A Na’vi Language Crash Course

Version 1.0.1

Created by Mako
Available in full at Kelutral.org

Contents        1

An Introduction        3

A Guide to Formatting        4

The Na’vi Alphabet        5

Core Grammar        6

Noun Case Endings        6

Transitive Verbs        7

Intransitive Verbs        8

Copular Verbs        8

Plurality and Lenition        9

Possession        10

The Topical        10

Negation        11

Core Infixes        12

Tense        12

Aspect        12

Mood        13

Subjunctive        13

Compound Infixes        13

Core Parts of Speech        15

Pronouns        15

Adjectives        16

Adverbs        16

The Vocative Marker        17

Conjunctions        17

Questions        17

Common Beginner Mistakes        19

Not Always Lu        19

Not for People vs. Only for People        19

Sì vs. Ulte        19

Lu + The Progressive        19

Meaning, Not Words        20

Auxiliary Parts of Speech        21

Adpositions        21

The Attributive Particle        21

The Comparative Marker        22

Auxiliary Infixes        23

Inferential        23

Intent        23

Reflexive        23

Causative        23

Participles        24

Auxiliary Grammar        25

Clause Markers        25

Modal Verbs        26

Double Dative        26

Tsnì Verbs        26

Commands        27

Ceremonial        27

Complex Sentences        28

Mastery of Context        28

Colloquial Na’vi        29

Glossary        30

Useful Resources        34

Aylì’u ta Mako        35

Change log        36

Acknowledgments        37

Welcome to A Na’vi Language Crash Course. This document’s driving purposes are to 1) target learners with linguistic experience, 2) explain all areas of Na’vi grammar in a concise and semi-logical order, and 3) provide areas of study that will facilitate the use of Na’vi conversationally. The overarching goal of this document is to teach learners with linguistic experience the skills they will need to speak like a native Na’vi speaker.

Bear in mind, this guide will not be spending time teaching basic linguistics and grammar terminology. A glossary will be provided at the end of the document that can be used to reference definitions if needed, however if you are just beginning to learn and you have no experience in the field of linguistics, your efforts are better focused on Na’vi as a Second Language.

This document, version 1.0, is a work in progress. If you spot any outstanding errors in grammar, spelling or formatting, please send all corrections to Mako on the Kelutral.org Discord. Suggestions are also welcome.

This document will use several recurring formats as visual indication of examples. For your convenience, here is a list of formats that you are going to see and what they mean.

New linguistic terminology will be marked by lavender bold. These terms will be hyperlinked to their definitions in the glossary.

Na’vi words will be marked by blue bold.

Translations will be marked by italics.

The Na’vi language contains 7 vowels, 20 consonants, 4 diphthongs, and 2 syllabic pseudo-vowels. The full alphabet is as follows:

‘ , a, ä, aw, ay, e, ew, ey, f, h, i, ì, k, kx, l, ll, m, n, ng, o, p, px, r, rr, s, t, ts, tx, u, v, w, y, z

The vowels are:

a, ä, e, i, ì, o, u

The consonants are:

‘ , f, h, k, kx, l, m, n, ng, p, px, r, s, t, ts, tx, v, w, y, z

The diphthongs are:

aw, ay, ew, ey

The pseudo-vowels are:

ll, rr

Na’vi has what is referred to as “relative free word order”, which means that in most circumstances the how a sentence is arranged is subject to how the speaker wants it to flow. This is achieved through noun case endings, which require you to know how to identify the subject, object, and indirect object of a verb.

Noun Case Endings

There are three primary noun case endings, the agentive, the patientive, and the dative.

The subject takes the agentive case ending.

The direct object takes the patientive case ending.

The indirect object takes the dative case ending.

