouns (/random 8 where pos is n.). and intransitive verbs
(/random 8 where pos is vin.). Make some sentences below, two of them having one noun and three of
them having two nouns.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
35
Direct Your Attention To Direct Objects

When you say “I eat”, in English, you know that “I” is doing an action, the action of eating. “Oe yom” (I eat)
is similar in Na’vi, but you can slip “oe” to the other side and it will mean the same thing.71 “Eat I” sounds
pretty weird in English, right?
Na’vi treats “Eat I” the same as “I eat”, so that makes it difficult if any other person or thing is involved in
the sentence.
For transitive verbs like yom, if there is a transfer of action present from one noun (subject/the one doing
the verb) to another (direct object/the one the verb is done to), each of the parties will get a marker to show
how they connect to the verb. Are they doing the verb, or is the verb done to them?
There are two markers, one for each of those relationships, to show what’s going on.
nounìl eats nounit. tstxolì’ul* yom tstxolì’ut.

*Tstxolì’u is a combination of tstxo “name” and lì’u “word”! Name word. It means noun!
One noun is eating, and one is being eaten. The verb can stay unchanged.
Telling them apart is the responsibility of the -ìl and -it/-ti, or -l and -t/-ti for words that end in vowels.72
The doer of the verb is attached to the -ìl/-l, and the one being verbed (eaten, followed, seen) is
attached to the -it/-ti.
This is the same formula used in a well-known line from Avatar: oel ngati kameie.
oel ngati kameie*. Il youti see.

*The unmodified form of this verb is “kame”. It has an infix, <ei> which means that the speaker is pleased
about what they are saying. This particular infix will be in the <2> slot.73 Check out the Finding Infix
Placement with Fwew section to know where to place this infix!
Practice with Direct Objects

Fill in the markers on these nouns to match the English translation.
1. Walaka> nantangtsyìp_ <a’ewan hì’ang_ kxukx. The energetic young dog swallows the insect.
2. Lang nga_ na’rìng_. You explore the forest.
3. Hawnven_ yom ikran_. The ikran eats a shoe.
4. Lemreya ‘ewll_ fkxara_ ‘efu. The surviving plant feels stress.
Generate random transitive verbs with Fwew and make three sentences with nouns that you see daily.
Example: Atanit syuvel sloan. The food pours the light.
1.
2.
3.
71
Horen 7.1.1
72
Horen 3.1.1
73
Horen 6.15.1
36
Possessions Of the Non-Demonic Variety

Possession is sometimes known as “genitive”. When a noun belongs to another noun (my house, your
plant, the insect’s friend), the way you turn “me/you/noun” into “my/your/noun’s” is by adding a marker on
the end of the noun that owns the other noun.
The noun that possesses another noun is marked with -yä if ending in a vowel, and -ä if ending
in a consonant or ll/rr. If a word ends in o or u, it gets the -ä marker.74
The possessor noun can go on either side of the noun it possesses, but should stay beside it with a few
exceptions:
An adjective can slip in between the possessor noun and the possessed noun.
Oeyä hì’ia kelku a’om lu hona. My small purple house is cute.
Hì’ia kelku a’om oeyä lu hona. My small purple house is cute.
If there is an adposition before the possessed noun, the possessor noun will slip in between the
adposition and the possessed noun.75
Hahaw oe rofa paytxew kilvanä. I sleep beside the river’s shore.
Hahaw oe rofa kilvanä paytxew. I sleep beside the river’s shore.
Possession and Pronouns

The three most common pronouns are oe (I, me), nga (you), and po (they/singular).
Po is a gender neutral pronoun that refers to one being, and should be used instead of differentiating
gender unless it would be confusing not to differentiate (if there’s more than one “po”).76
The possession marker makes the vowel in each change to “e”, so the possessive forms of each are “oeyä,
ngeyä, and peyä”, instead of “oeyä, ngayä, and poyä”.77
Be careful with peyä! In a sentence like “She hugs her cat”, the “her” should be “sneyä” instead of peyä.
Otherwise, the cat belongs to some other “po”.78
Parts of The Body

