What Is The D Ragon Language? What Is The D Ragon Language?: Section I: Grammar

thuum.
org/learn/ Introduction
Section I: Grammar Thuum.org > Learn > Introduction
What is the Dragon Language?

The dragon language is a constructed language featured in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It
was spoken by dragons and ancient Nords who learned to harness its power against their
dragon masters. In the time that Skyrim takes place, the dragon language is known and
spoken by a rare few, including the remaining dragons and the Greybeards who follow
the Way of the Voice.
The language is known by many names among fans: Dragon, Draconic, Dragontongue,
Dovah, Dovahtinvaak ("Dragon-Speech"), and most commonly Dovahzul ("Dragon-Voice").
These lessons will use the official terms "dragon" and "dragon language".
The following lessons will take you through pronunciation, sentence construction,
grammar, the alphabet, common phrases, and other topics to help you learn the
language. These lessons use official, in-game examples to explain each rule.
Why learn the dragon language?

Several constructed languages have gained widespread use in their fan communities,
most famously Star Trek's Klingon, and J.R.R. Tolkien's Quenya and Sindarin elven
languages. We have similar goals for the dragon language, and hope that you can enjoy
using it in writing, works of art, roleplaying, or everyday conversation.
Skyrim itself is rich with dragon writing and dialogue, and even a basic understanding
will flesh out the game's experience even more. Do you want to know what the dragons
say when they speak? Have you ever wanted to read the Word Walls? These lessons will
help you accomplish that and more.
Canon & Non-Canon

The term canon refers to any word or part of the dragon language that comes from
Skyrim and is part of the official language. Some grammatical rules or expressions have
been invented by the community to answer questions that are left untouched by the
canon material. These additions are referred to as non-canon.
Throughout the lessons, each topic is marked with an arrow for whether it is canon or
non-canon information:
Canon topic
Non-canon topic
This way, you can distinguish between the rules of the canon language, and the rules that
have been invented by the community.
You may also come across tips written in boxes like this. These contain trivia,
tricks, or other information related to the topic.
This is an independent site and is not affiliated with Bethesda Softworks, LLC.
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
thuum.org/learn/ Alphabet & Pronunciation
Section I: Grammar Thuum.org > Learn > Alphabet & Pronunciation
Key Points
The dragon language has a 34-rune alphabet with no upper or lower case.
There are unique letters for aa, ah, ei, ey, ii, ir, oo, uu, and ur.
Apostrophes can be pronounced as one syllable or two.
About the Alphabet

The dragon alphabet consists of 34 runes, each made by three or more slashes and dots.
The letters are based on the markings a dragon's claws might make in stone. Some letters
have exact English equivalents while others are combinations of English letters (such as
"aa", "ah", and "ii").
Below is a list of all 34 dragon runes, their letter names, and their pronunciations with
both the International Phonetic Alphabet and English examples. Special thanks to
LucienLachance for the audio!
The letter names listed are non-canon inventions.
A A az //
cat, black, bad, sometimes //, or // in comma
unstressed
1 AA aan // father, arm
4 AH hah //
father, arm, may sometimes be pronounced with
German ch //, // in comma unstressed
B B bey /b/ bread, able
D D dah /d/ door, sword
Normally // in net, enter. When at the end of a
E E en //, //, word, usually /e/ in may, able. Sometimes also

/e/ // in comma. When at the end of a word and
followed by h as in geh, retains // pronunciation.
2 EI hei /a/ why, hi, find
9 EY ney /e/ hey, may, able
F F fo /f/ frost, after
G G gah /g/ gold, forget
H H hes /h/ hello, ahoy
I I in /i/ see, clean, rarely but sometimes // in win
3 II kii /i/ always see, clean
7 IR hir /ir/ hear, leer, irritate
J J jen /d/
just, agent, very rarely /j/ in some compound
words
C K kei /k/ keen, keep, rock
L L li /l/ lore, bell
M M mah /m/ mother, immerse
N N ni /n/ no, end, kin
O O ot /o/
Like foe and know, but not a diphthong.
Pronounce without rounding the lips into /u/.
8 OO thoor // Typically lore, jaw, hawk, sometimes /u/ in moon
P P pah /p/ map, apart
Q Q qo /kw/
Articulated with the back of the tongue. Usually
pronounced with a following /w/ as in quote.
R R rah /r/
run, arise, usually tapped or rolled. Very close in
pronunciation to /l/.
S S set /s/ soft, sense
T T tag /t/ tale, fate
U U un /u/ rule, fool, very rarely // in sun
5 UU huul /u/ rule, fool, see also use for apostrophes
6 UR nur /ur/ lure, moor
V V vey /v/ valley, event
W W wo /w/ world, awake
X X nex /ks/ axe, fox, relax, never /z/
Y Y yeh /j/ yet, yesterday
Z Z zet /z/ zoo, maze
The dragon language does not have upper or lower case letters.
There is no dragon equivalent for the letter C. Instead, either S or K are used
to produce the same sound. When transliterating a name that uses ch, the
spelling tsh can be used instead.
Apostrophes
Some words are transliterated in English with apostrophes, such as thu'um and su'um.
The dragon language itself has no written apostrophe. Instead such words are spelled
with the letter 5 (uu). There are many ways to pronounce an apostrophe. This section
covers the more commonly seen ways.
As two syllables - In this pronunciation, the two u's are given separate sounds. The first
u is a long /u/ as in too and the second u is a short // as in hum. With this
pronunciation, thu'um would sound like thoo-um, and su'um would sound like soo-um.
These two vowels flow into each other without a stop.
As two syllables with a glottal stop - This is a rarer pronunciation than the other two. It
is like the first in that the u's make up two syllables, except both are long /u/ and they
are separated by a glottal stop. With this pronunciation, thu'um would sound like thoo-
oom, and su'um like soo-oom.
As one syllable - Mostly in casual conversation, words with apostrophes are pronounced
with one long /u/ vowel. Here thu'um would sound like thoom, and su'um would sound
like soom.
Other Pronunciations
In most cases letters are pronounced on an individual basis. For example, the "ui" in
Alduin is pronounced like "Al-doo-een" rather than something like "Al-dwin". Likewise the
"ua" in fahluaan is pronounced "fah-loo-on" rather than "fahl-won". Some letters can
combine to form new sounds. Below is a list of these combinations and their
pronunciations:
AE
AE /e/ hey, may, able, only seen in the word mahfaeraak
AU AU /a/ how, crowd, brown
NG NG // ring, ink
SH SH // she, wash, condition
TH TH // through, thin, pathway
Alphabet Converter
This tool will convert text to and from the dragon alphabet. It will replace letter
combinations such as "ah" and "ei" with their dragon equivalents, and vice versa. This
way you can write the language in the Roman alphabet and convert it into the dragon
alphabet here, or transcribe something from the dragon alphabet to the Roman alphabet.
Select the language you want the output text to be and paste text in or begin typing.
Convert To Dragon
Exercises
1. Rewrite the following English words in the dragon alphabet so that they keep the
same pronunciation. For example, spear would be rewritten as spir:
a. Meet
b. Fate
c. Cool
d. Sky
e. Cease
f. Moat
g. Cockroach
See answer
2. Write out the pronunciations of the following dragon words or phrases as best you can.
For example, based on dovahkiin you might write "doe-vah-keen".
a. Dovahsos
b. Drem yol lok
c. Su'um ahrk morah
d. Kendovve los mul
e. Dovahhe bo ko lok
See answer
3. Try to write your name in dragon runes - once phonetically (keeping the pronunciation
the same as you did in exercise #1) and once with all the letters the same. For the
second one, write out how your original spelling would be pronounced as you did in
exercise #2.
Example: The name "Kate" would be phonetically spelled as "Keyt". The original
spelling "Kate" would be pronounced as "Kat-ey".
thuum.org/learn/ Sentence Structure
Section I: Grammar Thuum.org > Learn > Sentence Structure
Key Points
The dragon language as subject-verb-object sentence structure like English.
The term strong indicates a word can be used as a noun.
The term weak indicates a word cannot be used as a noun.
About Sentence Structure

Sentence structure defines how a language puts words together to make a sentence.
Different languages, even constructed ones, have different ways of making sentences.
This lesson covers some important terms, such as the parts of speech, which determine
how a word can be used.
Parts of Speech
A sentence is made up of many categories of words. The term parts of speech refers to
these different categories. Below are some of the major parts of speech and examples
of them.
Part of Speech Function Examples
The red dragon. A brave
adjective describes a noun warrior.
Dragons fly quickly. He valiantly
adverb describes a verb
fought.
gives information about a noun The

mountain is a tall one. An
article honest man.
Nords are strong and hardy. This
conjunction joins sentences or phrases
or that.
interjection standalone expression Damn! The dragon escaped?
Impossible!
noun person, place, name, thing, or This sword is sharp. My name is
idea Aela.
relates other words, usually with I'm going into the cave. Their
preposition direction camp is on the river.
pronoun stands for a noun He doesn't know them.
verb action or state I am here to slay dragons.
Become familiar with these terms, as they will be imporatant in later lessons.
Strong & Weak

Most English words fit only one part of speech. For example, "speak" can only be used as
a verb while "speech" can only be used as a noun. Sometimes, a word can act as multiple
parts of speech; "hunt" can be either verb or a noun, and "cold" can be either an
adjective or a noun.
Dragon words are highly flexible and may act as multiple parts of speech depending on
the context. Tinvaak is both the verb "to speak" and the noun "speech". Stin can be the
adjective "free", the verb "to set free", and the noun "freedom".
To describe this phenomonon, we have coined special terms using the words "strong" and
"weak". "Strong" indicates a word that can be used as a noun, while "weak" indicates a
word that cannot be used as a noun. These terms are grammatical only and do not reflect
on the meaning of a word. For example, sahlo "weak" is a strong adjective while
suleykaar "powerful" is a weak adjective.
Below are the special parts of speech and how they can be used in a sentence:
Part of Speech Usage Example
Nahlot
adj. adj. silent
strong adjective adv. in an adj. manner, being adj. adv. silently
n. silence
n. the state or quality of being adj. v. to silence, make or
v. to make or become adj.
become silent
Kras
adj. adj. sick
weak adjective adv. sickly
adv. in an adj. manner, being adj. v. to sicken, make or
v. to make or become adj.
become sick
Ahraan
v. v. to wound
strong verb n. the act of v. n. wound
adj. past or present participle of v. adj. wounded; wounding
adv. having been v.; doing v. adv. woundedly
Kron
v. v. to conquer, win
adj. conquered;
weak verb n. the act of v. conquering
adj. past or present participle of v.
adv. having been v.; doing v. adv. having been
conquered; conquering
When a word is weak, there is typically an explicit noun. For example, kras "sick" is
weak given krasaar "sickness", and kron "to conquer" is weak given krongrah
"victory/conquest".
Subjects, Verbs, and Objects

