posted
So this is sort of bothering me. Some fantasy races have distinct possessive forms of their names: dwarven, elven, orcish, etc. But what are the possessive forms of hobbit? Or troll? Trollish? Hobbiten? Hobbit seems to almost work on it's own as a possessive, but troll doesn't really. Maybe, sorta. Grammar geeks, anyone got any ideas? This sorta thing was never my strong suit Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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quote:Elrond knew all about runes of every kind. That day he looked at the swords they had brought from the trolls' lair, and he said: "These are not troll-make.
posted
Adjectival? The examples you list aren't possessives.
I'd go with "trollish," personally. I've seen it used that way a bunch of times and it never seemed unusual.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
I dunno... I was thinking more of the form: elven dwelling or dwarven city, or elven longsword. A sort of whole-race possessive.
In the case of make: elvish-make seems to work. And in the case of lair: elves' lair I think would be the equivelent. So neither of those cases is the tense I'm looking for.
I'm the first to admit I suck at grammar so am I even making sense in the way I'm asking the question?
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Er, not really. You're looking for an adjective. (aside: tenses only apply to verbs. With nouns, it's "case.") You're not looking for a noun at all. Could "elven" stand alone in a sentence, without a noun? Not generally.*
As far as I can understand your question, and your examples support it, you're just looking for an adjective.
*It could be used substantively (He killed the elven, meaning "the elven people"), I suppose, but that just means it's a substantive adjective.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
The level of grammar geekdom here warms my heart, even though I've sworn off nit-picking for free (I consider it a minor vice of mine). Actual discussions of grammar can only be good, good things. Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I've used "Trollish" as an adjective in various contexts, and the adjective form of Hobbit is clearly "filthy" As in: "This sword is clearly a filthy blade." or "Welcome to the filthy lands!"
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