When talking about body parts that belong to an individual (my head, your hair), there is a special way to
mark the possessor of the body part.79 They get put at the beginning of the clause (or sentence if there’s
only one clause), and marked as the topic (topical) of the sentence.
The noun that is the topic is marked with -ri if ending in a vowel, and -ìri if ending in a
consonant or ll/rr.80
74
Horen 3.1.1
75
Horen 7.3.2.2
76
Horen 3.2.2.4
77
Horen 3.2.2.5
78
Horen 6.3.5
79
Horen 6.4.6.3
80
Horen 3.1.1
37
The Typical Topical

The same marker used with possession of body parts is used to accomplish other useful tasks in a
sentence! Keep in mind though, the noun marked as the topic needs to come first in the clause.
Let’s take a look at other uses for the topical marker.
Topic, Comment
If you’ve studied American Sign Language, this structure will be quite familiar. However, in Na’vi, there are
two tendencies81 not present in ASL and other languages that use this structure.
↳ The topic-comment structure is not used frequently.

↳ It is used to refer to the topic of conversation currently occurring or which can
be inferred from context, not to introduce new conversation topics.
There is a topic (in Na’vi, marked with -ìri/-ri) and a comment about that topic. An example where this may
be used could look like this:
A: Kempe si nga? What are you doing?

B: Fpi soaia oeyä syuvet ‘em oel. I’m cooking a meal for my family.
A: Wutsori txonä nulnew ngal pefnesyuvet? For a night’s meal, what kind of food do
you prefer?
B: Tam. Syuve ngeyä ftxìlor lu! Okay. Your food is delicious!
The More Nouns, The Merrier

With some verbs, the relationships available don’t leave room for certain information to be conveyed. For
example, the verb irayo si. It’s intransitive, so you can’t thank someone with the -l and -ti markers
showing who is thanking and who is thanked.
The person being thanked is marked with -ru, and the person who thanks isn’t marked.82
This leaves nowhere to put the reason the person is being thanked! To add this in, you can use mark it as
the topic. It’s the topic for which the person is being thanked.
Srungìri ngeyä, oe ngaru irayo si. Concerning your help, I thank (to) you.
Or in more natural English, “I thank you for your help”!
81
Horen 7.2.3
82
Horen 6.4.4.1
38
Srake/Srak: You Have Two Choices

To srake or srak, that is the question! The answer: if you put it at the beginning, it’s srake, and at the end,
it’s srak.83
Srake lu srungsiyu ngaru? Do you have an assistant?

Lu srungsiyu ngaru srak? Do you have an assistant?
Srake/srak turns a statement (“You have an assistant”), into a question about whether that statement is
true or not. A question like this expects either a yes or no in the response.
Srak is a little weird, because it’s asking “Is this [statement] true?” If “Didn’t you do this action?” is asked,
you would think that responding “srane/yes” would mean “yes, I did”, but it actually means “yes, that’s
true, I didn’t”.
A response of “srane/yes” always means the statement is true, and a response of “kehe/no”
means the statement is false.84
Let’s make some srak questions.
Practice with Srak/e

Turn each statement into a question by adding srake or srak, but be careful not to add both!
lu nantang ngaru
taw ‘om lu
tsa’ewll tswayon nìwin
sänumviri numeyu kanfpìl
83
Horen 6.14.1
84
Horen 6.14.1.1
39
Modal Verbs Can’t Help Helpin’