Most sentences contain three main components: a subject, an object, and a verb. The
subject is the noun that the sentence is about, and is performing the action. The object
is the noun that the subject is performing the action on. The verb is the action itself.
In the sentence "The Dragonborn slays dragons", the subject is "The Dragonborn", the
object is "dragons", and the verb is "slays".
Sentence structure is how these parts are ordered. In English, sentences are structured
subject-verb-object. The dragon language is structured the same way, with some
exceptions which we'll get to below.
Some languages are referred to as synthetic languages, where most of the grammatical
information in a sentence is carried by changing the form of a verb ("conjugation") or a
noun or adjective ("declension"). German and Russian are examples of synthetic
languages. These languages have flexible sentence structure because changing word order
doesn't change the meaning of a sentence. In contrast, analytic languages such as English
use other means to carry the same information. This makes sentence structure important
to follow. "The cat ate the cake" has a very different meaning from "the cake ate the
cat". The dragon language, like English, is highly analytic, and relies on sentence structure
to indicate the subject, verb, and object of a sentence.
"We started off making specific rules for the way words would work together ...
And then we realized that it had started to collapse under its own weight. The
more rules we wanted to keep track of, and the more complex it became, we
knew the more complicated it would be for the designers to use, and the more
mistakes we would make. So we really tried to keep it much more simple." -
Senior Designer Emil Pagliarulo
Phrasing Questions
In English, questions are formed with the help of extra verbs such as "do" or "have". In
the dragon language, questions are formed by flipping the object and the verb. Hi koraav
dovah "You see the dragon" simply becomes Koraav hi dovah? "Do you see the dragon?".
This can also extend to more complex examples, such as past participles. Tiid boaan
vokriiha suleyksejun kruziik "The time has come to restore the ancient dominion" can
become the question Boaan tiid vokriiha suleyksejun kruziik "Has the time come to
restore the ancient dominion?"
Exercises
1. What are the nouns in the sentence, "Belethor sold the shield to Lydia"?
See answer
2. What are the verbs in the sentence, "Do you know where I can find the Jarl?"
See answer
3. What are the subject, object, and verb in the sentence, "Miraak betrayed the
dragons"?
See answer
4. What is the difference between a strong verb and a weak verb?
See answer
5. Rephrase the question, "When did you become king?", as it might appear in the dragon
language.
See answer
thuum.org/learn/ Pronouns
Section I: Grammar Thuum.org > Learn > Pronouns
Key Points
The dragon language has 4 types of pronouns - nominative, accusative,
possessive, and reflexive.
Possessive determiners ("my") and possessive pronouns ("mine") are the
same.
All reflexive pronouns end with -maar.
What are Pronouns?

A pronoun is a noun that is used in place of another noun or name. English pronouns
include I, you, he, she, it, they, and we. Pronouns form the base vocabulary of many
languages.
This lesson covers all of the different dragon pronouns and their forms. Below is a list of
every pronoun.
Subject Object Possessive Reflexive
zu'u zu'u dii zu'u
hi hi hin/him hi
rok rok ok rok
rek rek ek rek
nii nii nimaar
nust niin niin
mu mu un mu
Note where some vocabulary is unknown. We'll go over each column section by section
below.
Subject
Subject pronouns are used as the subject of a sentence, also known as nominative case.
For example, "I went to Whiterun" or "She is one of the Companions". In cases where a
nominative pronoun is unknown (marked non-canon), it is assumed to be the same as the
accusative pronoun. Below are all of the nominative pronouns:
I Z5 zu'u
You HI hi
He ROC rok
She REC rek
It N3 nii
They NUST nust
We
MU mu
The pronoun "hi" is pronounced like "hee".
Unlike English, the word for "I", "zu'u", is not always capitalized. The dragon
language does not have uppercase or lowercase letters.
Object
Object pronouns are used as the object of a sentence, also known as accusative case. For
example, "The dragon ate him" or "The king doesn't like them." Some are the same as the
nominative case, like hi (you) and nii (it). In cases where an accusative pronoun is
unknown (marked non-canon), it is assumed to be the same as the nominative pronoun.
Below are all of the accusative pronouns:
dovah
Me Z9 zu'u
You HI hi
Him ROC rok
Her REC rek
It N3 nii
Them N3N niin
Us MU mu
In rare cases, the word "dovah" can be used by a dragon to refer to oneself.
Possessive
Possessive determiners and possessive pronouns show possession, for example "my
sword", "his crown", or "the day is ours". The possessive forms of a few pronouns are
unknown. See Showing Possession for ways to circumvent these.
My/Mine D3 dii
Your/Yours HIN/HIM hin/him
His OC ok
Her/Hers EC ek
Our/Ours UN un
"Him" is used instead of "hin" with words that begin with "H", e.g. "him hind"
("your wish").
Reflexive
The reflexive column is for pronouns that refer to themselves. For cases where the
reflexive is unknown, you may use the accusative form instead.
Myself ZU'U zu'u
Yourself HI hi
Himself ROC rok
Herself REC rek
Itself NIM1R nimaar
Themselves NIIN niin
Ourselves MU mu
Exercises
1. Translate the pronouns of the following sentence: "I heard you faced him on the
battlefield."
See answer
2. Translate the pronouns for the following sentence: "This battle is hers. She will fight
fate itself."
See answer
3. What type of pronoun is "his" in "Dragonborn, Dragonborn, by his honor is sworn..."?
What is the dragon translation?
See answer
4. Make flash cards for each pronoun (there are 15 total) and practice memorizing them.
For extra practice, make additional flashcards with basic words like dovah "dragon" and
krif "to fight" and arrange them to form sentences.
thuum.org/learn/ Nouns & Articles
Section I: Grammar Thuum.org > Learn > Nouns & Articles
Key Points
For plural nouns, repeat the last letter and add -e.
Use faal for "the" in reference to proper nouns.
Articles rarely used and often absent in speech.
What are Nouns?

A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns form a major part of any language; more than
550 of the language's ~640 words can be used as a noun in some way. In this lesson we'll
examine the grammar related to nouns and the articles that describe them.
Making Plural Nouns

A noun that is plural refers to multiple persons, places, things, or ideas. The opposite of a
plural noun is a singular noun, which refers to only one person, place, thing, or idea. The
English plural suffix is usually -s.
In the dragon language, the last letter of the noun is repeated, and the suffix -e is added to the
end. For example, dovah becomes dovahhe, jun becomes junne, and zul becomes zulle.
See the Alphabet & Pronunciation lesson for how to pronounce this -e.
Some words like rotmulaag and kaaz might change more in plural form. Aa or ii in the final
syllable can be reduced, forming rotmulagge instead of rotmulaagge, and kazze intsead of
kaazze.
This plural rule is not strict. Where in English some nouns are their own plurals (sheep, fish, or
moose), all dragon nouns can potentially be their own plurals. The Word Walls are the starkest
example of this, where plural suffixes are not featured at all. This may also be seen in songs or
poetry where an extra syllable needs to be removed.
Nouns that end in a vowel like zii or zahkrii do not have plural forms.
When translating, keep in mind what is a noun and what is a verb. In "He runs down
the street", "runs" is a verb, not a noun. Don't add a plural suffix to your verbs!
What are Articles?

The term article refers to the words the and a/an, both commonly used in English. Below are
the equivalent dragon articles:
the (informal) fin

the (formal) faal
a / an aan
Faal is used to reference a proper noun or something held in high regard. For example, "the
sword" would probably use fin, but "the Sword of Talos" would use faal instead. Aan is for
both "a" and "an", regardless of whether the next word begins with a vowel or consonant.
Dragon articles are almost always cut with exception of faal. The words fin and aan are
removed wherever possible. For example, the sentence "The sword of the king is sharp"
would be "Zahkrii do jun los kinzon" (lit. "Sword of king is sharp"). If we want to be respectful,
we might keep faal in reference to jun: "Zahkrii do faal Jun los kinzon".
Cases where articles are kept include poetry or lyrics, where they can provide a needed extra
syllable.
Exercises
1. Rewrite the following sentences in English as if they were in the dragon language, keeping
the rules on articles in mind:
a. By the gods, I saw a dragon.

b. The Jagged Crown must not fall into the wrong hands.
c. I wish you a good day.
d. A warrior, a mage, and a thief stand in a room.
See answer
2. Give the plural forms of the following nouns:
a. Yol
b. Strunmah
c. Zii
d. Hokoron
See answer
3. In the following sentence, would you keep the or remove it? "The Mask of Vokun lies buried
in his crypt."
See answer
4. Write out the pronunciations of the following plural nouns:
a. Tuzze
b. Krongrahhe
c. Hahhe
d. Nahgahdinokke
See answer
thuum.org/learn/ Showing Possession
Section I: Grammar Thuum.org > Learn > Showing Possession
Key Points
Compound words are formed with se.
The dragon equivalent to "-'s" is -ro, but rarely used.
The suffixes -i, -ii, and -u can replace the pronouns "my", "his/her/its", and
"our".
About Possession
Possession is showing ownership between two nouns. We've already seen how pronouns
can be used to illustrate this: "my sword", "her horse", etc. Other English examples of
possession include "the spoon of Ysgramor" and "the king's army". English most commonly
uses the 's suffix to show possession. The dragon language tends to show possession in a
different way.
Compound Words & se

A compound word is a single word made up of two or more joined words. English
examples include butterfly, quicksand, and underground. Here we will talk about
compound words in the dragon language and how they can be used to show possession.
One way you can show possession is by using do (pronounced "doe"), the dragon word for
"of". For example, you might express "the king's army" as "lahvu do jun" ("the army of the
king"). Compound words, using the word se, give us a more elegant way of saying the
same thing. Se is a word that means "of" just like do, but can be used as a connector or
bridge in compound words. The example "lahvu do jun", could be compounded into one
word: lahvu + se + jun, or lahvusejun. Other examples include qethsegol ("bone of the
earth"), junnesejer ("kings of the east"), and Ahrolsedovah ("hill of the dragon", the
dragon name for Whiterun).
"Se" can be used in sentences like "do" but it is extremely rare. "Lahvu se jun"
would be uncommon but not incorrect. On the other hand, "do" cannot be used
in compound words. "Lahvudojun" would be incorrect.
You might have noticed that these compound words cut out articles like "the" and "a". As
we learned in Nouns & Articles, this is true in most places, and it especially true for
compound words. Lahvusefinjul and Ahrolsefindovah are examples of incorrect
compound words. What do we do with faal if we are making a compound word with a
proper noun? In this situation you have two options. Take for example "The Sword of the
King". If you want to keep the formality, you can express this as "faal Zahkriisejun" or
decide to keep it split up as "faal Zahkrii do faal Jun".
Sometimes using compound words is not always the way to go. You may have a phrase
that would be unwieldy as a compound. If you want to say "the Axe of Whiterun", it
might be best to leave it as "faal Hahkun do Ahrolsedovah" rather than compound it as
"faal Hahkunseahrolsedovah"!
A note on spelling and pronunciation with "se": keep the "e" separate from
other vowels. "Rotsein" ("words of the master") is spelled ROTSEIN instead
of ROTS2N. Likewise this should be pronounced like "Rote-seh-een", not like
"Rote-sign". This way the components of the compound word, esepcially "se" and
"in", aren't lost.
The Suffix -ro/-dro

