Phrases

This is a non-complete list of Na’vi phrases. For a full list, have a look at these pages in the wiki:

  • Na’vi Canon – a complete collection of information by authoritative sources
  • Corpus – good sentences, given out in interviews with Dr. Frommer.
There is also a Helpful Phrases section in the Na’vi Dictionary, which can be downloaded here.

Greetings and Conversational Phrases

Na’vi English
kaltxì “Hello”
oel ngati kameie “I See you”
ngaru lu fpom srak? “Are you well?” (Do you have peace/wellbeing?)
fyape syaw fko ngar? “What are you called?” (how calls one to you?)
oeru syaw ____ “I am called ____” (To me [they] call ____)
ngaru tut? “And to you?”
rutxe “Please”
irayo “Thanks”
kea tìkin “No need [to thank]; You’re welcome”
prrte’ “Pleasurably; You’re welcome”
smon nìprrte’ “Nice to meet you” (Pleasurably acquainted)
zola‘u nìprrte’ “Welcome” ([You] have come pleasurably)
frrfeien “Happy to visit”
Ngari solalew sìt apolpxay? “How old are you?” (As for you, have passed year how many?)
Oeri solalew sìt a____ “I am ____ years old”
nga za‘u ftu peseng? “Where do you come from?”
za‘u oe ftu ____ “I come from ____”
nga yawne lu oer “I love you” (You beloved are to me)
hayalovay “Until next time”
kìyevame “See you soon”
Eywa ngahu “(May) Eywa (be) with you”

Idioms

Idioms are interesting phrases unique to a specific language that may not even make any actual sense in another language and are meant to convey an underlying meaning that the words themselves do not actually say. Here are a couple in Na’vi:

Na’vi English
Fwäkì ke fwefwi “Mantis doesn’t whistle; don’t expect someone to do something that isn’t in their inherent nature.”
taronyut yom smarìl “The prey eats the hunter; everything goes wrong that can.”

Questions and demonstratives

Yes-no questions are asked with the final question marker srak? Information questions are asked with question words based on the leniting morpheme “pe” (which?). These correspond with demonstratives in fì (this) and tsa (that) (accusative tsat).

These are merely the more common forms; pe, fì (and its plural fay “these”) and tsa may combine with any noun (without needing the attributive a; cf. kea “no” + noun), and other words may combine with the morphemes in the table, such as tengfya (as, same way), tengkrr (while, same time), and ke’u (nothing).

Question Sample Responses
Na’vi English Na’vi English Na’vi English
peu, ‘upe “what? which thing?” ‘u “this, this thing” tsa‘u “that, that thing”
pesu, tupe “who?” tsatu “that person”
pefya, fyape “how?” fya “like this”
pehem, kempe “what? which action?” kem “this (action)” tsakem “that (action)”
pehrr, krrpe “when?” tsakrr “then”
pelun, lumpe “why?”
peseng, tsengpe “where?” tseng(e) “here” tsatseng “there”