Up until now, only one verb has appeared in a clause at a time. This is typically the case, but there is a
special kind of verb that can break this precedent and be used alongside a typical transitive or intransitive
verb. These verbs are called modal!
Modal verbs are marked either vim. or vtrm. in the dictionary, with the “vi/vtr” referring to their transitivity
and the “m” marking them as modal. The transitivity of the modal is more important if you’re using the
modal verb on its own.
Intransitive Modals Transitive Modals
ftang (vim. stop fmi (vtrm.) try, attempt

sngä'i (vim.) begin, start kan (vtrm.) aim, to intend;
tsun (vim.) can, be able aim, to direct a weapon or
zene (vim.) must other object at a target
zenke (vim.) must not new (vtrm.) want
var (vim.) to persist in a nulnew (vtrm.) prefer
state, to continue to sto (vtrm.) refuse (to do
perform an action something)
kom (vim.) dare may' (vtrm.) taste, try,
sample, evaluate, check out,
testdrive
Modal verbs pair up with a non-modal verb, and have some quirks that come along with that. The modal
verb needs to come before the non-modal verb, even if there are other parts of the sentence between
them. They modify the action of the sentence, turning it from doing something to wanting to do something
or being able to do something, trying to do something or stopping doing something.
The noun doing the action will not take a marker, even if the noun being acted on is marked.85
New oe syuveti yivom. I want to eat food.
Intro To <iv>
Notice how the non-modal verb has been modified slightly! An infix, <iv>, is added to the non-modal verb.
86
It is known as the “subjunctive” infix, and is representative of actions that are not currently grounded in
reality.87 Just because I want to eat food does not mean I will, so “eating” may occur, but it isn’t known yet.
The <iv> infix goes into infix slot <1>, which happens before the second to last vowel (or in the case of yom,
it comes before the only vowel). If you’re unsure of where to put it, search for the word using Fwew’s infix
location tool! There are a couple words that require you use <iv> in the verb that comes after them.
More than one modal verb can be used, but the order changes the meaning, and they must stay before the
non-modal verb (of which there can only be one). Every verb following the first one in the sentence gets
<iv>, and all other infixes go in the first verb.88
New oe fmivi syuveti yivom. I want to try to eat food.

Oe fmi nivew syuveti yivom. I try to want to eat food.
85
Horen 6.8.3.3
86
Horen 6.8.3
87
Horen 6.7.1
88
Horen 6.8.3.1
40
We N<iv>d You…. To Use <iv>
↳ The <iv> infix is used in every verb that follows a modal (typically that’ll just be
the non-modal verb, but there may be more if you chain the modal verbs
together.89) Remember that infixes other than <iv> go into the first modal!
◆ Tsun oe fìkem sivi. I can do this.
◆ Tsun fmivi oe fìkem sivi. I can try to do this.
◆ Oe namew tsivun fìkem sivi. I wanted to be able to do this.
↳ The <iv> infix is used to convey a wishful sentiment.90

◆ ‘Ivong Na’vi. May Na’vi bloom.
◆ Livu ngaru unil amawey. May you have peaceful dreams.
◆ Txon lefpom ngar livu. May you have a pleasant night.
↳ The <iv> infix must be used when the conjunction fte is used.91 Fte is used
when something is done in order to/in order for something else to be done. In
English, the “in order” part is often dropped, so it may appear as something like
“I eat food to continue living”. The word “so” can be used for “fte” as well. “I
swim in the lake so my skin will become clean”.
◆ Zene yivom oe hawnventi fte zivo fra’u. I must eat shoes in order for
everything to be well.
↳ The <iv> infix must be used when the conjunction fteke is used.92 It is the
opposite of fte, and similarly has a couple different translations in English, “so
that not”, “lest”, “in order to not”.
◆ Numeyu pxìm ftia fteke fra’uti tswiva’ pol. The student studies often so
that they do not forget everything.
↳ “If, then” statements about pairings of events that are typically true (If this
thing happens, then that thing happens) use “txo, tsakrr”. They require the <iv>
infix in the statement after “txo”.93
◆ Txo zivup tompa, tsakrr tawit pìwopxìl tok. If rain falls, then clouds are in
the sky.
◆ Txo numtsengit pol tivok, tsakrr ‘efu po ngeyn. If they are at school, then
they feel tired.
89
Horen 6.8.3
90
Horen 6.8.1
91
Horen 6.17.2
92
Horen 6.17.2
93
Horen 6.19.1
41
How’s My Timing?
Indicating whether a verb happened in the past or future is done through infixes, and Na’vi has more
specificity than English does for the time frame. If something will happen in the near future, it is a
different infix than if it will happen in the general future.
The infixes indicating an action happened in the past end with “m”, and the ones that indicate an action
will happen in the future end with “y”.
The infixes indicating the action is happening soon or has happened recently start with “ì”, and the ones
that indicate the action is happening in the past or future generally, but not soon, start with “a”.
Nearness and farness are contextual!94 If you’re talking about your lunch and it’s breakfast time, you
might use <ìy> because it’s happening pretty soon in the day. However, you might also use <ìy> to talk
about an event you’re attending next month because the context is what you’re up to this year.
Similarly, near and general past can be used with your discretion.
past future
near/recent <ìm> <ìy>
general/far <am> <ay>
How do I use the tense infixes?