A suffix is a part added to the end of a word to change its meaning (the opposite being a
prefix, added at the beginning of a word). In the dragon language, -ro/-dro is used just
like English's -'s. If "triumph" is zind, then "triumph's" is zindro. If "dragon" is dovah, then
"dragon's" is dovahro.
dro is used if a noun ends with a vowel or the letter "r". Thus, zii becomes ziidro, and
aar becomes aardro.
The only occurrence of "-ro/-dro" being used is in the Song of the Dragonborn.
Using "do" and compound words with "se" are much more common ways of
showing possession. You can also imply it through context ("dovah yol" = "a
dragon's fire"). Use -ro/-dro very rarely.
Possessive Suffixes
The dragon language has a set of possessive suffixes that can be used to indicate
possession in place of the pronouns my, his, her, etc. Following is a table of suffixes
organized according to pronoun. Some pronouns don't have an equivalent possessive
suffix:
My -i
Your -iil
His/Her/Its -ii
Our -u
This suffix replaces my, his, our, or any other possessive determiner used with a noun.
For example, "my lord" could be translated as "dii thur" or "thuri"; "our father" could be
translated as "un bormah" or "bormahu".
When to use the pronoun or the suffix comes down to personal preference. Possessive
suffixes shouldn't be used with nouns that end in a vowel, such as Deyra or plural nouns
like dovahhe. An exception to this is the possessive suffix -iil, which can be used with
nouns that end in ii. For example, zii "spirit" could become ziil "your spirit."
Possessive suffixes cannot be used in conjunction with the suffix -ro. "My
father's sword" is best translated as "bormahi zahkrii", "zahkrii do bormahi", or
"zahkriisebormahi". "Bormahiro zahkrii" would be incorrect.
Exercises
1. The word for "queen" is jud, and the word for "sword" is zahkrii. How would you
translate "the queen's sword" into the dragon language?
See answer
2. The word for "voice" is zul. Express each of the following using possessive suffixes:
a. My voice
b. Your voice
c. His voice
d. Our voice
e. Its voice
See answer
3. If zeymah is "brother," what is the best way to say "my brothers?"
See answer
4. Make compound words of the following phrases:
a. "The doom of the world". "Doom" is daan and "world" is lein.
b. "The bane of kings". "Bane" is feyn and "king" is jun.
c. "A storm of swords". "Storm" is strun and "sword" is zahkrii.
d. "The fall of a hero". "Fall" is mah and "hero" is hun.
e. "Atmora of old". "Old" is wuth.
f. "The tales of my friend". "Tale" is tey and "friend" is fahdon.
See answer
thuum.org/learn/ Adjectives & Adverbs
Section I: Grammar Thuum.org > Learn > Adjectives & Adverbs
Key Points
Adjectives can precede or follow the word they describe.
All adjectives can be used as adverbs.
Comparisons are formed with zok "most".
The suffix -aan forms past participles.
The suffix -taas forms present participles.
About Adjectives
An adjective is a word that describes a noun. English examples include "strong", 'great",
and "beautiful". Adjectives are an important and flexible part of the language. This lesson
covers how to form adjectives and the many ways they can be used.
Adjectives can precede or follow the word they describe.
Adjectives as Nouns
As we learned in the Sentence Structure lesson, some adjectives (strong adjectives) can
also be used as nouns. These nouns normally mean "the quality or state of being
(adjective)", similar to English words that end in "-ness" ("darkness", "coldness", etc.). See
the examples below of adjectives being used as nouns:
Mu fent siiv un stin. "We shall find our freedom."
Nid ronit sahrotii. "None rivaled her might."
Frin do heim ag med toor. "The heat of the forge burned like an inferno."
Krosis saraan ko Sovngarde. "Sorrow awaits in Sovngarde."
Possessive suffixes, verbs, and other adjectives can help indicate when a strong
adjective is being used as a noun.
Adjectives as Verbs
English has verbs like "strengthen", "weaken", and "sharpen" to mean "to make or become
(adjective)." Most dragon adjectives are also the equivalent verb. This oftentimes results
in verbs that have no direct English translation. See the examples below of adjectives
being used as verbs:
Mu fent stin fahdonu. "We shall free our friends."
Ek tey sahrot voth enook krongrah. "Her tale became mighty with each victory."
Daar yol frin heim. "This fire heats the forge."
Dii rot fen krosis hi. "My words will sorrow you."
Meyz "to become" may also be used alongside an adjective to produce the same
meaning; meyz sahrot "to become strong", or meyz fundein "to come unfurled".
Comparisons
In English, "-er" and "-est" (superlative) are used to form comparisons; "I am stronger than
you," or "She is the greatest warrior." The dragon language is less subtle. Comparisons are
typically formed using zok "most". Below are English comparisons and their dragon
equivalents:
"I am stronger than you" - Zu'u zok mul ("I am the most strong")
"She is the greatest warrior" - Rek zok lot kendov ("She is the most great warrior")
"You are wiser than them" - Hi zok onik ("You are the most wise")
"You less wise than me" - Hi ni zok onik ("You are not the most wise")
Below are other words important to forming comparisons:
Word Definition Example
Med like/similar to Norok med dovah "Fierce like a dragon"
Ol as Mid ol dok "as loyal as a hound"
Pruzaan best/better Bo pruzaan "(to) fly (is) better/best"
Ronit to rival Mulaagii ronit kodaav "her strength
rivals a bear's"
Experiment with zok and the words above to help form comparisons.
About Adverbs
An adverb is a word that describes a verb, or sometimes an adjective. Most English
adverbs end with "-ly"; "she fought boldly" or "the courageously brave warrior".
Dragon adjectives and adverbs are interchangeable. Consider the following examples:
Mu bo stin. "We fly free/freely."
Rek sahrot kriin dovah. "She mightily slew the dragon."
Ok smoliin ag frin. "His passion burned hot/hotly"
Fahdonu los krosis sizaan. "Our friend is sadly lost."
Like English, adverbs may precede or follow the verb they describe. If an adverb
describes an adjective, it must precede the adjective.
Adverbial phrases may also be formed using voth "with" or ko "in" in tandem with nouns.
Krif voth ahkrin means "to fight courageously", or literally "with courage". This can be
used to express adverbs in places where there is no equivalent adjective: tinvaak voth
vahzen "to speak truly (with the truth)", aam voth sahvot "to serve faithfully (with
faith)", or dir ko faaz "to die painfully (in pain)".
Past Participles
Ordinary verbs can become participles, verb forms that can behave as an adjective or
adverb. A past participle indicates something that has taken place in the past. English
examples include "a stolen crown", "a conquered kingdom", or "an honored friend".
Past participles in the dragon language are usually formed with the suffix -aan. Examples
include duaan "devoured", wahlaan "built", and agaan "burned". If a verb ends in "h", the
suffix becomes -laan, as seen in mahlaan "fallen".
Verbs that contain aa or ii in their final syllable are reduced to a and i. For example,
qahnaar "to vanquish" becomes qahnaraan "vanquished," and krii "to kill" becomes kriaan
"killed/slain".
Sometimes the suffix -aan is not used and context is used to imply the participle; kron
junaar "a conquered kingdom", or gahrot du'ul "a stolen crown". The suffix -aan should
be used where a past participle could be confused for a present participle; kron junaar
"a conquering kingdom" (possible), or gahrot du'ul "a stealing crown" (rather unlikely).
Some verbs have irregular past participles. These should be used instead of the suffix -
aan. Below is a list of all irregular past participles:
Verb Past Participle
Gron "to bind" Gro "bound"
Kren "to break" Krent "broken/shattered"
Naak "to eat" Naako "eaten"
Saan "to lose" Sizaan "lost"
Present Participles
Another way to form participles is with the suffix -taas. A present participle indicates a
noun that is presently doing an action. For example, viintaas tuz describes "a shining
blade" or "a blade that shines". A krontaas hun likewise describes "a conquering hero" or
"a hero who conquers".
Unlike -aan, the vowels aa and ii are not reduced in the final syllable.
Sometimes the suffix -taas is not used and context is used to imply the participle; kron
jun "a conquering king", or ag yol "a burning fire". The suffix -taas should be used where
a present participle could be confused for a past participle; kron jun might be "a
conquered king", but agtaas yol probably isn't "a burned fire".
Verbs that end in "t" use the suffix -aas; funtaas grahmindol "a failing stratagem".
Some verbs have irregular present participles. These should be used instead of the suffix
-taas. Below is a list of all irregular present participles:
Verb Past Participle
Dir "to die" Viir "dying"
Lahney "to live" Nahl/Nahlaas "living/alive"
Do not confuse present participles for progressive/continuous verb tense,

which does not exist in the dragon language. "Botaas" should be used in "botaas
dovah" ("a flying dragon"), but never like "Dovah botaas brom" ("The dragon is
flying north"). Use "Bo" as a verb instead; "Dovah bo brom" ("The dragon flies
north").
Exercises
1. Write the past participles of each verb below:
a. Bo "to fly"
b. Kron "to conquer"
c. Kriin "to slay"
d. Naak "to eat"
e. Yah "to seek"
f. Bonaar "to humble"
See answer
2. Write the present participles of each verb below:
a. Bo "to fly"
b. Kron "to conquer"
c. Kriin "to slay"
d. Gahrot "to steal"
e. Dir "to die"
f. Qahnaar "to vanquishing"
See answer
3. How would you say "We are stronger"?
See answer
4. Given the strong adjective nahlot "silent", what part of speech is nahlot being used in
the following sentences?
a. Nahlot dovah saraan.
b. Dovah saraan ko nahlot.
c. Dovah saraan nahlot.
d. Dovah nahlot ok paal.
See answer
thuum.org/learn/ Verbs & Tense
Section I: Grammar Thuum.org > Learn > Verbs & Tense
Key Points
Verbs don't change based on subject.
Verbs don't change between present tense and simple past tense.
Use drey to clearly express past tense, "drey krif" = "did fight".
What are Verbs?

