Na- 'to be'

You may be familiar with the verb Na- 'to be'.
The only attested forms of this verb are the imperative No = Be! and the gerund Nad = Something, a thing.

All other parts of Na- were reconstructed by David Salo (the linguist who wrote the Elvish dialogue for the films). As it is nearly entirely reconstructed, you will find that most people do not use this verb and thus I am no longer including it on this website. If you are interested, you may find it in his book A Gateway to Sindarin.

The imperative 'No!' means either 'Be!' or 'May it be that, be it that'. Here are some examples:
No dhínen = Be silent!
No vilui = Be kind!
No aer i eneth lîn = May your name be holy 'be holy your name'
No hîdh tolatha annin = May peace come to you 'Be it that peace will come to you'

Present tense 'is, are' & past tense 'was, were'

One of the most difficult concepts to understand in Sindarin is how the language deals with the verb 'to be'. In English we use the verb 'to be' (highlighted in red in these examples) whenever we say I am a woman, You are beautiful, He was happy. In Sindarin we don't need to use a verb in these sentences as it is part of nominative and emphatic pronouns. Because they can mean either the present or the past tense, these examples can be translated as either and context will fill in the gaps.

Ni bess = I am a woman
Ci bain = You are beautiful
E gelir = He is happy/He was happy
Ti cuiw = They are awake/They were awake
Sai laiss = Those are leaves

Noun [is] adjective

This is for if you want to be able to say something like 'the dog is brown' or 'the men are angry', where a pronoun cannot be used. Compare the following sentences:
i iaul vîw = the small cat
i iaul mîw = the cat is small
i lim valen = the yellow fish
i lim malen = the fish is yellow

As you can see, no word is required for 'is'. Although this may look initially as if you have forgotten to use soft mutation, with context and practice you will be able to tell the difference.