1. Find the infix location <1>, by either finding the second to last vowel or using Fwew.
2. Place ìm, am, ìy, or ay into your verb.
Place each respective infix into these verbs according to the table.
past future
near/recent hifwo kame
general/far inan pängkxo
Engaging the Englishisms

English likes the tense of a sentence to agree with the stated time frame. “I went to the store yesterday” is
acceptable, but “I go to the store yesterday” sounds off.
Na’vi doesn’t need the tense to agree, so the infix is often dropped if there’s a time frame stated using
time adverbs like yesterday, tomorrow, and last night. It makes things a little more streamlined and
efficient, because of course the verb happened in the past if the time frame is yesterday! No need to say it
twice.95
94
Horen 6.7.8
95
Horen 6.7.1
42
Take a Picture, It’ll Last Longer

Na’vi has a feature that is alien to English: a way of presenting the action of a sentence as either a
snapshot picture of an occurence or as the background to another action.96 The first is like a still frame of
the action, and the second is ongoing. This isn’t related to when the action happens, it could happen in the
past, present, or future!
A snapshot can be presented within the context of ongoing action, separated into two clauses. The first
clause’s verb would be marked with the “imperfective” infix, the ongoing action, and the second clause’s
verb would be marked with the “perfective” infix, the snapshot. In this case the second clause can indicate
that the first clause’s action has finished.97
The difference between the two is that “imperfective”/<er> presents the action as an ongoing and
potentially incomplete one, while “perfective”/<ol> is presented as a complete snapshot.
For a snapshot, place <ol> in the position <1> slot of your verb.
To present an ongoing action, place <er> in the position <1> slot of your verb.
Practice With <er> and <ol>

Make a sentence that presents a completed action using <ol>. To make things a little more interesting, add
in a noun marked with an adposition and a few adjectives or adverbs!
1.
Next, make a sentence using <er>. This leaves things a little more open ended, but that’s okay!
2.
Make a sentence with a first clause that uses <ol>, and a second clause that uses <er>.
3.
Finally, make another two clause sentence and choose which takes <ol> or <er>.
4.
96
Horen 6.7.3
97
Horen 6.7.5
43
These Infixes will M<eyk> You H<äp>py

The <äp> infix is used when a noun is doing a verb to itself. For example, it might make sense in English to
think that “I wash” (oe yur) with nothing specified as being washed would mean “I wash myself”, but in
Na’vi this is where the <äp> infix would be used.
It’s only used with transitive verbs, except for two exceptions (win säpi and späpeng) that are
already in the dictionary.98
The <äp> infix makes the doer of a transitive (vtr.) verb also the receiver of the verb’s action.99 They are
doing the verb to themselves, so they aren’t marked with anything (because they’re both!).
Oe yur. I wash (something unspecified/unknown).

Oe yäpur. I wash myself.
If someone is doing a verb to themself and it’s not a transitive verb, there’s a special pronoun you use! It’s
called sno, and it’s used to refer back to the subject (They love themself, they thank themself).100
Irayo si po snoru. They thank themself.