A verb is a word that expresses action or state. The most common verb of English is "to
be". Nearly half of the languages ~640 words can be used as verbs. There are two main
topics to cover when dealing with verbs: verb tense and verb conjugation. Verbs can be
the toughest part of learning any language. As we'll see, the dragon language takes a
simplified approach. Nevertheless there is plenty to cover in this lesson.
As mentioned above, an important term related to verbs is conjugation. Conjugation is
how a verb changes form. Verbs are conjugated in English mainly according to tense
("give" vs "gave") and subject ("I give" vs "she gives"). The dragon language has very little
conjugation to worry about, but there are still some important ways that verbs can
conjugate, which we'll get to below.
"The language concept that emerged abandoned tense, conjugation, and even
upper and lower case letters, preferring that the context imply those ideas." -
Skyrim's Dragon Shouts
Kos
Kos is dragon for "to be". Like English's "to be", it has a number of different forms,
though considerably fewer. The forms of kos are:
Be kos
Am/Are/Is los
Was/Were lost
Kos is the infinite form, los is used for present tense, and lost is used for past tense.
Unlike English, this doesn't change no matter if the subject is "I", "you", "they", etc. "I am"
would be "zu'u los", "you are" would be "hi los", and "she is" would be "rek los".
The verb kos can be used to make adjectives out of verbs. "Rek siiv" would mean "she
finds", but with the kos we can make "Rek los siiv", or "she is found". Likewise "rek lost
siiv" could mean "she was found".
"Lost" also used to from present perfect tense ("She has found him"). Therefore
it can be tricky to try and distinguish "she was found" from "she has found". An
object can help distinguish the two.
Like the articles fin and aan discussed in Nouns & Articles, the verb kos is often cut to
shorten speech. This occurs most often in conversation. If you were to say "I am the
Dragonborn!", you could translate it simply as "Zu'u dovahkiin!" Along the same lines, "I
am not the Dragonborn!" could be "Zu'u ni dovahkiin!" or even "Ni dovahkiin!". These
simple steps can go a long way towards making your dragon language more authentic.
"Los hi" ("are you") can contract to "Losei" ("you're") in questions. For example,
"Ful, los hi dovahkiin?" ("So, are you the dragonborn?") could contract to "Ful,
losei dovahkiin?".
Dreh
Another important verb is dreh, which means "to do". Like kos it's an irregular verb that
has a past tense conjugation. The conjugations of dreh are as follows:
Do/Does dreh
Did drey
Dreh can help clearly express past or present tense. "Rek dreh siiv" means "she does find"
and clearly establishes that siiv here is present tense. "Rek drey siiv" means "she did find"
and clearly establishes that siiv here is past tense. Seeing dreh used in this way is not
very common, but drey is used a lot for this, especially in places like Word Walls where
present tense may be used one sentence and past tense the next.
What is Tense?
Tense is when a verb is happening. On a very basic level, a tense can be past (the action
has happened), present (the action is happening), or future (the action will happen).
English has a vast number of tenses. The dragon language has only four main tenses. Use
the table below as a quick guide for how to use verbs:
Tense English Dragon
Simple Present I fly Zu'u bo
Simple Past I flew Zu'u bo
Zu'u drey bo
Zu'u lost bo
Present Perfect I have flown Zu'u boaan
Zu'u lost boaan
Zu'u fen bo
Simple Future I will fly Zu'u fent bo
When considering tense, all verb usage must fall under one of the above tenses. Do not
attempt to use tenses that exist in English but do not exist in the dragon language. For
example, progressive tense ("I'm going to Whiterun") should instead be expressed as
simple present tense ("I go to Whiterun").
"Bo" ("to fly/move/go") is not used for future tense in the same way that "go" is
in English ("I'm going to slay a dragon"). Use "fen" ("will") or "fent" ("shall")
instead.
Conditional verbs like "would", "could", or "should" also do not have dragon
equivalents. Use straightforward language instead; "I will not betray you" rather
than "I would not betray you".
Simple Past Tense

Just as verbs do not change between subjects, they also do not change between simple
present tense and simple past tense. Where English's "I find" would become "I found",
"zu'u siiv" could mean both "I find" or "I found" depending on the context. This is most
clearly seen on the Word Walls, which are largely written in simple past tense. Context is
king when it comes to tense.
As discussed above, you can indicate simple past tense with the use of drey. "Zu'u drey
siiv" can only mean "I did find". This is one way to provide additional clues that you want
siiv to mean "found" rather than "find".
Present Perfect Tense

Present perfect tense indicates action that has taken place in the past or possibly
continues into the present ("I have eaten", "You have conquered"). There are three ways
to express present perfect tense in the dragon language:
With "lost" - Zu'u lost krii dovah "I have slain a dragon"
With a past participle - Zu'u kriaan dovah "I have slain a dragon"
With a "lost" and a past participle - Zu'u lost kriaan dovah "I have slain a dragon"
The third method is extremely rare. Usually present perfect tense can be implied with
lost or a past participle alone. Lost is more common in writing while past participles are
more common in speech. See Adjectives & Adverbs for more on how to form past
participles.
The Suffix -a
A verb in its most basic, unmodified form is said to be an infinitive. For example, "fight"
is an infinitive while "fights" and "fought" are not. An infinitive with the word "to" ("to
fight") is called a full infinitive or to-infinitive.
One way to express to-infinitives is to simply use wah "to" ("wah krif", "to fight"). The
verb suffix -a offers another way to express this. "Wah krif" instead becomes "krifa." This
is more commonly seen in speech than writing, where wah is most often cut in all its
forms.
The suffix -a can also be used as a contraction of wah. "Rok funt wah koraav" ("He failed
to see") can instead become "Rok funta koraav." In both cases -a stands for wah either
before or after the verb. You can use context clues to determine which is meant.
When a verb ends with a vowel, -a becomes -ha instead. For example, "wah
vokrii" becomes "vokriiha."
Exercises
1. The word for "brave" is kril. Use the verb kos to express these in the dragon language:
a. I am brave.
b. You are brave.
c. She is brave.
d. I was brave.
e. You were brave.
See answer
2. Krii means "to kill", naal means "by", and kodaav means "bear". What is the difference
between these two sentences?
Rek lost krii kodaav.
Rek lost krii naal kodaav.
See answer
3. The word for "battle" is grah and the word for "dragon" is dovah. Translate the
following into English:
a. Zu'u grah dovah.
b. Zu'u grahlaan dovah.
c. Zu'u fen grah dovah.
d. Zu'u fent grah dovah.
See answer
4. You challenge a fellow student of the dragon language to say, "The Dragonborn is
strong. She killed a dragon." They offer you this translation: "Dovahkiin los mul. Rek krii
dovah." What would you change in their translation to make clear that the second
sentence is past tense?
See answer
5. Rephrase the following sentences to only use the tenses found in the dragon language:
a. He is fighting the warrior.
b. It has been a good day.
c. I was watching the road.
d. The dragon had been sleeping when we attacked.
See answer
thuum.org/learn/ Section I Review
Section I: Grammar Thuum.org > Learn > Section I Review
Overview
The following are exercises that review all of the previous lessons in this section. Refer
to the individual lessons if you need a refresher!
Alphabet & Pronunciation

1. Write the pronunciations for the following dragon words and sound them out:
a. Suleyk
b. Konahrik
c. Mindok
d. Lahvu
e. Ensosin
f. Lein
g. Sovrahzun
h. Uznahgaar
i. Zu'u
j. Mahfaeraak
See answer
2. How would you pronounce the word qahnaarin? In what ways does "Q" differ from "K"?
See answer
Sentence Structure
1. Identify the nouns in the following sentences:
a. There are two trolls in the cave.
b. Wolves and bears range the wilderness.
c. I am not convinced you are ready to be a Companion.
d. Mu los hunne ko Keizaal.
See answer
2. Identify the verbs in the following sentences:
a. I journeyed for months to reach Winterhold.
b. Dragons are attacking anyone on the road.
c. Do not kill the chickens in Riverwood.
d. Zu'u drey siiv aan dovah ahrk krii mok.
See answer
3. Identify the subject, object, and verb in the following sentences:
a. I want a Skyforge Steel sword.
b. Our fortresses fall one by one.
c. They can slay any dragon.
d. Dovahkiin krif lot vokul.
See answer
4. Find each of the following adjectives in the dictionary and write whether it is a
strong or weak adjective. If a weak adjective, find its noun form:
a. Krin "courageous"
b. Krilot "valiant"
c. Vul "dark"
d. Kras "sick"
e. Suleykaar "powerful"
f. Mul "strong"
See answer
Pronouns
1. The pronouns in these sentences are marked in bold. Translate them into dragon:
a. Our time is short.
b. He has two swords that I forged.
c. Will you betray them?
d. Skyrim is mine. It belongs to me.
e. His strength grows. Can you defeat him?
f. This land is ours. You shall not take it from us.
See answer
2. The pronouns in these sentences are marked in bold. Translate them into English:
a. Zu'u ofan niin dii kogaan.
b. Fod nust hon un zaan, nust fen bovul.
c. Het nok Sagnid, bormah do hin bormah. Nid kendov lost lot ol rok.
d. Ful nii los tol hi boaan nau oblaansetiid.
e. Mu fen krif fah mu.
See answer
Nouns & Articles

1. Write the plural forms of the following nouns:
a. Grah
b. Zii
c. Tahrovin
d. Kroniid
e. Gravuun
f. Su'um
See answer
2. The articles in the following sentences are marked in bold. Rewrite these sentences as
if they were in the dragon language, taking into consideration how the dragon language
uses articles.
a. A great warrior must have the courage of ten.
b. The road to Windhelm is a dangerous one.
c. The Amulet of Kings could only be worn by a Dragonborn Emperor.
d. Here is a dragon, and here is the sword I will slay him with.
See answer
3. Fin or faal? For each of the examples state whether the translation for "the" would be
fin or faal.
a. The sword
b. The Sword of Ysgramor
c. The wicked and corrupt Thalmor
d. The glorious and righteous Thalmor
e. By the gods
f. By the Nine Divines
See answer
Showing Possession
1. Rewrite the following as compound words with se.
a. "Servant of the King". "Servant" is aar and "king" is jun.
b. "Slayer of dragons". "Slayer" is kriid and "dragon" is dovah.
c. "Warriors of the North". "Warrior" is kendov and "north" is brom.
d. "The king's peace". "King" is jun and "peace" is drem.
e. "A friend of mine". "Friend" is fahdon.
f. "The champion's strength". "Champion" is kaal and "strength" is mulaag:
See answer
2. In each of the examples below, replace the pronouns with the possessive suffixes -i, -
ii, -iil, or -u:
a. Dii bormah
b. Un zeymah vahrukt
c. Ok suleyk
d. Hin zii
e. Dii dovahhe
f. Rok los hokoronseun
See answer
3. A friend gives you this translation for "in his father's memory": "ko ok bormahro
vahrukt". What could be better about this translation? What are some other ways to
phrase it?
See answer
Adjectives & Adverbs