These three noun cases are the most important starting point for learning Na’vi grammar. Without understanding their proper use, one cannot even begin to form the most basic sentences. They are the backbone of nearly every sentence in Na’vi and are indicated by using the following suffixes:

Language Note: For the patientive endings, -ti can be used with both vowel and consonant endings, and the (i) can be dropped if the next word begins with a vowel or if the word is the final word in a sentence. This is to preserve vowel/consonant/vowel flow. The (u) in the dative vowel ending can also be dropped if the next word begins with a vowel or if the word is the final word in a sentence for the same reason.

Different noun case endings are used depending on whether the verb is transitive or intransitive.

In simple transitive sentences like oel ngati kame, I See you, both the agentive and patientive are used. However, there are some exceptions to this rule where sometimes one or both of these are omitted. We will get to them later.

The dative can be used with both transitive and intransitive verbs as necessary.

Let’s take a look at how Na’vi uses case endings to distinguish nouns in a transitive sentence.

Transitive Verbs

The common example sentence that we use to teach this concept is oel payoangti yom, I eat fish. As a direct translation, you would return I fish eat, but because of Na’vi’s ability to rearrange the word order in a sentence, the order of words here is mostly irrelevant to understanding the sentence as I eat fish. Each of the following variants of this sentence would return the same translation:

Language Note: Na’vi has a slight preference towards the subject/object/verb or verb/subject/object order as neutral speech due to emphasis falling on the last word of a sentence.

All of these orders are possible because of the case endings.

In our example, oe, the word for I, me, takes the agentive case ending as the subject of the sentence. The verb remains unmodified, and the payoang, fish, takes the Patientive case ending as the object. Because of this, no matter where these nouns fall in the sentence, it can be understood as I eat fish.

Another example, showing the use of the dative case is ngaru oel tskoti tìng, I give you the bow. Here the word nga, you, takes the dative because it is receiving the thing being given, the tsko, bow. I give the bow to you.

Language Note: The Dative ending can also roughly be translated as to (recipient, not to as in towards).

Intransitive Verbs

A simple intransitive sentence is oe tul, I run. With intransitive verbs, the subject is never marked for case. Intransitive verbs in Na’vi cannot have a direct object in their base forms, so the subject doesn’t need the Agentive case ending.

Now, in cases like oe ngaru srung si, I help you, we run into one of the quirks of Na’vi. Srung si, help, is an intransitive verb but it can take an indirect object in the form of nga, you. In English, intransitive verbs normally don’t take an object at all. However in Na’vi, there are types of intransitive verbs that can be semantically transitive by using the Dative case. Even in these cases, the subject never takes the Agentive ending.

Language Note: “si verbs”, verbs constructed with the auxiliary si verb, will always be intransitive in their base forms.

Again, this is not every intransitive verb, as with some action verbs it would make no sense to have a Dative noun, like tul, run, or slele, swim. You can find a concise list of all intransitive verbs that can take indirect objects here.

Additionally, if you don’t know the transitivity of a verb outright, make sure to confirm it with a dictionary. There are transitive verbs in English that are intransitive in Na’vi, like nume, learn.

Copular Verbs

In Na’vi, we have two* copular verbs, lu, am/is/are/be, and slu, become. Copular verbs in Na’vi don’t have a use order and their nouns don’t take any markings for case, eg. nga lu tsamsiyu, you are a warrior. If, when using slu, the who becomes what is ambiguous, you can use the adposition ne, to, towards in order to distinguish. ie. taronyu slu ne tsamsiyu, the hunter becomes a warrior.

Language Note: The transitive verb ‘efu, feel, perceive *can also be used as a copular verb when it is used with adjectives ie. oe ‘efu ngeyn, I feel tired. Because it is transitive with nouns, ne isn’t necessary.

Language Note: When the object of ‘efu would be an independent clause, the construction oeru lu tì’efu a... is preferred.

Plurality and Lenition

In English we have two forms of plurality, the singular and the plural. In Na’vi, we have four forms of plurality. The singular, the dual, the trial, and the plural. The singular and plural serve the same purpose as English. The dual refers to two nouns and the trial refers to three. The Na’vi use prefixes to indicate plurality. Here’s a breakdown.