Yawne lu snor po. They love themself.
The <eyk> infix is used when a noun makes another noun do something.
<eyk> and Intransitive (vin.) Verbs

When using <eyk> in an intransitive verb, what used to be the doer of the verb is now the one being verbed,
and the noun making the action happen becomes the new doer of the verb.101
‘Eveng latem. The child changes.

Sa’semìl ‘evengit leykatem. The parent makes the child change.
<eyk> and Transitive (vtr.) Verbs

When using <eyk> in a transitive verb, an extra noun is added to the sentence (the noun that’s making
someone verb). The noun making the other one verb takes over the -ìl/l for itself.102
The direct object keeps the -ti ending as always.
Numeyul tslam sänumvit. The student understands the lesson.

Karyul numeyur tsleykam sänumvit. The teacher makes the student understand the
lesson.
98
Na’viteri: One more for 2011
99
Horen 6.10.1
100
Horen 6.10.2
101
Horen 6.11.1
102
Horen 6.11.2
44
How do you Feel?

This section will cover features of Na’vi related to speaker emotion and sentiment about what is being
said. There are many options for expression, and these add another layer of information to your sentence!
The <ei> and <äng> Infixes

Na’vi has infixes that indicate how the speaker feels about what they’re saying.
The <ei> infix indicates a speaker is happy about what they are saying, and the <äng> indicates they are
unhappy with what they are saying.
‘Eykefeiu nitram palulukantsyìpti tsawkel nìtxan.

The sun makes the cat feel really happy (and I am happy about this).
Ta’leng oeyä palängon tsawkeyä atantalun.
My skin burns because of the sun’s light (and I am unhappy about this).
Note that the mood being expressed is that of the person saying the sentence only, and can’t be used to
refer to the mood of someone mentioned in the sentence.103
These will be placed in position <2> of the verb, before the last vowel. If there is only one vowel, and you
want to use a position <1> infix with this infix, you can just place them in a row (po yameiom, they ate [I
am happy about this]).
Nang
The word “nang” expresses surprise and encouragement by the speaker, and is always used with adverbs
of degree like nìtxan, nìngay, fìtxan, and the like. It always appears at the end of the sentence.104
Sunu oeru fìpuk nìtxan nang! I like that book so much!!!
Pak
The word “pak” is a similar idea to “nang” in use, as it always comes at the end of a sentence, but it marks
belittlement or negative feelings about what a speaker is saying.105 This is reflective of the speaker’s view,
like nang and <ei>/<äng>.
Kanu lu ‘ewll nì’ul poto pak. A plant is smarter than them ( >:( ).
Speaker Intent
When you especially intend to do something, you can use a special form of the two future infixes in your
verb. It’s representative of determination of the speaker to bring about what is spoken about106, but the
speaker does not have to be the one doing the verb.107
Pamrel sasyi oe pukur. I will write a book [and I’m determined].

Pamrel sìsyi oe pukur. I will (soon) write a book [and I’m determined].
103
Horen 6.15.1
104
Horen 6.22.2
105
Horen 6.22.3
106
Horen 6.7.9
107
Learn Na’vi Forum: <asy> with ke and nga
45
Tsyìp
Tsyìp is a similar concept to pak, but it gets attached to the back of nouns to mean a smaller version of
that noun. It can be freely attached to the back of nouns and pronouns.108 Tsyìp has three functions.
It is used in a mocking way (little you, little warrior, etc.) to imply weakness and smallness in whatever
noun you’re describing.109 It can be endearing, in the sense that small things are cute.110 Lastly, it can be a
smaller noun with no implied insult or endearment (ramtsyìp/little mountain/hill).111
Tsun fmivi tsakem sivi ngatsyìp, slä ke flayä.
Little-you can try to do that, but you will not succeed.
The <ats> Infix