1. Bonaar is a strong adjective that means "humble". How is bonaar being used in each of
a. Hin kah fen kos bonaar.
b. Zu'u bonaar aam hi.
c. Bonaar mun saraan ok dinok.
d. Hin bonaar viik muliil.
See answer
2. Hevno is a weak adjective that means "brutal". How is hevno being used in each of
a. Hevno ven do Keizaal fen bonaar naan mun.
b. Drem drey hevno ko ek rel.
c. Vahzen los hevno tinvaak.
See answer
3. Write the past participle of each word below:
a. Ru "to run"
b. Gahrot "to steal"
c. Diin "to freeze"
d. Stin "to free"
e. Kron "to conquer"
f. Gron "to bind"
g. Horvutah "to trap"
See answer
4. Write the present participle of each word below:
a. Liiv "to wither"
b. Siiv "to find"
c. Krii "to kill"
d. Du "to devour"
e. Dir "to die"
See answer
5. Use voth "with", ko "in", or other comparison words to make the adverbs below:
a. Angrily
b. Furiously
c. Foolishly
d. Triumphantly
e. Hastily
See answer
Verbs & Tense

1. The word for "to know" is mindok. You are given this translation for "she knows all":
"rek mindokke pah". Why is this wrong?
See answer
2. The word for "to speak" is tinvaak. Translate the following:
a. I spoke to them.
b. I am speaking to them.
c. I have spoken to them.
d. I was speaking to them.
e. He has spoken to me.
See answer
3. The word for "to fall" is mah. Translate the following:
a. She fell in battle.
b. She has fallen in battle.
c. She will fall in battle.
d. She won't fall in battle.
See answer
thuum.org/learn/ Dragon Shouts & Names
Section II: In Practice Thuum.org > Learn > Dragon Shouts & Names
Key Points
Dragon Shouts are made up of 3 Words of Power.
3-word phrases can extend into conversational language.
A dragon's name is also a Shout.
About Dragon Shouts

A Shout, or Thu'um, is a form of magic performed by speaking specific phrases in the
dragon language. Each Shout is made up of three Words of Power, called rotmulaag.
Shouts demonstrate the power and meaning that can be packed into only a few words.
Part of learning the dragon language is knowing how to say a lot with a little.
"When a dragon uses a breath attack like fire or frost, it is speaking in an

ancient and powerful language. A battle between two dragons is actually a
deadly verbal debate." - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Below is an alphabetical list of all Shouts found in the game and their Words of Power.
Animal
Allegiance R1N Raan (animal) M7 Mir
(allegiance)
T4 Tah (pack)
Aura Whisper L1S Laas (life) Y4 Yah (seek) N7 Nir (hunt)
Battle Fury MID Mid (loyal) V6 Vur (valor) SH1N
(inspire)
Shaan
Become EtherealF2M Feim (fade) Z3 Zii (spirit) GRON

(bind)
Gron
Bend Will GOL Gol (earth) H4 Hah (mind) DOV

(dragon)
Dov
Call Dragon OD Od (snow) 4 Ah (hunter) V3NG Viing

(wing)
Call of Valor HUN Hun (hero) C1L

(champion)
Kaal Z8R Zoor
(legend)
Clear Skies LOC Lok (sky) V4 Vah (spring) C8R

(summer)
Koor
Cyclone VEN Ven (wind) G1R

(unleash)
Gaar NOS Nos (strike)
Disarm ZUN Zun (weapon)H1L Haal (hand)V3C
(defeat)
Viik
Dismay F1S Faas (fear) RU Ru (run) M1R Maar
(terror)
Dragon Aspect MUL Mul (strength)Q4 Qah (armor) D3V

(wyrm)
Diiv
Dragonrend J8R Joor (mortal) Z4 Zah (finite) FRUL

(temporary)
Frul
Drain Vitality G1N Gaan L4 Lah (magicka) H1S Haas

(stamina) (health)
Elemental Fury SU Su (air) GR4 Grah DUN Dun (grace)

(battle)
Fire Breath YOL Yol (fire) T8R

(inferno)
Toor SHUL Shul
(sun)
Frost Breath FO Fo (frost) CR4 Krah (cold)D3N

(freeze)
Diin
Ice Form 3Z Iiz (ice) SLEN Slen NUS Nus (statue)

(flesh)
Kyne's Peace C1N Kaan (Kyne) DREM

(peace)
Drem OV Ov (trust)
Marked for
Death CR3 Krii (kill) LUN Lun AUS Aus (suffer)
(leech)
Slow Time T3D Tiid (time) CLO Klo (sand) UL Ul (eternity)
Soul Tear R3 Rii (essence) V1Z
(tear)
Vaaz ZOL Zol
(zombie)
Storm Call STRUN Strun B4 Bah (wrath) QO Qo (lightning)

(storm)
Summon
Durnehviir D6 Dur (curse) NEH Neh V3R Viir (dying)
(never)
Throw Voice ZUL Zul (voice) M9 Mey (fool) GUT Gut (far)
Unrelenting
Force FUS Fus (force) RO Ro (balance) D4 Dah (push)
Whirlwind Sprint WULD Wuld N4 Nah (fury) CEST Kest
(whirlwind) (tempest)
Other Shouts
There are additional Shouts in Skyrim that are used by enemies and NPCs such as Alduin
or the Greybeards. They are listed below:
Alduin's Mist VEN Ven (wind) MUL Mul (strong) R3C Riik (gale)
Phantom Form F3C Fiik (mirror)LO Lo (deceive) S4 Sah
(phantom)
Resurrect Dragon SLEN Slen T3D Tiid (time) VO Vo (undo)

(flesh)
Soul Cairn
Summon
D3L Diil QOTH Qoth Z1M Zaam
(undead) (tomb) (slave)
Tsun's Return N4L Nahl D1L Daal VUS Vus (Nirn)

(living) (return)
Some dragon phrases can follow a Shout-like pattern. "Drem yol lok", which means
"greetings", is a three-word phrase that means "peace fire sky".
The power of the Thu'um is not limited to three-word Shouts. In the

Dragonborn expansion, Miraak uses a phrase to immediately devour the souls of
dragons: "Ziil los dii du" ("Your soul is mine to devour").
About Dragon Names
"Ah, I forget how little you know of the dov. Our names are always made up of
three Rotmulaag - Words of Power." - Paarthurnax
Most dragons have names that mean something in their own language. These aren't just
names, but individual Shouts. We've seen two dragons' names among the Shouts already:
Odahviing ("snow-hunter-wing") and Durnehviir ("curse-never-dying").
A dragon's name is not so much a name but a title given to reflect its deeds. Dragons
may be nameless until they perform a feat worthy of such a title.
Most names consist of three words, but contrary to Paarthurnax's commentary this is not
always the case. Below is a list of all named dragons found in Skyrim and their
translations. Some names have no known translation.
Ahbiilok 4B3LOC hunter blue sky
Alduin ALDUIN destroyer devour master
Durnehviir D6NEHV3R curse never dying
Grahkrindrog GR4CRINDROG battle courageous lord
Kahvozein C4VOZ2N pride undo worship
Krahjotdaan CR4JOTD1N cold maw doom
Krosulhah
CROSULH4 sorcerer day mind
Kruziikrel CRUZ3CREL ancient dominate
Lodunost LODUNOST ???
Mirmulnir M7MULN7 allegiance strong hunt
Naaslaarum N1SL1RUM ???
Nahagliiv N4AGL3V fury burn wither
Nahfahlaar N4F4L1R ???
Numinex NUMINEX ???
Odahviing OD4V3NG snow hunter wing

ambition overlord
Paarthurnax P1RTH6NAX cruelty
Relonikiv RELONICIV dominate enlightenment
Sahloknir S4LOCN7 phantom sky hunt
Sahrotaar S4ROT1R mighty servant
Viinturuth V3NT6UTH shine hammer rage
Vuljotnaak VULJOTN1C dark maw eat
Vulthuryol VULTH6YOL dark overlord fire
Voslaarum VOSL1RUM ???
An alternate interpretation of "Dovahkiin", "dragonborn", is "Dov Ah Kiin", or

"born to hunt dragonkind".
Dragon Name Generator

This simple tool will generate dragon names following the examples shown in this
lesson! See if you can learn some words by picking apart their meaning.
Generate Names
Exercises
1. Get creative! Create a name for each of the described dragons. Each name should be
2-3 words and usually no more than 4 syllables.
a. His scales are as tough as steel.
b. His wings will block out the sun.
c. Has a single green eye.
d. Burned down an entire forest in his rage.
See answer
2. Translate your own name into the dragon language by giving yourself a dragon name.
Look up the meaning of your name and give yourself a name like the exercise above that
reflects the meaning of your own.
Take for example the name "Eric", which comes from Old Norse and means
roughly "lone or eternal ruler/prince". From this we might make "Kulgeinul", or
"prince one eternity".
thuum.org/learn/ Reading & Writing
Section II: In Practice Thuum.org > Learn > Reading & Writing
Key Points
Dragon runes are written left to right, top to bottom.
Write the letter combinations that appear first: kiir is written as k + ii + r.
Apostrophes are written as 5 (uu).
Use line breaks or conjunctions to indicate where phrases begin or end.
About Reading & Writing

Up to this point, the dragon language has been presented in the familiar Roman alphabet.
We will now begin to study the language in its native alphabet. (Keep this page handy
throughout this lesson.) Extensive use of the alphabet is featured only in this lesson and
some of the more advanced exercises. Future lessons will still use the Roman alphabet,
so mastering reading isn't required if you wish to continue past this section. For many it
is one of the harder parts of learning the dragon language, but with enough practice it
will become second-nature.
Reading Dragon Runes

As English, the dragon language's alphabet reads from left to right, and top to bottom. Its
words are separated by spaces.
You have probably seen the phrase that says "it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers
in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae." It
illustrates that we usually don't read letter-by-letter, but interpret words as individual
symbols. Because the dragon language uses a vastly different alphabet, it's going to take
some practice to become fully literate.
Each letter is made up of several slashes, dots, and hooks, and some of them are very
much alike! Below is a table of letters that can easily be mistaken for one another:
Dragon Romanization
D R D, R
B E B, E
I S Z I, S, Z
2 V ei, V
A Q G 9 A, Q, G, ey
U F M 5 U, F, M, uu
W X WX
Find a way that works for you to memorize the differences between these
letters. For example, "D is dotted, R is sharp", "E is an eye", "ei is high", "if one
U makes a left then two U's make a right", or "W opens west and X opens east."
With enough practice they will come naturally.
Without further ado, let's dive into some examples:
HET NOC LYDIA

LOT SP1N V4DIN W4
DOV4C3N 4RC
ZOC LOT DO OC
CENDOVVE
In the space provided, write out what the above says in the Roman alphabet. See
answer
Here's another one for practice:
QETHSEGOL
V4RUCIV YSM7
STRUND5L
SAV3C DO JUL WO
ALOC M9Z R4
Like before, write out the above in the Roman alphabet. See answer
Challenging? It will be at first. As we go on, the alphabet will hopefully become more
familiar. One of the best ways to learn the alphabet is through writing it.
Reading Test
Need more reading practice? Type out the words below as quickly as you can read
them. When you correctly type a word, a new word will appear. Use this to learn
to recognize some of the language's most common words.
NAX
Writing Dragon Runes
We've learned already that dragon runes are written much like English; left to right, and
top to bottom. However, there are some key differences. There are no upper and lower
case letters to deal with, and there are no punctuation marks such as commas, periods,
or question marks. Line breaks and conjunctions like ahrk "and" or ruz "then" can be used
to indicate where phrases begin and end.
The letters themselves are straightforward, but there are some rules to follow,
especially pertaining to the special runes such as aa, ei, ii, etc.
Writing Overlapping Runes

