The Tengwar are the letters (the writing system) Tolkien made for the Elvish languages.

As it is a writing system it can of course be used for any language (as you might for example try to write English in Russian or Greek letters).

As each language has its own special structure and style the Tengwar have to be adapted to the language they are used for. Each such adaptation is called a mode.

Tolkien himself made 6 modes, but on the web there are lots of modes that other people made for their own language.

The modes Tolkien made are:

• the Quenya mode
• two modes for Sindarin: the mode of Beleriand, the mode of Gondor
• a mode for the Black Language of Mordor (used for the inscription on the One Ring)
• a mode for modern English
• a mode for Old English (the English from before 1066)

The Tengwar modes can be divided into two types:

• Full modes: each letter has its own symbol (as in the Latin alphabet). Tolkien made only one such mode: the Sindarin mode of Beleriand.
• Tehtar modes: in these modes vowels are not represented as separate letters but as little markings (called tehtar) on consonants. There are of course two possibilities: the tehta is put on the previous consonant or the tehta is put on the next consonant. In Quenya mode the previous consonant is used, in the other four modes Tolkien put the tehtar on the next consonant. The Sindarin mode of Gondor belongs to this type of mode.

In this course we’ll restrict ourselves to both the Sindarin modes.
You can choose which mode you learn, or both if you’re really courageous.

As this is only an introduction, you don’t need to answer anything. The real exercises start in lesson 01. This table contains all the tengwar needed in the course (the signs between parentheses only appear in Quenya not in Sindarin):