Language Note: The Na’vi are very specific when it comes to speaking. Wherever necessary, specify exactly how many nouns you are speaking of, or else use ay+.

Language Note: Whenever the plural prefix ay+ causes lenition, the prefix can be dropped and the plurality assumed, with the singular exception of ayu, things, which will never become u.

Plural prefixes can be directly attached to the beginning of a noun to indicate that noun’s plurality. All of the plural prefixes and certain other prefixes (marked by a + instead of a -) cause lenition. In Na’vi, the following consonants lenite:

Possession

Let’s talk about the fourth noun case, the genitive case. In Na’vi, the genitive case is used to indicate possessive nouns. The genitive case has two endings, indicated below:

Language Note: The vowels o and u take the consonant ending.

The possessive noun must come directly before or after the noun that it is possessing. For example, to say my bow you could say either tsko oeyä or oeyä tsko and be correct.

Language Note: The possessive case ending can also be roughly translated as “of the”, ie. the line from the film Na’viyä hapxì, part of the Na’vi.

Language Note: For pronouns, -yä becomes -eyä and the ending vowel is dropped ie. ngayä > ngeyä

The genitive case covers 90% of the times that possession is needed, but what about the other 10% where you would need to say someone has something instead of someone’s something? For that we use a special idiomatic construction, a combination of lu and the dative case. Take as an example the following sentence, lu oeru tsko, I have a bow.

lu + the dative creates an idiomatic phrase used to say “someone has something”. Because this is an idiomatic construction, the direct translation is closer to there is to me a bow.

The Topical

The fifth and final noun case is the topical case. The topical will always come at the beginning of a clause, and it deals with the topic of a verb or sentence. It is marked by the following suffixes:

The topical is used for a variety of things in Na’vi. Primarily it serves to set context for a sentence or “cheat” a direct object into an intransitive verb, like in the sentence tì’eyngìri ngeyä oe pey, I wait for your response. This occurs more frequently with intransitive verbs, though it’s not impossible to need it for a transitive verb.

The topical can also be used for inalienable possession, which are for things like your txe’lan, heart, or ontu, nose, that for all intents and purposes can never belong to anyone else.

Negation

In Na’vi, negation is marked by variants of the particle ke. In verb negation, ke directly precedes the verb that is being negated, the only exception being “si” verbs in which the ke precedes the si (because the si is technically the verb). Na’vi prefers double-negatives, which remain negative. Negative words like kawkrr, never, will cause the verb to also be negated, ie. kawkrr ke tslam oe, I never understand.

In Na’vi verbs are conjugated through the use of infixes. There are three infix positions for verbs, marked by <0>, <1>, and <2>. Pre-first and first position infixes go before the first vowel in a word and the second position infixes go before the second vowel. The two core types of infixes in Na’vi related to verb conjugation are tense and aspect, and both of them go in infix position <1>.

Language Note: There are several irregular verbs, typically formed out of compounds, where the infix position is non-standard. You can find a concise list here.

Tense

There are four infixes for tense. They can be found below:

You will notice that the past tense shares an m, while the future tense shares a y, and the proximal tenses share an ì while the general tenses share an a. This can help you quickly identify the type of tense being used.

Aspect

Additionally, Na’vi has two infixes for aspect, the progressive and the perfective. They can be found below.

Mood

Na’vi uses intonation as well as infixes to show mood. Verbs are naturally in a neutral mood. To show mood, you use one of two second-position infixes:

Subjunctive

To express possibility, you use the subjunctive infix <iv>, ie. ‘ivong na’vi, may Na’vi bloom. The subjunctive is also used in several grammatical constructions like modal verbs.