Some runes may be written as multiple letters in English, such as the runes for ii and ir.
What if we have a word such as kiir "child"? Should it be spelled as C3R, CI7, or
C37? The correct way to spell it is to use the sound that comes first. In kiir, ii comes
before ir, so kiir is spelled as k + ii + r, or C3R. Another example is the word miiraad,
which is spelled m + ii + r + aa + d, or M3R1D.
Writing Apostrophes
We've already talked about apostrophes in the Alphabet & Pronunciation lesson but it
helps to repeat especially now that we're writing in the alphabet. Apostrophes are
always featured between two u's. Examples include thu'um, zu'u, and du'ul. There is no
apostrophe mark in dragon writing. Instead, u'u is spelled with the rune 5 (uu). Thu'um
is written as t + h + uu + m (TH5M), and zu'u is written as z + uu (Z5).
Handwriting the Alphabet

It's time to grab pen and paper! At first, handwriting the runes will be awkward and
clumsy. Years of writing in your native alphabet have allowed you to write words quickly
and in as few strokes as possible. With practice, the dragon runes will become just as
easy. It will seem overwhelming with the mindset of reproducing each slash and niche as
accurately as you can. For common writing, the best way to approach the runes is to
simplify them. Try and write each letter in no more than 5 or 6 strokes.
For practice, write down every letter of the alphabet. Then try your hand at writing the
reading examples shown above.
It can be tempting to draw the letters large. Try drawing them smaller with less
of a concern about detail, and see which way is easiest for you.
Exercises
1. Write the following in the Roman alphabet:
HET NOC G2RMUND BORM4 DO

POG1N CULLE
See answer
2. Write the following in the Roman alphabet:
HIN TH5M LOS MUL D3 HOCORON

See answer
3. Write the following in the dragon alphabet: Qethsegol vahrukiv faal Dovahkiin voth
sossedovah.
See answer
4. When you come across a Word Wall in Skyrim, take a moment to write it down on
paper. Then, just as you've done in this lesson, romanize the spelling. If you're up for the
extra challenge, translate it into English!
thuum.org/learn/ Word Walls
Section II: In Practice Thuum.org > Learn > Word Walls
Key Points
Word Walls use no punctuation.
Word Walls tend not to use plural nouns.
About Word Walls

A Word Wall, sometimes referred to as a qethsegol, is a stone in Skyrim that contains a
Word of Power. Word Walls usually contain a short inscription telling of an ancient Nordic
hero or historical event. They can be excellent practice for learning the alphabet and
basic vocabulary. This lesson explores a small selection of the Word Walls found in the
game and their translations.
Animal Allegiance
QETHSEGOL V4RUCIV C9
SARVIRRA ZOC CRIN R1N ALUN
W4 FON1R ODUS FROD 4RC OFAN
OC SIL F4 OC DROG
Qethsegol vahrukiv key Sarvirra
(This) stone commemorates (the) horse Sarvirra,
zok krin raan alun wah fonaar
(the) most courageous animal ever to charge
odus frod ahrk ofan ok sil fah ok drog
(the) snowy field and give his soul for his lord.
LACNIR MALTU W4L1N

QETHSEGOL 1R3 V4RUCT BON1R
VACEEZA WO V1T M7 W4 JUN DO
C9Z1L 4RC D7 CO SADON
GRAV5N
Laknir Maltu wahlaan qethsegol
Laknir Little-Hammer has raised (this) stone
aarii vahrukt bonaar Vakeeza wo
(in) his servant's memory, humble Vakeeza who
vaat mir wah jun do Keizaal
swore allegience to (the) king(s) of Skyrim
ahrk dir ko sadon gravuun
and died in gray autumn.
HET D7 BRUN3C REC GROH3C
ULF2DR CR3D MUZ 4RC SUNV1R
BRUN3C CINBOC S4QON T4
Het dir bruniik rek grohiik Ulfeidr
Here died (the) savage she-wolf Ulfeidr,
kriid muz ahrk sunvaar
slayer (of) men and beast(s),
bruniik kinbok sahqon tah
savage leader (of the) crimson pack.
Fire Breath
QETHSEGOL V4RUCIV C3R JUN
JAFNHAR WO LOS AG N4L1S
N1L YOL DO LOT DOV4
LODUNOST
Qethsegol vahrukiv kiir jun
(This) stone commemorates (the) child king
Jafnhar wo lost ag nahlaas
Jafnhar who was burned alive
naal yol do lot dovah Lodunost
by (the) fire of (the) great dragon Lodunost.
AESA W4L1N QETHSEGOL

BR3N43 V4RUCT THOHILD FIN
T5R WNE SMOL3N AG FRIN OL
S4QO H2M
Aesa wahlaan qethsegol brinahii
Aesa has raised (this) stone (in) her sister's
vahrukt, Thohild fin toor wen
memory, Thohild the inferno whose
smoliin ag frin ol sahqo heim
passion burned hot as (a) red forge.
HET M4 HERFODR SHUL CR3D

S4ROT CON4RIC DO LUMN1R DO
CRENT H4NU
Het mah Herfodr
Here fell Herfodr
shul kriid sahrot konahrik
Sun Slayer, mighty warlord
do Lumnaar do Krent Hahnu
of (the) Valley of Broken Dream(s).
Kyne's Peace
HET NOC COPR1N DO HELA,
F4DON W4 P4 SIV1S 4RC 1R DO
C1N 1L REC S3V UN4Z1L PR1N
CO F9CRO DO H4NU
Het nok kopraan do Hela
Here lies (the) body of Hela,
fahdon wah pah sivaas
friend to all beast(s),
aar do Kaan aal rek siiv
servant of Kyne. May she find
unahzaal praan ko feykro do hahnu
eternal rest in (the) Forest of Dreams.
NONVUL BRON D4M1N D1R ROT

DO FIN FOD3Z BORM4 DR1L NI
F4 DREM F4 GRIC LOS HIND DO
S4LO 4RC NIV4R3N
Nonvul bron dahmaan daar rot
Noble Nord, remember these word(s)
do fin fodiiz bormah draal ni
of the hoar father. Pray not
fah drem fah grik los hind
for peace, for such is (the) wish
do sahlo ahrk nivahriin.
Of (the) weak and cowardly.
HET M4 SP1N V4DIN VALCRYS

WO CRIF VOTH 4CRIN NUZ
LOST FOL1S W4 OV MUL1G DO
BOD3S TUZ
Het mah spaan vahdin Valkrys
Here fell (the) shield maiden Valkrys,
wo krif voth ahkrin nuz los folaas
who fought with courage but was wrong
wah ov mulaag do bodiis tuz.
to trust (the) strength of (a) borrowed blade.
In the above Word Wall, "los" is used to mean "was". This is a rather rare case.
The vast majority of the time, you will see "lost" to mean "was".
Storm Call
4RC OND DR9 S4ROT
H2MVERLUND M9Z NOL HEVNO
BROM MED STRUN DO UZN4G1R
N4CR3N NOL SONVGARDE
NIM1R
Ahrk ond drey sahrot Heimverlund
And lo did (the) mighty Heimverlund
meyz nol hevno brom med strun do
come from (the) brutal north like (a) storm of
uznahgaar nahkriin nol Sovngarde nimaar
unbridled vengeance from Sovngarde itself.
HET M4 HROTHMAR B4 GROH3C

DO BRUN3C PIND1R 1L OC SIL
ROV1N SOVNGARDE M4FAER1C
Het mah Hrothmar bah grohiik do
Here fell Hrothmar Wrath-Wolf of
bruniik pindaar aal ok sil rovaan
(the) savage plains. May his soul wander
Sovngarde mahfaeraak
Sovngarde forever.
QETHSEGOL V4RUCIV S4SUN1R

DO DAN3C VUNDEH2M AG N4L1S
N1L QO DO UNSL1D CROSISC
Qethsegol vahrukiv sahsunaar
(This) stone commemorates (the) villager(s)
do daniik Vundeheim ag nahlaas
of (the) doomed Vundeheim, burned alive
naal qo do unslaad krosis
by lightning of eternal sorrow.
Grammatical Patterns in Word Walls

Much of what we know about the dragon language comes from the writings on these
Word Walls. They demonstrate the lack of verb conjugation ("I fight", "he fights", etc.)
and that present tense and simple past are the same ("I fight", "I fought"). They also
demonstrate the usual omissions of fin and aan. Word Walls go even further by cutting
other words, such as some prepositions. The dragon language tends to be very brief, and
Word Walls are a good example of how context is used to develop full meaning.
One pattern that is specific to Word Walls is the blending of singular and plural nouns.
Again, this is done to make for shorter language and lets context imply the plurals.
Dragon language that is well-written will make as much use out of context as possible.
Exercises
1. Using everything you have learned so far, translate the following Word Wall into
English.
Nafni wahlaan qethsegol
bormahii vahrukt Rognvald
wen zii fen mahfaeraak aak
ok brod ahrk folook ok hokoron.
See answer
2. Write out this Word Wall in the Roman alphabet, then translate it into English:
HET NOC YNGNAVAR G1F COD1V

WO DR9 Y4 MORO NAU FROD DO
CROSIS NUZ SINON S3V DINOC
4RC DUC1N
See answer
thuum.org/learn/ Conversation & Common
Section II: In Practice Phrases
Thuum.org > Learn > Conversation & Common Phrases
Conversational Dragon
Now that we know how to construct sentences, read, and write them, let's take a look at
the dragon language in conversation. This lesson covers a wide variety of commonly used
phrases to help with basic conversation. If you are still unfamiliar with parts of the
grammar, you may be able to pick up some patterns from the phrases provided here.
Grammatically, the spoken language follows some slightly different guidelines than the
written language, which has been our focus up to this point. It has earlier been stressed
that articles like the, aan, and fin aren't often used, and this holds true for the spoken
language. However, the verb kos/los is less commonplace, and in shorter sentences is
usually cut.
This lesson features a number of phrases both from the game and invented by
the community. In-game phrases are marked with canon arrows while invented
phrases are marked with non-canon arrows.
Shout-like Phrases
We saw in the Dragon Shouts & Names lesson that a Shout is made up of three Words of
Power. The dragon language has phrases that mimic the three-word format of Shouts,
but don't call a storm or set the place on fire. One example is "drem yol lok" - its literal
translation is "peace fire sky" but it's used to mean "greetings". Below is a list of similar
phrases.
Dragon Phrase Literal Meaning Meaning
I'm sorry. / You have my sympathies.
Aaz Hah So Mercy Mind Sorrow Used to express sorrow or sadness rather
than a casual "I'm sorry".
Leave! / Begone! Expressing that
Bo Nah Gut Fly Fury Far someone should go away, territorial.
Drem Yol Lok Peace Fire Sky Greetings. Acknowledges territory and
the temporary withholding of aggression.
Kip Jot Naak Food Maw Eat Merry eating! / Bon apptit.
Paaz Shul Grind Fair Sun Meet Nice to meet you.
Ruth Strun Bah Rage Storm Wrath Expressing anger, hate, or frustration.
Tiid Bo Viing Time Fly Wing I must leave. / It's time for me to go.
Vah Su'um Ven Spring Breath Wind Farewell.
Greetings
English Phrase Dragon Phrase Literal Translation
Hello! Greetings!
(formal) Drem yol lok! Peace fire sky!
Hi! Hello! (informal) Grind! Meeting! / (We) meet!
Nice to meet you. Paaz shul grind. Fair sun meet.
Pruzah grind. A good meeting.
Good day! Paaz sul! (A) fair day!
Pruzah sul! (A) good day!
Good night! Paaz vulon! (A) fair night!
Pruzah vulon! (A) good night!
I'm going now. Bo nu. (I) fly now.
Until later. Erei mu grind. Until we meet (again).
Farewell! Pruzah wundunne. Good travels.
Lok, Thu'um. Sky Above, Voice Within.
Vah Su'um Ven. Spring breath wind.
Asking & Answering Questions