When you presume something to be true based on evidence, you can use the <ats> infix to express that
your assertion is unconfirmed, but that you believe it is true based on what you know. This infix goes in
position <2> of the verb.112
‘Amefu ohakx tsaikran fìtxan kuma yatsom pol hawnventi oeyä.
The banshee felt so hungry that they must have eaten my shoe.
Sentence Adverbs
The adverbs previously spoken about refer to the way the verb is done, but sentence adverbs represent
how the speaker feels about the sentence. For example, if you were to say “Strangely, I don’t like pizza”, it
is different in meaning from “I strangely don’t like pizza”.
The first means that the fact you don’t like pizza is strange, rather than the manner in which you don’t like
pizza is strange. I’m not sure how someone can dislike something in a strange manner, anyway!
Sentence adverbs are a speaker’s comment about the sentence, an interjection of how they feel. They are
not referring to the manner in which the verb is completed.
Rofa txampay po tìran nam’ake. They walk confidently beside the ocean.
Am’aluke rofa txampay oe tìran. Without a doubt, I walk beside the ocean.
In the first sentence, the way the person in the sentence (po) is walking is described. In the second, the
speaker is asserting they are confident that this person is indeed walking beside the ocean.
It’s Gonna Be To-tally Awesome

To create sentences about your favorite noun (My favorite book is…, My favorite game is…,) use “frato” or “to
fra’u” and sunu. “To” means “than” in the context of comparing things, and if you like something more
than everything, it must be your favorite.
Sunu oeru frato uvan alu* Tìrey Hek. My favorite game is Life is Strange.
*Noun alu (Name of something) is used to give a specific example of a noun.
“To” can be used to make comparisons between people about qualities, too.113
If “to” is before its noun, leave a space, otherwise it attaches to the back!
Po to oe tsawl lu. They are taller than me.
108
Horen 5.1.6
109
Horen 5.1.6.3
110
Horen 5.1.6.2
111
Horen 5.1.6.1
112
Horen 3.6.4
113
Horen 6.2.7
46
What the Fwa?

Previously on NSA:
Adjectives describe nouns and use a connected “a”:
Tsranten eylan <amal. Trustworthy friends matter.
Clauses can describe nouns and use a floaty “a”:

Tsranten eylan <a pängkxo oehu). Friends that converse with me matter.
But what if you want to say that a statement matters (spending time with friends matters, eating food
matters, going to school matters)?
The statement that matters (spending time with friends, eating food, going to school) can be turned into a
big adjective using floaty “a” and used to describe a really generic noun.114 The result is like turning the
whole statement into one big noun, and using it as the subject of your sentence.115
Tsranten (käteng hu eylan a> fì’u.

This (spend time with friends> thing matters.
Spending time with friends matters.
Just like any other adjective, or any other weird big adjective, it becomes like a unit with its noun. The
purple clause needs to stay on either the left or right of its noun with the “a” pointing at the noun.
Tsranten fì’u <a käteng hu eylan).

This thing < spend time with friends) matters.
The purple clause can’t mix in with the black clause, but the order within the purple clause can be shifted
as long as it’s not breaking up any units within the purple clause (like an adjective with its noun, or an
adposition with its noun). You can also move the noun and its clause around in the sentence:
Fì’u <a käteng hu eylan) tsranten.
Tips and Tricks of “Fì’u a”

↳ When the purple clause comes after the noun it describes, the noun and
floaty “a” can be merged into one word, fwa.116 If you say “fì’u a” quickly
enough, it begins to sound like fwa. It’s a contraction that’s almost always
used but isn’t required, it’s just shorter!
↳ “A fì’u” doesn’t have a contraction, so it can’t merge into anything.
↳ Don’t use “fì’u a” when there’s only a noun on both sides, there should be a
noun on one side and at least a verb on the other.
114
Horen 6.18.4
115
Horen 6.18.4.1
116
Horen 3.4.2
47
Wait, There’s More of Them?