Compound Infixes

Tense and aspect can be combined to form compound infixes. There are eight possible combinations:

There is often confusion around when to distinguish between the general past <am> and the general past perfective <alm>. Because the perfective aspect is used to indicate completion of an action, the general past perfective is used when the speaker specifically wants to highlight the completion of an action in the past before moving on to another action. For example, trram oe tamaron, I hunted yesterday vs. trram oe talmaron srekrr oe tamätxaw, I had hunted yesterday before I returned.

Likewise, the subjunctive combines with the tense or aspect infixes to form the following compound infixes:

Let’s move forward by laying the groundwork for more advanced sentences. In order to do so, we need to learn about how more parts of speech work that can be used to change, modify or add more information to our sentences.

Pronouns

We’ve already covered several pronouns in our early sentence practice, but there are more to learn. Pronouns in Na’vi are derived from the singular pronouns and the plural prefixes. Here are all of the pronouns available in Na’vi:

Language Note: The 1st person exclusive pronouns oeng/pxoeng/ayoeng come from oe+nga and regain their ending -a when used with case endings.

Language Note: ayoeng often becomes awnga in colloquial or informal speech.

There are also two relative pronouns, fko, one, and sno, his/her/their own.

The suffix -o can be added to certain nouns to create indefinite pronouns. Examples of indefinite pronouns are ‘uo, something or tuteo, someone.

Adjectives

The next topic to cover is the use of adjectives. Adjectives in Na’vi are easy to understand, however understanding how they work is crucial to several more difficult concepts that we will cover later.

In English, adjectives can only come immediately before the word that they modify. However, in Na’vi, they can either come directly before or after the word that they modify. Eana ‘ewll and ‘ewll aean, a blue plant, are equally acceptable in Na’vi. This is made possible by a handy little attributive particle -a- that can be added to the beginning or end of an adjective to indicate the noun that it is describing.

Take for example the adjective txur, strong. If I wanted to say a strong person, I could either say tute atxur or txura tute. Because the -a- is on the side facing the noun, I know that the adjective txur modifies the noun tute, person.

Two slight exceptions to this rule are adjectives that were created using the prefix le- and words that already begin or end in a. The le- on le- prefixed adjectives serves as a built in a-, meaning that adding another a- on the leading edge of the word is redundant. A commonly used phrase in Na’vi is txon lefpom, good night. Notice that it doesn't have to be txon alefpom, due to le-.

Language Note: Lefpoma txon and txon alefpom are more rare, but acceptable as well.

Similarly, on adjectives that already begin or end in a, you don’t add a second a in writing, as the two combine into one, ie. hona ioang, beautiful beast.

To directly describe something as something else, you can use the verb lu, am/is/are/be, to say “someone is something”. For example, tsatute txur lu, that person is strong.

Adverbs

Let’s talk about adverbs next. With few notable exceptions, adverbs in Na’vi are marked by the prefix nì-. In Na’vi, we have several subtypes of adverbs.

Sentence adverbs are adverbs that modify an entire sentence. Notable examples are kxawm, perhaps, or skxakep, probably. These adverbs can be located anywhere in the sentence that they modify and often trigger use of the subjunctive.

Manner adverbs are likewise able to go anywhere in a clause, however a common trend is to place them near the word that they are modifying for ease of understanding. This is especially true when multiple adverbs are being used in a single clause. An example sentence for manner adverbs is oe tul nìwin, I run quickly.

The Vocative Marker

One of many quirks about Na’vi when coming from an English base is the existence of a vocative marker. In Na’vi, when you are addressing a person directly you use ma to convey this. Commonly you will see this in phrases of greeting, for example, kaltxì ma frapo, hello, everyone! Ma always comes directly before the person or thing being addressed.

Additionally for collective nouns, the vocative suffix -ya can be used in place of ma. The movie quote mawey Na’viya, mawey, calm, Na’vi, calm, demonstrates this excellently.