English Phrase Dragon Phrase Literal Translation
Do you speak the dragon Tinvaak hi Dovahzul? Speak you Dovahzul
language? Piraak hi Dovahzul? (Dragon Voice)?
Posses you the Dragon
Voice?
Yes. Geh. Yes
No. Nid. No.
What is your name? Wo los hi? Who are you?
My name is ... Zu'u ... I (am) ...
How are you? Bo paaz? (Do you) fly fair?
Lok paaz? (Are your) skies fair?
I am good/well. Zu'u pruzah. I (am) well.
Paaz lok. Fair skies.
I am okay. Zu'u los ol zu'u. I am as I (am).
Zu'u los. I am.
I am not well. Ni pruzah. (I am) not good.
Lok gram. (My) skies (are) clouded.
I am hungry. Zu'u piraak bahlok. I possess hunger.
Zu'u bahlok. I (am) hunger. (stronger
emphasis than the first)
I have thought long about Lingrah morah. Long focus.
it.
This will be tricky. / That's Motmahus... Slippery/Elusive...
hard to answer.
Can you help me? Fen hi aak? Will you guide (me)?
I am looking for ... Zu'u tovit ... I search (for) ...
Zu'u yah ... I seek ...
Do you know ... Mindok hi ... (Do) you know ...
Do you understand ... Mindoraan hi ... (Do) you understand ...
I don't know. Vomindok. Unknown.
I don't understand. Vonmindoraan. Incomprehension.
As you know ... Mindoraan ... Understand ...
That is a fair request / I Ro laan. (A) balanced request.
have a fair request
Not now / Not yet Ni tiid (It is) not (the) time.
Pardon me / Excuse me Krosis Sorrow.
Follow me. Zu'u fen aak. I will guide (you).
Other Phrases
Dragon Phrase Literal Meaning Meaning
Su'um ahrk morah. Breath and focus. Expresses goodwill or farewell.
Ful nii los So it is.
Grik los lein. Such is the world.
Orin brit ro. (A) fully beautiful A phrase used to express irony.
balance.
Tiid bo amativ. Time flows onward. To express moving past something.
Dez motmahus. Fate (is) slippery. Not knowing what will happen.
Zok brit uth! (A) most beautiful "I'd be glad to do that!"
command!
Brit grah. (A) beautiful battle. Expressing a good or worthy fight.
Faaz nah! Pain, fury! "Damn you!"
Ruth! Rage! "Rage! / Curses! / Damn!"
Drem. Peace. Be patient, be calm, calm down.
Vahzah. True. Definitely, certainly, indeed, used to
voice agreement.
Kren sosaal! Break (and) bleed! A curse or threat.
Exercises
1. A friend greets you with "Drem yol lok, fahdoni. Lok paaz?" What does this mean?
See answer
2. A dragon has told you "Bo nah gut, nikriin!" How might you respond?
See answer
3. Write down some of Paarthurnax or Alduin's dialogue from Skyrim and do your best to
translate them. Explore what phrases or patterns of speech they use often.
thuum.org/learn/ Translating
Section II: In Practice Thuum.org > Learn > Translating
Key Points
Translations can be either literal or transparent.
When translating into Dragon, simplify, remove idioms, and rephrase to fit
the available vocabulary.
About Translating
Translating is the ever-challenging task of taking what's written in one language and
converting it to another. This lesson gives an overview of how to translate to and from
the dragon language with detailed examples. We'll cover different methods and tricks for
making this process easier with step-by-step instructions.
Translating from Dragon to English

We have already explored some dragon to English translations in the Word Walls lesson.
The language used in the Word Walls is fairly simple. Here we will be looking at longer
and more complex examples that feature all of the grammatical rules presented thus far.
Throughout the translation process, our text will appear in the tip boxes. If you'd like to
follow along, write down the below double-spaced so you can write your translations
beneath each word.
Nonvul bron, dahmaan daar rot. Nau revak frod drey faal Bronjun Gjalund krif
voth ahkrin ahrk mah nol liiv nin do fahliil ronaaz. Naal kunsevurii mu nir un
paalu wah laat. Nid fahliil drey lahney. Kronaan naal krosis drey aarre do
Gjalund daal Ahrolsedovah, kolos rok fent unslaad praan.
Step 1: Translate individual words you can find.

Search for individual words one by one and see how many you can find. This step is the
simplest. Fill in the most literal translation provided. Leave the words you can't find for
now. Following Step 1, we arrive at the text below:
Noble Nord, remember this word. On sacred battlefield did the Jarl Gjalund fight
with courage and fall from wither sting of elf arrow. By kunsevurii we hunt paalu
to last. No elf did live. Kronaan by sorrow did aarre do Gjalund return Hill of the
Dragon, in which he shall ceaseless rest.
Step 2: Check for plural nouns.

Plural nouns are very distinctive because regular words don't feature double letters or
end in -e. We have one plural noun in our text, aarre. Remember what you have learned
and find the translation for this noun. If you are correct, you should have translated this
as "servants".
Step 3: Check for possessive suffixes.
Possessive suffixes are attached onto the end of words to replace the pronouns "my",
"her", "our", etc. They are: -i, -u, -ii, and -iil. Since most nouns end in consonants, an
untranslatable word that ends in a vowel is good sign that it might have a possessive
suffix.
See if you can single out which words in our text have a possessive suffix. They are:
paalu and vurii in kunsevurii. Look them up without the possessive suffixes, and you
should find that they translate to "foe" and "valor". Paalu would make "our foe" and vurii
would make "his valor".
Step 4: Check for participles.
As we learned in Adjectives & Adverbs, participles can be formed with the suffix -aan or
the suffix -taas. If you have an untranslated word that ends with -aan or -taas, it may be
a participle. Remove the suffix and see if you can find it in the dictionary. Then, add the
equivalent English participle to your translation. There is one example in our text:
kronaan, which means "conquered".
Be careful! There are many words that end in -aan that are not participles.
Look up the entire word first before deciding if it's a participle.
Step 5: Translate compound words.

A common feature of more complex writing and speech is the use of compound words.
Compound words can be easily recognized by the bridging se. The example found in the
our text is kunsevurii. We already know that vurii means "his valor", so broken apart,
this makes "light of his valor".
With every word translated, we have arrived at the text below:
Noble Nord, remember this word. On sacred battlefield did the Jarl Gjalund fight
with courage and fall from wither sting of elf arrow. By light of his valor we hunt
our foe to last. No elf did live. Conquered by sorrow did servants do Gjalund
return Hill of the Dragon, in which he shall ceaseless rest.
Step 6: Fill in missing English words and correct translations to

complete the text.
At this point we have translated every word. We're still not done, though. At the
moment, our translation sounds rather funny to in English. Use context to fill in words,
correct verb tense, and make other changes to bring this to a full translation. Below is a
final rendition of our text:
Noble Nords, remember these words. On the sacred battlefield did the Jarl
Gjalund fight with courage and fall from the withering sting of elf arrows. By the
light of his valor we hunted our foe to the last. No elf did live. Conquered by
sorrow did the servants do Gjalund return to the Hill of the Dragon, in which he
shall ceaselessly rest.
You can go a step further by rewriting some of the expressions as they might be said in
English. You may or may not wish to do this depending on the type of translation you
want to give - a more literal one or a more transparent one. The translation below has
been rewritten to make it read more naturally in English:
Noble Nords, remember these words. Jarl Gjalund fought courageously on the
sacred battlefield, and fell from the withering sting of elven arrows. By the light
of his valor, we hunted our foe to the last. No elf survived. Conquered by
sorrow, the Jarl's servants returned him to Whiterun, where he will rest forever.
Translating from English to Dragon
Translating from English to the dragon language is much like doing the reverse of the
above. It can oftentimes be the more challenging of the two. Making a basic translation
requires little more than translating word-by-word. However, providing the best possible
translation requires a good knowledge of the vocabulary, elements of grammar, and the
style that fits the language. In this part of the lesson, we'll take a look at some of the
more common grammatical themes and how to tackle them when translating from English
to dragon.
The following is an excerpt from Olaf and the Dragon:
Long ago in the First Age, a fearsome dragon named Numinex ravaged the whole
of Skyrim. The dreadful drake wiped out entire villages, burned cities and
killed countless Nords. It seemed that no power in Tamriel could stop the
monster.
This was a troubled time in Skyrim's history, for a bitter war of succession raged
between the holds. The Jarls might have been able to conquer the beast if they
had worked together, but trust was in desperately short supply.
Step 1: Cut out extra words and rephrase for translation.

This step first involves slashing cases of "a" and "the" except where "the" refers to a
proper noun. Then, some considerations must be made about how to phrase things in the
dragon language. In some cases, this means restructuring entire sentences to fit the
available vocabulary.
In this step, you should also identify English idioms or phrases and find ways to rephrase
them. This also applies to vocabulary that you know doesn't have exact equivalents. For
example, there is no way to say "the First Age" in dragon, so we might instead say goraan
bokselein "the young ages of the world". Another phrase that stands out is "trust was in
desperately short supply". We might want to say instead ov nis siiv naal naan "trust could
not (be) found by any."
The key to a good translation is simplicity. Keep this in mind when rephrasing
for translation, and experiment with how much of the original English you can
simplify.
The above text is rephrased below for translation:
Long ago in young ages of the world, fearsome dragon Numinex did ravage all of
Skyrim. Dreadful drake destroyed entire villages, burned cities and killed
countless Nords. No power in Tamriel did rival monster.
It was troubled time in Skyrim, for bitter war of succession did rage between
holds. The Jarls could not join to conquer beast, for trust could not be found
by any.
Step 2: Form possessives.

