ItsJustMe

mandalorian language guide (aka, Mando’a 101)

STAR WARS MASTERLIST

I wrote all of the sentences myself (almost every word was hunted down by me) except the phrases/sentences that I could not translate word-for-word, like the Mandalorian marriage contract or common sayings. I cross-checked between sources, but I may have gotten some things wrong because I’m not fluent in Mando’a.

Feel free to use these phrases in your writing. I’ll be adding more words, sentences, and phrases as time goes on. 

The first section will be pronouns/conjunctions/misc categorized from English to Mando’a and the rest will be categorized from Mando’a to English, except for the final review section.

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PRONOUNS/CONJUNCTIONS/DETERMINERS

English to Mando’a

The

te

A/An

eyn

And

bal

Also

alyc

You

yooba, gar

Your

gar

Are

solus

I

ni

My

ner

But

a

They/Their/Theirs

val

He/She

There are no he/she pronouns in Mando’a. Every single word in Mandalorian culture is genderless, or at least that’s what I researched. Use “val” from above.

ENDEARMENTS DISGUISED AS INSULTS (WORDS/PHRASES)

Mando’a to English

Dinji

lunatic

Mir’sheb

smartass

Utreekov

fool, idiot

Mir’osik

something undesirable where you brains should be, like nothing at all

Mirsh’kyramud

boring person

Chakaar

thief, petty criminal, scumbag, bitch, bastard, bugger

Di’kut

(severe) a foolish, idiotic, useless individual 

(sometimes vulgar, depending on context) jerk, moron, idiot, etc.

PHRASES

Mando’a to English

“Par gar.” = “For you.”

par - for

gar - you

“Yooba solus mesh’la.” = “You are beautiful.”

yooba - you

solus - are, one (1)

mesh’la - beautiful

“Ni kar’tayl gar darasuum.” = “I love you.”

ni - I

kar’tayl gar darasuum - love you

“Udesii, cyar’ika.”

udesii - calm down, take it easy

cyar’ika - darling, sweetheart

“Yooba solus ner aliit.” = “You are my family.”

yooba - you

solus - are

ner - my

aliit - family

“Ner cyar’ika.” = “My darling.”

ner - my

cyar’ika - darling, sweetheart

“Yooba solus ner [utreekov], cyar’ika.” = “You are my idiot, darling.” [can replace brackets with any other insult in Mando’a]

yooba - you 

solus - are, one (1)

ner - my

utreekov - fool, idiot

cyar’ika - darling, sweetheart

“Haar’chack, yooba solus mesh’la.” = “Damn it, you are beautiful.”

haar’chack - damn it

yooba - you

solus - are, one (1)

mesh’la - beautiful

“Yooba solus cyare.” = “You are loved.”

yooba - you

solus - are, one (1)

cyare - beloved, loved, popular

“Yooba solus but buir.” = “You are a mother.”

yooba - you

solus - are

but - a

buir - mother/father

“Cyar’ika, ni kar’tayl gar darasuum.” = “Darling, I love you.”

cyar’ika - darling, sweetheart

ni - I

kar’tayl gar darasuum - love you

“Ner riduur.” = “My spouse.”

ner - my

riduur - partner, spouse, husband, wife

MANDALORIAN SAYINGS/PROVERBS

Mando’a to English

“K’atini!”

Suck it up!

“Copaani mirshmure’cye?”

Are you looking for a smack in the face?

(Mandalorian Marriage Contract) “Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar’tome, mhi me’dinui an, mhi ba’juri verde.”

We are one whether we are together or apart, we will share everything and we will raise our children as warriors. 

PRACTICE

Try figuring out the following sentences on your own for practice. You can reference the words/phrases/sentences above if you need to! The questions include some of the vocabulary from above.

QUESTION 1: Translate the following. “Yooba solus ner riduur. Yooba solus ner cyar’ika. Yooba solus eyn dinji, eyn mir’sheb, bal eyn utreekov. A yooba solus cyare. Ni kar’tayl gar darasuum.”

ANSWER: “You are my spouse. You are my sweetheart. You are a lunatic, a smartass, and an idiot. But you are loved. I love you.”