Conjunctions

The final part of speech we will cover in this section is the conjunction. In Na’vi, conjunctions are used exactly as they are in English, placed directly between the clauses you intend to connect. For example, oe new kivä kelkune, slä oe zene vivar tivaron, I want to go home, but I must continue to hunt. In this sentence, slä, but, connects the two independent clauses I want to go home and I must continue hunting.

Questions

We have several ways to indicate a question in Na’vi. Wh- questions in Na’vi are indicated by the interrogative particle -pe+, which roughly translates to what. From this, and six other nouns, we get the basic set of interrogative words:

Additionally, -pe+ can be used on any noun to create a question of that noun, ie. pesìpawm, what question?

The other method for indicating a question is through the use of srak, srake, or kefyak. Srake is used at the beginning of sentences with yes or no questions, ie. srake ngaru lu fpom?, are you well? Srak is identical, but comes at the end of the sentence instead, ie. ngaru lu fpom srak?, are you well?

Kefyak is used to ask correct? with yes or no questions, ie. pol ngaru tskoti tamìng, kefyak?, he gave you the bow, correct?

Before moving on to more advanced topics, let’s talk about a few potential pitfalls in the information we’ve already covered. These are areas commonly confused by new learners.

Not Always Lu

Lu doesn’t cover location, only state of being. To say I am here, one needs to use the transitive verb tok, be (at a location). Oel fìtsengit tok, I am here.

Likewise, lu doesn’t cover feeling, for that we need the transitive verb ‘efu, feel, sense, perceive. Oe ‘efu ngeyn, I feel tired.

Not for People vs. Only for People

Some adjectives are marked in the dictionary as nfp or ofp. These mean “not for people” and “only for people” respectively. They cannot be used interchangeably, so be mindful of their usage. In cases where an adjective is nfp, often there is a special lu + noun + dative construction to create an idiom meaning the same thing. For example, in Na’vi we don’t say you’re correct, but rather correctness is to you or lu ngaru tìyawr. Tìyawr, correctness is derived from the adjective eyawr, correct, right, which is not used to describe people. This is why we have to say someone has correctness rather than someone is correct.

Sì vs. Ulte

We have two words for and in Na’vi, and they are not interchangeable. The word sì is used to conjoin nouns in a list, ie. lu oeru tsko sì ayswìzaw, I have a bow and arrows. The word ulte is used to conjoin two clauses, ie. kiyevame ulte hahaw nimwey, see you later and sleep well.

Lu + The Progressive

It is common to see lu + <er> used by new learners to say “I am verbing”, ie. oe lu yerom, I am eating. Am is inherent in the progressive aspect, and you can’t have multiple verbs in a single clause, with the exception of some constructions we will cover later.

Meaning, Not Words

Na’vi is not English, and some meanings don’t translate 1:1 from English to Na’vi or Na’vi to English. The number one rule of learning Na’vi is to learn to translate intent or meaning, and not simply words.

Building on what we’ve already discussed, we’re now ready to talk about more complex grammar and parts of speech that will assist in creating complex sentences.

Adpositions

Adpositions are a collection of particles that can either directly precede or suffix a noun. Where transitive and intransitive verbs only have a certain limited number of noun slots that can be filled, adpositions allow us to “cheat” in more. For example, our sentence from earlier explaining conjunctions, oe kä kelkune, I go home. Normally kä, go, because it’s an intransitive verb, can only take one noun without a case ending. However, because of the adposition -ne-, to/towards, we can use the noun kelku, home, to provide more information about where we’re going.

Language Note: With verbs of motion, it is colloquial to place the place or thing being moved towards after the verb and remove the adposition entirely, ie. oe kä kelku.

Some adpositions, when preceding a word, cause lenition. You can find a concise list of all adpositions that cause lenition in the following word here.

The Attributive Particle

Remember how we use -a- to attribute an adjective to a noun? This can also be done with phrases to create attributive subclauses. For example, tute a kintrram oel tse’a pìmähem, the person that I saw last week just arrived. -a- can be roughly translated as that/which/who depending on the context.