The placeholder “fì’u” with its companion, floaty “a”, is moldable to what you need it to do.
We’ve already covered how to use it as the doer of an intransitive verb, here are some “fì’u a” usages for
when you need it to have different relationships with the verb!
Come Here “Fì’ur a” Fun Time

Tskxekeng si oe uvanur. I practice the game.
In this sentence, it is a noun that is being practiced, but what you want to practice doing a verb? (The ikran
practices eating shoes, I practice flying)
If your purple clause is the indirect object of an intransitive (vin.) verb, “fì’u” gets marked with the indirect
object marker (-ru) just like any other noun would be marked as the one affected by the doing of a verb.
(Yom hawnventi a> fì’ur tskxekeng si ikran.

The ikran practices this (eating shoes > thing.
The ikran practices eating shoes.
Fì’ur <a yom hawnventi) tskxekeng si ikran.

The ikran practices this thing < eating shoes).
The ikran practices eating shoes.
This structure is very rare, and is only applicable to verbs where a situation or event makes sense as the
thing being indirectly affected. Often, the one indirectly affected is a person or other noun, so only a couple
verbs make sense using “fì’ur a”.
Try out “fì’ur a” with the following verbs:

↳ tskxekeng si
↳ hasey si
↳ lie si
↳ tìng nari
↳ tìng mikyun
↳ kangay si
Tips and Tricks of “Fì’ur a”

↳ When the purple clause comes after the noun it describes, it merges into fura.
117
↳ Don’t use “fì’ur a” when there’s only a noun on both sides, there should be a
117
Na’viteri: ‘A’awa ‘U Amip
48
“Fì’ul a” Me Once, Shame On You
Tompal <awok oeti srätx. The loud rain annoys me.
In this sentence, it is a noun that is annoying, but what if an event annoys me? (A dog barking, rain falling)
If your purple clause is the one doing a vtr. verb, “fì’u” gets marked with the subject marker (-l) just like
any other noun would be marked as the doer of a vtr. verb.
(Tompa zup a> fì’ul srätx oeti.

This (rain falls > thing annoys me.
Rain falling annoys me.
Fì’ul <a tompa zup) srätx oeti.

This thing < rain falls) annoys me.
Rain falling annoys me.
Tips and Tricks of “Fì’ul a”

↳ When the purple clause comes after the noun it describes, it merges into fula.118
↳ “A fì’ul” doesn’t have a contraction, so it can’t merge into anything.
↳ Don’t use “fì’ul a” when there’s only a noun on both sides, there should be a noun
on one side and at least a verb on the other.
The Fast and The “Fì’uri a”

Aylì’uri <atstunwi ngeyä, irayo si oe ngaru. Concerning your kind words, I thank you.
In this sentence, the reason you are being thanked is a noun. What if you want to thank someone for doing
an action?
If your purple clause is topic of a sentence, “fì’u” gets marked with the topic marker (-ri) just like any other
noun would be marked as the topic of a sentence or clause.
(Nìtstunwi oeru plltxe a> fì’uri irayo si oe ngaru.

Concerning this (speaking kindly to me > thing, I thank you.
Thanks for speaking kindly to me.
Fì’uri <a nìtstunwi oeru plltxe) irayo si oe ngaru.

Concerning this (speaking kindly to me > thing, I thank you.
Thanks for speaking kindly to me.
Tips and Tricks of “Fì’uri a”

↳ When the purple clause comes after the noun it describes, it merges into furia.119
↳ “A fì’uri” doesn’t have a contraction, so it can’t merge into anything.
↳ Don’t use “fì’uri a” when there’s only a noun on both sides, there should be a noun
on one side and at least a verb on the other.
118
Horen 3.4.2
119
Horen 3.4.2
49
“Fì’ut a” Last Time, I Know How to Use Case Markers
Nantangtsyìpit <ahona pol tse’a. They see the cute dog.
In this sentence, it is a noun that is being seen, but what if you see an action taking place?
If your purple clause is what’s being verbed, “fì’u” gets marked with the direct object marker120 just like
any other noun that’s the direct object would be.121 In this case, the purple clause is what’s being seen.
Fì’ut <a nantangtsyìp nìwin tul) pol tse’a. They see this < dog running quickly) thing.
They see the dog running quickly.
(Nantangtsyìp nìwin tul a> fì’ut pol tse’a. They see this (dog running quickly > thing.
They see the dog running quickly.
Tips and Tricks of “Fì’ut a”

↳ When the purple clause comes after the noun it describes, it merges into futa.122
↳ “A fì’ut” doesn’t have a contraction, so it can’t merge into anything.
↳ Don’t use “fì’ut a” when there’s only a noun on both sides, there should be a
Practice with Fwa and Friends

Translate each of these sentences, be careful to note which variant of “fwa” should be used!
1. The child likes exploring the forest.