Identify where you will need to use possessive suffixes or rephrase words to show
possession. Something like "the dragon's fire" might be rephrased as "the fire of the
dragon". This is an opportunity to make some compound words as well, so the above
could translate to either "yol do dovah" or "yolsedovah".
Step 3: Determine your verbs and participles.
Go through the English text and determine where you want to use past or present
participles. Remember that the suffixes -aan and -taas generally aren't used except
where they are necessary to distinguish a past participle from a present participle.
Where you see a mix of present tense and past tense, consider using drey, "did", to
clarify your past tense.
In our text, "The Jarls may have conquered the beast if they worked together" will need
to be rephrased as the conditional "may" does not have an equivalent in the dragon
language. To simplify this, we may instead say Bronjunne nis aav wah kron sunvaar "the
Jarls could not join to conquer the beast".
Step 4: Translate individual words.
With the verbs and possessives out of the way, the remaining text becomes mostly
straightforward. Search for as many words as you can find in the dictionary and see if
they have appropriate translations. Be sure to read the entry connotations and notes to
make sure they are the right fit. Below is our example text with all available words
translated:
Lingrah vod ko goraan bokselein, fearsome dovah Numinex drey ravage pah do
Keizaal. Dreadful drake destroyed pah villages, burned cities ahrk killed
countless Nords. Nid suleyk ko Taazokaan ronit monster.
Nii lost troubled tiid ko Keizaal, fah ahzid kein do succession drey rage between
holds. Faal Jarls nis aav wah kron sunvaar, fah ov nis kos siiv naal naan.
What happens if you can't find a translation? Below are a few options.
Search for the base form of the word. If you're trying to look up a plural noun like
"dragons" or a conjugated verb like "runs", "ran", or "running", you'll likely not find it.
Instead search for "dragon" or "run". If you find it, you can then use what you know
of grammar to convert it into the form you need. Remember that dragon verbs
don't conjugate according to subject and plural nouns typically don't need the plural
suffix if context can imply it.
Find a close synonym. Sometimes a translation for an English word simply does not
exist. When this happens, your first step should be to look for a suitable word that
is close in meaning. In our text, there is no word for "dreadful", so we might use
zofaas "fearful". We can use junaar "kingdoms" for "holds", sunvaar "beast" instead
of "monster", and perhaps keinsekulaan "war of princes" as a metaphor for "war of
succession". This concept can also extend beyond single words - consider rephrasing
some of your English text to make use of as many available words as possible.
Cut the word. If there is no translation, see if you can find a way to remove the
untranslatable word entirely. Consider our phrase "This was a troubled time in the
history of Skyrim", where "history" has no translation. By rephrasing this to "It was a
troubled time in Skyrim", we can avoid needing a translation for "history".
After these steps, we arrive at the text below. For practice, try translating it back to see
which words were used in place of missing English equivalents.
Lingrah vod ko goraan bokselein, norok dovah Numinex drey rel pah do Keizaal.
Zofaas zoor al pah sahsun, ag suleyksejun, ahrk krii unslaad Bron. Nid suleyk ko
Taazokaan ronit sunvaar.
Nii lost tahrodiis tiid ko Keizaal, fah junaar win ahzid keinsekulaan. Faal Bronjun
nis aav wah kron sunvaar, fah ov nis kos siiv naal naan.
Step 5: Simplify your final text.

Once you have your text fully in the dragon language, go through it again and see how
many words you can cut and keep your meaning. The dragon language relies a lot on
context and you should use context to your advantage when making a translation. It's a
balancing act between having a text that's too wordy and a text where meaning is lost or
unclear.
Below is a full translation of the example text. See if you can spot some of the
differences between the original text and the dragon translation, and examine why they
might have changed.
Lingrah vod ko goraan bokselein, norok dovah Numinex drey rel pah Keizaal.
Zofaas zoor al sahsun, ag suleyksejun, ahrk krii unslaad Bron. Nid suleyk ko
Taazokaan ronit sunvaar.
Nii tahrodiis tiid ko Keizaal, fah junaar win ahzid keinsekulaan. Faal Bronjun nis
aav wah kriin dovah, fah ov nis siiv naal naan.
Names & Modern Words

You may have a name (such as your own) or a unique word you need to translate into the
dragon language. Modern words such as "computer" or "car" fall into this category. When
translating things such as these, you can decide to make them into loanwords - that is,
borrow them into the language. To do this you may need to make some adjustments to
spelling. For example, "computer" would need to be spelled "komputer" since there is the
dragon language has no equivalne to C. The name "Cicero" would need to be spelled
"Sisero".
Another approach you can take for modern words is to invent compound words for them.
To say "car", you could say something like "keysedwiin", "horse of steel". Maybe "phone" is
"gut-tinvaak", "far-speak". This way you can use modern words in a way that is easy for
others to guess what you mean.
Exercises
1. Take the dragon translation of Olaf and the Dragon above and translate it back into
English. The goal here isn't to reproduce the original English text, but compare the literal
meaning of the translation to the original text.
See answer
2. Translate the following into English: Pogaan eruvosse vod drey Ysgramor ahrk
Zeymahzinii bo Keizaal. Fahliille krif niin ko hevno od. Brit grah nii lost! Un zok lot
paal bovul Keizaal ahrk Ysgramor siiv nahkriin.
See answer
3. Translate the following into the dragon language using all of the steps discussed in this
lesson: "I was born 87 years ago. For 65 years I ruled as Tamriel's emperor, but for all
these years I have never been the ruler of my own dreams. I have seen the gates of
Oblivion beyond which no waking eye may see. Behold, in darkness, a doom sweeps the
land."
See answer
thuum.org/learn/ Section II Review
Section II: In Practice Thuum.org > Learn > Section II Review
Overview
The following are exercises that review all of the previous lessons in this section. Refer
to the individual lessons if you need a refresher!
Dragon Shouts & Names

1. What do the names of these dragons mean?
a. Grahnahgol
b. Bahiizah
c. Ruthnolso
d. Ulahkrin
e. Sosdusil
See answer
2. Create a hypothetical Shout for each of the described effects:
a. Lightning breath
b. Shields you from Shouts or spells
c. Reads thoughts
See answer
Reading & Writing

1. Romanize the following text:
POG1N ROTMUL1G NOC CO

C2Z1L NAU STRUNM4 N1R 4RC
CO VUL GOL
See answer
2. Romanize the following text:
N1L SUL9C DO CENDOVSEWUTH

MU CRIF F4 CUL 4RC MON F4 P4
BRONNE
See answer
3. Write the following in the dragon alphabet: Dovahsos bo kosil, Dovahkiin, qahnaarin
do sunvaar ahrk kiir do Akatosh.
See answer
Word Walls
1. Translate the text of the following Word Wall into English:
Pah werid morokei Miraak,
zok suleykaar do pah
Sonaak wen Mul bolaav naal
Fahluaan do Jul.
See answer
2. For this exercise, use this Word Wall for reference. Transcribe it in the Roman
alphabet and then translate it into English.
See answer
Conversation & Common Phrases

1. Select the appropriate response to the following in conversation: "Drem yol lok,
fahdon!"
a. Ruth!
b. Hi pook.
c. Pruzah grind.
d. Fus ro dah!
See answer
2. Select the appropriate response to the following in conversation: "Zu'u yah
Ahrolsedovah."
a. Zu'u fen aak.
b. Bolog aaz, mal lir.
c. Zu'u bahlok.
d. Su'um ahrk morah.
See answer
3. Select the appropriate response to the following in conversation: "Tiid bo viing!"
a. Brit grah.
b. Pruzah wundunne.
c. Drem yol lok.
d. Tinvaak hi dovahzul?
See answer
Translating
1. The following is dialogue from the Greybeards. Translate it into English:
Lingrah krosis saraan Strundu'ul,
voth nid bahlaan klov praan nau.
Naal Thu'um mu ofan nii nu, Dovahkiin,
naal suleyk do Kaan, naal suleyk do Shor
ahrk naal suleyk do Atmorasewuth.
Meyz nu Ysmir, Dovahsebrom. Dahmaan daar rot.
See answer
2. Translate this quote of Ulfric Stormcloak's into the dragon language. There are many
possible answers, so compare yours to the one given and see if you can pick out why
certain words were chosen.
"For Sovngarde awaits those who die with weapons in their hands, and courage in their
hearts. We now fight our way to Castle Dour to cut the head off the legion itself! And in
that moment, the gods will look down and see Skyrim as she was meant to be. Full of
Nords who are mighty, powerful, and free! Ready now! Everyone, with me! For the sons
and daughters of Skyrim!"
See answer

What Is The D Ragon Language? What Is The D Ragon Language?: Section I: Grammar

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thuum.

What is the Dragon Language?

Why learn the dragon language?

Canon & Non-Canon

About the Alphabet

1 AA aan // father, arm

B B bey /b/ bread, able

D D dah /d/ door, sword

Normally // in net, enter. When at the end of a

E E en //, //, word, usually /e/ in may, able. Sometimes also

2 EI hei /a/ why, hi, find

9 EY ney /e/ hey, may, able

F F fo /f/ frost, after

G G gah /g/ gold, forget

I I in /i/ see, clean, rarely but sometimes // in win

3 II kii /i/ always see, clean

7 IR hir /ir/ hear, leer, irritate

C K kei /k/ keen, keep, rock

L L li /l/ lore, bell

M M mah /m/ mother, immerse

N N ni /n/ no, end, kin

8 OO thoor // Typically lore, jaw, hawk, sometimes /u/ in moon

P P pah /p/ map, apart

S S set /s/ soft, sense

T T tag /t/ tale, fate

U U un /u/ rule, fool, very rarely // in sun

5 UU huul /u/ rule, fool, see also use for apostrophes

V V vey /v/ valley, event

W W wo /w/ world, awake

X X nex /ks/ axe, fox, relax, never /z/

Y Y yeh /j/ yet, yesterday

Z Z zet /z/ zoo, maze

AU AU /a/ how, crowd, brown

SH SH // she, wash, condition

TH TH // through, thin, pathway

About Sentence Structure

gives information about a noun The

Strong & Weak

Subjects, Verbs, and Objects

What are Pronouns?

She REC rek

They NUST nust

The pronoun "hi" is pronounced like "hee".

Him ROC rok

Her REC rek

Them N3N niin

Your/Yours HIN/HIM hin/him

Myself ZU'U zu'u

Himself ROC rok

Herself REC rek

Itself NIM1R nimaar

Themselves NIIN niin

What are Nouns?

Making Plural Nouns

What are Articles?

the (informal) fin

a. By the gods, I saw a dragon.

2. Give the plural forms of the following nouns:

4. Write out the pronunciations of the following plural nouns:

Compound Words & se

The Suffix -ro/-dro

Adjectives can precede or follow the word they describe.

Do not confuse present participles for progressive/continuous verb tense,