NO REPETITION:

yooba - you

solus - are

ner - my

riduur - partner, spouse, husband, wife

cyar’ika - darling, sweetheart

eyn - a

dinji - lunatic

mir’sheb - smartass

bal - and

utreekov - fool, idiot

a - but

cyare - loved

ni - I

kar’tayl gar darasuum - love you

WORD FOR WORD:

yooba - you

solus - are

ner - my

riduur - partner, spouse, husband, wife

yooba - you

solus - are

ner - my

cyar’ika - darling, sweetheart

yooba- you

solus- are

eyn - a

dinji - lunatic

eyn - a

mir’sheb - smartass

bal - and

eyn - a

utreekov - fool, idiot

a - but

yooba - you

solus - are

cyare - loved

ni - I

kar’tayl gar darasuum - love you

QUESTION 2: Write or say the following in Mando’a. “You are a petty criminal, are you looking for a smack in the face? You are a foolish person.”

ANSWER: “Yooba solus eyn chakaar, copaani mirshmure’cye? Yooba solus eyn di’kut.”

NO REPETITION:

you - yooba, gar

are - solus

a - eyn

petty criminal - chakaar,

are you looking for a smack in the face - copaani mirshmure’cye

foolish person - di’kut

WORD FOR WORD:

you - yooba, gar

are - solus

a - eyn

petty criminal - chakaar

are you looking for a smack in the face - copaani mirshmure’cye

you - yooba, gar

are - solus

a - eyn

foolish person - di’kut

SOURCES 

If you want to go looking for some more words/phrases, these were the websites that I used.

A Mando’a translator that may not be as accurate as the following websites, but it works: 

https://lingojam.com/Mandoa-EnglishTranslator

Has a lot Mandalorian words and phrases: 

http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/index.php?topic=1531.0

Categorized A to Z and is a very large database, I’d suggest using command or control F and typing in the word you want to look up before scrolling endlessly to find a word: 

http://mandoa.org/

Good for learning the grammar rules behind Mando’a as well as words/phrases you might look for: 

https://command1.rpg-board.net/t16-mando-a-language-rules-and-phrases

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Mando%27a/Legends

http://www.completewermosguide.com/mandalorian.html

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like op, i am not fluent on mando’a, but i write with it frequently. anyone who is fluent in a conlang is a total nerd. it is important to note that cross referencing with decades old forum/blog posts for a conlang with an official dictionary is generally a bad idea, because thats how you get words like “yooba” included in a guide about mando’a. yooba specifically comes from this dialect, which, although in universe was meant to be related to mando’a, was created before mando’a was actually set in stone and has many words that do not correlate at all with how mando’a words are constructed.

i also do not know what the best way to learn a second language is, so this will mainly be fixing incorrectly translated and inaccurate words. the review sections will not be touched out of redundancy, but i will make sure to include missing information along with corrections

the- te, haa. it is important to note that “the” is rarely used in mando’a. haa is even more rare, as it is archaic (think thee in english)

a/an- eyn. this is also rarely used

you/your- gar (both singular and plural)

are- cuy, this is a conjugated form of the verb “cuyir” (to be) and is usually dropped and indicated by word order.

solus can mean one; alone, vulnerable; each; individual; united, as one, but not are.

ni also means me as well as I

but- a, a’, or al (al is often used before a vowel)

he, him, his; her, hers; they, them, theirs (singular)- kaysh

they, them, theirs (plural)- val

dinji is not a word, and i have not been able to find it in any of op’s references or on wookieepedia. op probably meant dini’la, which means insane, crazy, mad.

utreekov literally translates to empty headed (original translation is fine)

mir’osik is not an official word but is at least derived from actual mando’a; mir is a prefix meaning things like “mind” or “brain” and osik is basically shit.

mirsh’kyramud literally translates to brain assassin (original translation is fine again, but you can see why I wanted to give the literal translations right?)

Official translation of chakaar is “corpse robber, thief, petty criminal (general term of abuse)”

di’kut is generally not a severe insult, it means idiot, useless individual, waste of space and literally translates to someone who forgets to put their pants on.

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“You are beautiful” would be “Gar cuy mesh’la” or more likely just “Gar mesh’la”

“I love you.” would be “Ni kar’tayl darasuum gar.” this is an emphatic term for it, like “te amo” in spanish.

“Udesii, cyar’ika.” is correct and does mean “calm down sweetheart” but it would probably get you punched in the face.

“You are my family.” would be “Gar cuy ner aliit” or “Gar ner aliit”

“You are my idiot, darling” would be “Gar cuy ner [utreekov], cyar’ika” or “Gar ner [utreekov], cyar’ika.” Original mentions you can switch out the insult (utreekov), but make sure you know what the insult you do use means!

