20 - Verbs (Future Tense)

Siron: Ivrinel, melethenin, gerin mabeded angin
Ivrinel: Man?
Siron: Thî i lû tollen goston den mabeded... Ivy, nin bastathog?
Ivrinel: Ai! Athon!

Siron: Ivrinel, my love, I have a question for you
Ivrinel: What?
Siron: Now the time has come I fear to ask it... Ivy, will you marry me?
Ivrinel: Ah! Yes, I will!

There are three different ways of expressing future intent in Sindarin -
The suffix -atha 'will'
The auxiliary verb Tol- 'going to'
The auxiliary verb Nidh- 'to be determined to'.

'Will'

This form of the past tense is created using an old verb Atha-. This verb was originally free, but over time it became permanently attached to the verb stem and is no longer separable (apart from the previously mentioned forms Athon = I will and Athof = We will that you came across in Lesson 2).

i-affection is not required for i-stem verbs in the future tense. Both A-stem and I-stem verbs use the same endings.

1st person 'I will...'	-athon	Plural 'We will...'	-atham
2nd person formal 'You will...'	-athol	Plural 'You will all...'	-athodh
2nd person informal 'You will...'	-athog	Plural 'You will all...'	-athogir
3rd person 'He/she/it will...'	-atha	Plural 'They will...'	-athar

I-stem verb example

Cen- to see

1st person 'I will see'	Cenathon	Plural 'We will see'	Cenatham
2nd person formal 'You will see'	Cenathol	Plural 'You will all see'	Cenathodh
2nd person informal 'You will see'	Cenathog	Plural 'You will all see'	Cenathogir
3rd person 'He/she/it will see'	Cenatha	Plural 'They will see'	Cenathar

A-stem verb example

Aníra- to want/desire

1st person 'I will want'	Anírathon	Plural 'We will want'	Aníratham
2nd person formal 'You will want'	Anírathol	Plural 'You will all want'	Anírathodh
2nd person informal 'You will want'	Anírathog	Plural 'You will all want'	Anírathogir
3rd person 'He/she/it will want'	Aníratha	Plural 'They will want'	Anírathar

I-stem verbs ending in W

There are two I-stem verbs that end in AW: Caw- = to taste, choose, select, and Gaw- = to howl.
These have their own special future tense conjugations.
Please note that Dew- = to fail, miss conjugates like any other I-stem verb in the future tense, e.g. Dewithon = I will fail, Dewitha = She will fail.

1st person I will choose, taste I will howl	Cauthon Gauthon	Plural We will choose, taste We will howl	Cautham Gautham
2nd person formal You will choose You will howl	Cauthil Gauthil	Plural You will all choose You will all howl	Cauthidh Gauthidh
2nd person informal You will choose You will howl	Cauthig Gauthig	Plural You will all choose You will all howl	Cauthigir Gauthigir
3rd person He/she/it will choose He/she/it will howl	Cautha Gautha	Plural They will choose They will howl	Cauthar Gauthar

'Going to': Tol- as an auxiliary verb

What is an auxiliary verb? The three most common in English are 'be', 'do' and 'have'. They are also known as 'helping' verbs, as they come before the main verb and help form some of our tenses.
e.g. I was writing, You have been reading, He did call.

Sindarin uses the verb Tol- = to come in a similar way but only for the future tense to mean 'going to'.
e.g.
Tolen maded = I am going to eat
Tolen toled = I am going to come
Tolen nored roch abarad = I am going to ride a horse tomorrow
Tôl lilthad na i maregen = He will be going to dance at your house
Tôl linnad ennas = She will be going to sing there
Telir farad = They will be going to hunt

As you can see, this uses the present tense form of Tol- followed by the gerund of the verb you are going to do.
You should have noticed that the 1st person form is Tolen instead of the normal Telin. We don't know precisely why this is (though it is suspected that it is because this is a different aspect and meaning, perhaps a progressive), but this is what was written by Tolkien. Because we don’t have any other attested auxiliary forms it is prudent to use the normal Tol- conjugation for all other forms.

'To be determined to', the auxiliary verb Nidh-