2. The wind practices screaming loudly.
3. She thanks her friend for staying and waiting.
4. The sun ascending occurs to the cloud.
5. The banshee imagines eating a shoe.
Highlight to check your answers:

1. Fwa lang na’rìngit sunu ‘evengur.
2. Tskxekeng si hufwe fì’ur a nìwok zawng.
3. Furia ì’awn sì pey, irayo si po ‘eylanur peyä.
4. Pìwopxit fula fäza’u tsawke vingkap.
5. Ronsrelngop futa yom hawnventi ikranìl.
120
Horen 6.18.4.1
121
Horen 6.18.4.2
122
Horen 3.4.2
50

Na'vi Sentence-Building Adventures

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Na'vi Sentence-Building Adventures

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Na’vi Sentence-building Adventures

Tips For Adventurers 4

Building Blocks of Language 4

The Periodic Table of Alphabet 6

Interjection, Your Honor! 7

Your Verb is My Command 8

Intro to Clauses of The Non-Santa Type 8

Practice with Basic Sentences 10

Using Fwew on Discord 11

You Shall Not Pass 12

Practice with Negation 14

Adverbs: This is How We Do It 15

Fun with Fwew™ 16

Practice with Fwew 17

Making Plurals: As Easy as 2, 3, 4+ 19

Audacious Adventurous Adjectives 21

Practice with Adjectives 23

Who’s Who with Lu, Slu, and ‘Efu 27

Floating Around with “A” 33

Adpositions Add Positions 34

To the Indirect Objects 35

Fun With Fwew™: Si verb edition 36

Direct Your Attention To Direct Objects 37

Possessions Of the Non-Demonic Variety 38

The Typical Topical 39

Srake/Srak: You Have Two Choices 40

Modal Verbs Can’t Help Helpin’ 41

Take a Picture, It’ll Last Longer 44

These Infixes will M<eyk> You H<äp>py 45

How do you Feel? 46

What the Fwa? 48

Wait, There’s More of Them? 49

Tips For Adventurers

The Periodic Table of Alphabet

tìFtang, A, AW, AY, Ä, E, EW,

Interjection, Your Honor!

1. Your friend bought you candy from the store.

Try not to peek until you’ve written down your answers!

Your Verb is My Command

Intro to Clauses of The Non-Santa Type

A sentence like the one that follows would be incorrect.

(Nga hahaw) ~ulte~ (oe tul). ✓ ▶️ You sleep and I run.

Nga hahaw sì tul. ▶️ You sleep and run.

Practice with Basic Sentences

vawmpin n. dark color tawng vin. duck, dive

Nouns Verbs Conjunctions

kllte n. ground kanfpìl vin. concentrate, focus taluna conj. because

Using Fwew on Discord

Look up the translation of a Look up the translation of an English word

Look up the translation of a list of (English or Na’vi) words with Fwew.

In addition to lists of words, you can copy

You Shall Not Pass

Rä’ä srew. Don’t dance.

Rä’ä sngum si. Don’t worry. ✗

Srew rä’ä! Don’t dance! (You’re wearing an expensive suit!)

Oe ke sngum si. ✗ I don’t worry.

Negation and Nouns

Kea> palulukan ke kar. No thanator teaches.**

Engaging the Englishisms

Hahaw frapo. Everyone sleeps.

Negative Words in Na’vi

Practice with Negation

Highlight to check your answers below!