Language note: Because tute is the understood object of tse’a, saw, the subject oel retains the agentive suffix even though it is a part of the subclause.

The Comparative Marker

To make comparisons in Na’vi, we use the comparative marker -to-, than. To behaves like an adposition, able to be placed before the noun that’s being compared or suffixed to it. -to- can loosely be translated as compared to. For instance, fì’u to tsa’u lu sìltsan, while literally meaning this than that is good, translates as this, compared to that, is good. More colloquially, we’d read that as “this is better than that.”

Additionally, we have frato, than everything. Fì’u sunu oeru frato, this is more pleasing to me than everything!

Beyond the core infixes, we have several other sets used to indicate inferential, intent, the reflexive, and the causative. The intent infix goes in the <1> position, while the inferential infix goes in the <2> position. The reflexive and the causative infixes go in the <0> position.

Inferential

To show an action that you can infer might happen based on evidence you have, you can use <ats>, ie. poan yawne latsu poeru nìlam, apparently she loves him.

Intent

To show intent to perform an action, you use one of two modified future tense infixes:

Reflexive

Rather than using a tertiary word to show the reflexive, Na’vi uses the pre-first position infix <äp>, ie. yäpur oe, I wash myself. Verbs that use the reflexive infix will always end up intransitive (meaning they cannot also have an object).

Causative

To indicate causation in Na’vi, we use the pre-first position infix <eyk>, ie. oel heykahaw ngati, I make (cause) you (to) sleep. Verbs that use the causative infix are always transitive. An area of confusion can be how Na’vi handles “I cause you to verb X” situations. In Na’vi, the noun being caused to verb will take the dative case, ie. oel ngaru teykaron yerikit, I cause you to hunt the hexapede.

Participles

In Na’vi, we have two infixes for creating participles out of verbs. They both take the first position.

For active participle “verbing” adjectives, we use the infix <us>. For the passive participle, we use <awn>. Because participles create adjectives out of verbs, we use the participle + -a- to mark the affected noun. Examples of both are tswusayona ikran, the flying banshee, or tawnarona yerik, the hunted yerik.

The active participle can also be productively paired with tì- in order to create a word meaning “the act of verbing”, ie. tìslusele, the act of swimming.

Clause Markers

Using the words fì’u, this, tsa’u, that, and tì’eyng, answer, along with the attributive particle and case endings creates contractions that we call clause markers. Clause markers allow complete clauses to become the subject, object, indirect object, or topic of a verb. Fì’u and tsa’u are used for statements and tì’eyng is used with questions. Here are each of the contractions, their expanded constructions, and the meaning:

Language Note: The full form of each of these contractions is also correct, if not slightly formal, and a full form variation with a preceding attributive marker is also possible, ie. a fì’u.

A few good examples to help show how these forms are used are oel fpìl futa lì’fya leNa’vi lu swey, I think the Na’vi language is best, or fwa fìlì’fya lu lor lam oer, it seems to me that this language is beautiful. The contraction takes its normal space as one of a verb’s possible nouns, and the phrase that is being attributed to it immediately follows or precedes it depending on the side of the attributive particle. The underlined part of each sentence essentially serves as one large noun because of the clause marker.

Modal Verbs

Na’vi has modal verbs. You can find a full list of them here. Modal verbs can be used alone or form modal verb pairs, which force the use of the subjunctive in the second verb, ie. oe new hivahaw, I want to sleep. Modal verb pairs must come in modal verb + normal verb order with the exception of poetry or special ceremonial language.

Modal verbs + transitive verbs with case endings can get a little tricky. An unmarked agentive subject will always be correct, though in the order S O M V, a marked agentive subject is preferred due to how common S O V word order is in Na’vi. The patientive object will always be marked.

