The “inceptive” verbs were intransitive verbs formed from an adjective or verb with the sense of “begin to, grow, become”, as in: “begin to fall”, “grow pale”, “become light, lighten”. Inceptives can be broken up into two groups: verbal inceptives and adjectival inceptives. Verbal inceptives are formed from verb roots,
Quenya Grammar P55: u-verbs
The u-verbs are a class of verbs whose stem combines a biconsonantal root (like √KEL) with a suffixal -u: [ᴹQ.] celu-. These verbs often (but not always) have an “inceptive” aspect, like [ᴹQ.] seru- “to settle on, sit or lie down” vs. [ᴹQ.] ser- “to rest”. As Tolkien described them
Quenya Grammar P54: a-verbs
The a-verbs are a class of verbs whose stem combines a biconsonantal root (like √TAN) with a suffixal -a: tana-. These verbs often (but not always) have an inherently “continuous” aspect, like ala- “grow” or fara- “hunt”. This class of verbs has less need to distinguish an instant action (“I
Quenya Grammar P53: TALAT-stem Verbs
The talat-stem verbs are derived from primitive verbal roots of the form √TALAT, but are classified differently from the basic verbs because phonological forces resulted in very different conjugations. In the end, their conjugations ended up close to the half-strong verbs, whereas the most irregular talat-stem verbs tended to abandon
Quenya Grammar P52: Half-strong Verbs
The half-strong verbs use of the same inflections as weak verbs, but have strong past tenses formed by modifying the verb stem. Most verbs with half-strong conjugations are the formative verbs, which are the result of adding the suffixes -t(ă) or -y(ă) to a root. They are most commonly used
Quenya Grammar P51: Weak Verbs
Tolkien’s terminology regarding weak verbs is somewhat inconsistent. Sometimes he used this term to describe a specific verb class, and other times he used it to contrast weak versus strong past tenses within a given verb class. In one place, he used it to describe an entire category of verb
Quenya Grammar P50: Derived Verbs
Derived verbs, as opposed to basic verbs, are those formed by adding some kind of verbal suffix to another word or root. The root may be verbal or non-verbal. Strictly speaking, the derived verbs are not themselves a distinct verb class, but are rather a collection of similar and related
Quenya Grammar P49: Basic Verbs
The basic verbs in Quenya are those verbs whoses stem ends in a consonant. They are mostly derived from primitive biconsonantal verbal roots of the form √KAT, though a few of them like ec- “to have a chance of” begin with a vowel and end with a consonant. Tolkien himself
Quenya Grammar P48: Verb Classes
Quenya verbs can be divided up into three broad groups: Basic verbs derived directly from some primitive verb stem. Derived verbs created by adding a verbal suffix to another root (verbal or otherwise). The u-stem or a-stem verbs which have a vocalic addition (a or u) to the stem. Within
Quenya Grammar P47: Verbs
Verbs in Quenya serve much the same function as they do in other languages, indicating the action of a phrase. Quenya verbs are inflected for tense, number and person, but the “person” inflections come mostly in the form of pronominal subject suffixes and object suffixes, which are discussed under pronouns.