Perfect Participle

how to form it and its uses

A-Verbs and TA-Verbs

Remove the A, add -iel to the root, and use I-affection on the root vowel.

The only exception is muda-, since the U comes from a long O, and long vowels aren't affected by I-affection.

fara- "hunt" → feriel "having hunted"
brona- "survive" → breniel "having survived"
muda- "labor" → mudiel "having labored"

I-Verbs and IA-Verbs

Add -iel, or delete the -ia and then add -iel. For I-verbs and A-verbs ending in -ia, the sundómar change the same way. To understand which letter changes into which, you must look back to Eldarin. These vowels, like the I-verbs, will lengthen instead of undergo I-Affection.

For the A-verbs ending in -uia, remove the A, add -el. For -uia, there are no vowel changes.

To help you understand this, I've made a chart of the historical changes to these vowels.

Short Sundómar→Lengthened Sundómar
A→Ó
E/I→Í
O/U→Ú
Y→IÚ

Because the sundómar of IA-verbs are all I-affected, you need to know what the ancient Eldarin sundóma of the verb was.

Unlike I-verbs, IA-verbs can have a diphthong, EI, in the place of their sundóma. This is usually an alternate version of an E, and you'll find that such verbs usually have both forms, such as telia-/teilia- and *medhia-/*meidhia-.

SindarinSundóma→Perfect ParticipleEnglish
dag-A→dógielhaving slain
penia-A→pónielhaving fixed
teilia-A→tólielhaving played
heb-E→híbielhaving kept
tir-I→tírielhaving guarded
brenia-O→brúnielhaving endured
tog-U→túgielhaving led
elia-U→úlielhaving poured
yr-Y→iúrielhaving ran

If the verb was made from a compound, only the core root's sundóma is changed.

SindarinSundóma→Perfect ParticipleEnglish
echad-A→echódielhaving fashioned
gonedia-O→gonúdielhaving counted

There is no exact equivalent to this form in English, so this will take some explaining. It has several properties:

  1. It functions as a gerund - marking dependent clauses, not having its own subject, and having direct objects.
  2. It marks an action that had been completed before the action of the main sentence's verb.
  3. It can be used alongside verbs of any conjugation: present, future, or past.

The closest we have in English to this grammatical form is "having ____."

Although it is tempting because we only have one Sindarin past tense, it isn't used for the conjugation of the past tense. Instead it shows the order of an event in relationship to the main action of the sentence.

Nin adlígiel, ni meria. - Having released me, she/he protects me.
I iôn odul am bâr, tóliel a mellyn în. - The boy came home, having played with his friends.

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