Double Dative

There are two rare cases in Na’vi where a verb may require two dative objects, with the verbs pamrel si, write, and law si, make clear. For example, pamrel seri oe ‘upxareru ngaru, I’m writing a message to you.

It is not confirmed whether there is a syntax for the order of the dative nouns. 

Tsnì Verbs

Certain verbs require the use of tsnì, that, instead of futa for object clauses. We call these “tsnì verbs”. You can find a complete list here.

Commands

In Na’vi, commands are issued through the use of a simple verb, ie. kä! Go!

Negative commands are formed using rä’ä, do not. Like ke, rä’ä occurs directly before the negative command and before the si in “si verbs”.

Language Note: Though not officially a rule, many speakers maintain that the use of the subjunctive <iv> with commands is more polite than simple commands.

Ceremonial

There are two conventional areas where Na’vi is exclusively formal, in the ceremonial affect and in honorific pronouns. The ceremonial affect is the second position infix <uy>. The ceremonial affect, as it would seem, is only used in ceremonial circumstances. The only example in the film where we have seen this so far was in Jake’s coming of age ceremony at Hometree with the line, Ngenga 'itan Omatikayaä luyu set. Na'viyä luyu hapxì. You are a son of the Omatikaya now. You are part of the Na’vi. Like many other infixes, the ceremonial affect can be dropped once context has been established by its use.

Additionally, ceremonial or honorific speech requires honorific pronouns. They’re formed around the base forms ohe and ngenga. A helpful table can be found below.

Lastly, according to Frommer’s use in the very first post on naviteri.org, use of both of the ceremonial affect and honorific pronouns together can indicate sincerity or or solemnity. [naviteri.org]

In order to form the most complex (and natural sounding) of sentences in Na’vi, a speaker must be able to utilize several high-level tricks to slim down their sentences for ease of comprehension. Let’s take a look at them.

Mastery of Context

Na’vi is a pro-drop language, meaning that if an idea can be reasonably understood from context, it can be left out. Does your sentence have a time qualifying adverb like txonam, last night? If so, you can drop any past tense infixes in your verbs. Are you the one speaking or doing the verb of your sentence? If so, you can omit oe if it can be reasonably understood from context.

Additionally, sometimes entire ideas can be condensed into a single demonstrative pronoun. Below is a helpful table of demonstrative pronouns that can be used in place of larger ideas once established.

Colloquial Na’vi

There’s too much to cover in one section concerning colloquial Na’vi, so I wrote a secondary guide specifically covering the nuances of speaking more like a native entitled A Guide to Conversational Na’vi.

The following is a list of terms used in this document and their definitions, in order of appearance:

1. The Na’vi Alphabet

1. diphthong - A combination of letters that produce one vowel sound
2. pseudo-vowel - A consonant cluster that function as a vowel

2. Core Grammar

1. noun - A person, place or thing
2. noun case - A special category of noun that performs a grammatical function in a sentence
3. case ending - A suffix that marks a type of noun case
4. subject - The noun in a sentence doing an action
5. object - The noun in a sentence being acted upon
6. indirect object - The noun in a sentence being changed or modified by the action
7. verb - The action of a sentence
8. suffix - A collection of letters that attaches to the end of a word
9. transitive - Transfers an action from a subject to an object
10. intransitive - Doesn’t transfer an action from a subject to an object
11. copular verbs - Special verbs which are used to join an adjective or noun complement to a subject

3. Noun Case Endings

1. agentive - A the noun case that marks the agent, or subject, of a sentence
2. patientive - A the noun case that marks the patient, or object, of a sentence
3. dative - A the noun case that marks the dative, or indirect object, of a sentence

4. Plurality and Lenition

1. plurality - Refers to the number of nouns
2. singular - One noun
3. plural - An unspecified amount of nouns
4. dual - Two nouns
5. trial - Three nouns
6. lenition - Lenition is the result of weakened articulation of a consonant, causing the consonant to become shortened, or lost

5. Possession

1. genitive case - A noun case that marks a possessive noun
2. possessive nouns - A noun that shows ownership of another noun
3. idiomatic phrase - A phrase which means something other than its direct translation

6. The Topical

1. topical - A the noun case that marks the topic of a sentence
2. inalienable possession - Possession of an object that cannot be separated from its possessor

7. Negation

1. negation - The absence or opposite of something actual or positive.
2. double-negatives - Two negative items in a sentence.

