Lesson 2.1: Adjectives

introduction

Welcome to part one of the second Na'vi Survival Guide lesson series: Descriptive Sentences

In part one, we will explore how to add additional description to nouns by using adjectives. By the end of this lesson, you should expect to be able to do the following:

• Describe a noun using adjectives

Take advantage of the review sections at the end of each lesson to practice and reinforce the skills you're learning, and join us on Discord for even more practice.

what is an adjective

An adjective is a descriptive word that provides more information about a noun. For example, let's start with the following simple sentence:

The fish swims.

If we wanted to describe the nature of the fish - size, color, manner, etc.- we would use an adjective to do so. Observe:

The blue fish swims.

In this sentence, blue provides more description to our noun, fish. This is the role of an adjective.

adjectives continued

In English, adjectives are limited in both position and order, coming before the noun they modify and in a predetermined order. This is why a phrase like "an old silly fool" might feel incorrect or awkward to an English speaker, where "a silly old fool" does not. In English, adjectives always come in order of opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material and purpose.

The Na'vi language has no such grammatical distinction. Adjectives in Na'vi, much like Na'vi nouns, are flexible - able to come immediately before or after the noun that they modify. We accomplish this using the adjective atributive particle -a-. This particle is added to the side of the adjective closest to the noun it is describing.

Note: There are more complex rules for using more than 2 adjectives for a single noun, which we will cover at a future point. For now, stick to two: one on the left and one on the right of the noun being described.

using adjectives

Let's take our sentence from earlier, "the blue fish swims", as an example. In Na'vi, our adjective blue can come before or after the noun it describes, fish. Observe:

eana payoang slele

payoang aean slele

So long as our adjective, ean is placed next to the noun payoang, with the attribution particle facing in the correct direction, the adjective/noun pair can be flexibly placed.

summary

Adjectives describe nouns.
In Na'vi, adjectives can come directly before or after the noun they describe.
Na'vi adjectives use the attributive particle -a- to "point" to the noun they describe.

practice

Identify the adjective in the following sentences. Confirmation will appear once you've entered the correct answer.

practice

Practice attributing the adjective to the correct noun in the following sentences. Confirmation will appear once you've entered the correct answer. Don't forget to use proper noun case endings from lesson 1!

conclusion