8. Core Infixes

1. conjugated - differing forms of a verb in an inflected language, whether for tense, aspect, mood, or otherwise
2. infixes - a type of verb conjugation that inserts a syllable to inflect.
3. tense - a set of forms taken by a verb to indicate the time of the action in relation to the time of the utterance
4. aspect - a grammatical category or form that expresses the way in which time is denoted by the verb
5. irregular verbs - a subclass of verbs whose conjugation is non-standard and unpredictable

9. Aspect

1. progressive - inflection for ongoing action
2. perfective - inflection for completed action

10. Mood

1. inflection - a change in the form of a word to express a grammatical function or attribute such as tense, mood, person, number, case, and gender. See also: conjugation

11. Subjunctive

1. subjunctive - relating to or denoting a mood of verbs expressing what is imagined or wished or possible
2. modal verbs - a subclass of verbs that pair with other verbs and force the subjunctive

12. Pronouns

1. pronouns - a word that can function by itself as a noun phrase and that refers either to the participants in the discourse or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse
2. indefinite pronouns - a pronoun that does not refer to any person, amount, or thing in particular

13. Adjectives

1. adjectives - a word that changes or modifies a noun
2. attributive particle - a particle that is used to attribute a word or phrase to a noun

14. Adverbs

1. adverbs - a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc
2. sentence adverbs - an adverb or adverbial phrase that expresses a writer or speaker's attitude to the content of the sentence in which it occurs, or places the sentence in a particular context
3. manner adverbs - an adverb that describes the manner in which an action is done
4. clause - a unit of grammatical organization next below the sentence in rank and in traditional grammar said to consist of a subject and predicate

15. The Vocative Marker

1. vocative marker - a particle that marks the person or group being addressed by the speaker
2. collective nouns - a singular noun that refers to a group or collection of nouns

16. Conjunctions

1. conjunction - a word that connects two clauses

17. Questions

1. interrogative particle - an affix that is attached to a noun to indicate a question concerning that noun

18. Adpositions

1. adpositions - a word governing, and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause. See also: prepositions

19. The Attributive Particle

1. attributive subclauses - a clause that functions as an adjective by changing or modifying a noun

20. The Comparative Marker

1. comparative marker - a particle used to mark a noun for comparison

21. Auxiliary Infixes

1. inferential -
2. intent -
3. reflexive -
4. causative -

22. Inferential

23. Intent

24. Reflexive

25. Causative

26. Participles
27. Advanced Grammar
28. Clause Markers
29. Modal Verbs
30. Double Dative
31. Tsnì Verbs
32. Commands
33. Correlated Clause Constructions
34. Ceremonial

You’ve reached the end of what this document (currently) has to offer! Here are some other resources from members of the Na’vi community that will complement your study of Na’vi.

Creating any kind of comprehensive resource is difficult, and trusting it to be complete is even harder still. I know there are still things that I could address in this document, and I will given time. However, I think I’m finally willing to publish version 1.0 to help new learners get started with a crash course guide.

Thanks to those who have helped make this guide what it is. And of course, ‘ivong Na’vi!

Hufwel kxiveltek ngeyä ikranä syalit.

Hayalovay.

ta Mako

Version 1.1, updated to match with Kelutral.org branding. 06-03-2020

Version 1.0.1, updated the theme to match with my personal branding. 4-20-2020

Version 1.0, nothing to see here yet!

The cover artwork is thanks to AVATAR lead concept artist Dylan Cole.