“Damn it, you are beautiful” would be “Haar’chack, gar cuy mesh’la” or “Haar’chak, cuy mesh’la”

even replacing yooba and solus, cyare is a noun and “Gar cuy cyare” would not make sense grammatically. The only official term for love is “kar'taylir darasuum” which describes a very emphatic thing and is not thrown around lightly. cyar can be derived as an (unofficial) less heavy term for it, so either cyar’la or cyaryc could be loved. please know that if you want to translate stuff like this, you’re going to be in for a lot of work and it might be better to just stick to something easier.

“You are a mother” would most likely be “Gar buir,” but could be “Gar cuy buir” or “Gar cuy eyn buir” if you want to be wordy about it. also it would be “you are a parent” because mando’a does not denote gender unless you specifically use the words for male or female, which you would not do in regular conversation.

“Darling, I love you” would be “Cyar’ika, ni kar’tayl darasuum gar” but remember! emphatic term.

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“K’atini!” can mean, along with suck it up, “its only pain”

The Mandalorian marriage vows are translated officially as “We are one when together, we are one when parted, we will share all, we will raise warriors”

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that’s all that’s fixed for this guide, but if you want to look into mando’a more, here are some resources i suggest!

mandoa.org has the entire dictionary transcribed and ready to use. it doesn’t have things like parts of speech and grammar, but if you want to make sure what you’re saying is canon, this is the best place to check!

there is also this google spreadsheet which includes grammar, phrases, the alphabet, numerals… lots of things. it also has (clearly marked) fanmade words so you don’t have to spend too long trying to make up new words a lot of the time!

i also have put together my own personal dictionary of hard to search (short) mando’a words. i’ve taken a few words from the spreadsheet i linked that are fanmade, those are marked with an asterisk. i made it for personal use but i’ve found it extremely useful while translating things! looking up “an” or “i” in the full dictionary is… not fun.

Thanks to @U1F0C7 for this art piece!

Cutting directly across the Hellcatch Valley once again, the Silver Sun presented Bells Hells a chance to interact with the local wildlife on the way to the Gloomed Jungles and Yios.

Btw Iove your art and it's inspired me to try out line work again

Thanks! And hey, that's a good question.

Here's the thing I've learned as a DM - you don't have to plan EVERYTHING.

In fact, the less you plan, the more prepared you'll be!*

*Some restrictions apply

How I like to think of when I DM is that me and my players sit in the middle of a WHEEL of possibilities. It looks something like this:

Every session you start with, you have a set amount of possible go-to points. These are limited. Usually, your party won't go from sipping drinks at a tavern to walking out the door and fighting cult members in ONE session.

The possibilities are endless, so what you need to prepare is just the next few steps. In the above image, what I mean is that they first two darker shades are representative of what you need to have prepared immediately, and the lighter shades are plans you can have on the back burner, but don't need to flesh out.

As your party makes choices and travels outside of the Starting Spot, you can prepare the NEXT steps based on the ones they chose.

So, say your party is in your tavern, and they decide to go to the Adventuring Guild to look for a job. You don't HAVE to prepare the Heist Mission in the Wizard's tower for that - you can know it's a possibility, but once they've made their first choice, you have a direction.

You can then kind of visualize what their next steps are.

Of course, this wheel isn't one way! Your players could always just... hop over to an adjacent topic! If they're solving a mystery, that could link up to a Cult involvement. And from there, they can discover a Secret Hideout for the Cult, which you already know was a possibility if they were to go into the forest.

And once that sort of adventure has started, you can go ahead and think about what other things you had planned out might link up to or evolve from where they are.

At that point, it's like playing a giant board-game. Which involves laying down track in front of an oncoming train.

My recommendation is that you keep a few things on hand which can be used anywhere:

a few maps that somewhat relate to multiple things on your map (for example, a dungeon-looking map that could be a Secret Hideout OR the Wizard's tower)

Some named NPCs - at least one per location that you can throw up immediately when they arrive

a few puzzles/plotpoints which can act as a placeholder while you think of details (for example, a Mystery can be hard to think of on the spot. Give them some random clues, such as a missing person, a few discarded items, etc and then take your time before the next session to link those items together!)

The rest is.. well... just making it up as you go along!

Of course, that's just MY personal way of doing things. Some people prepare way less, and some prepare way more. It's just all up to how quickly your players move/how comfortable you are with details.

—Note: The links sometimes don’t work on mobile devices or some apps. Try using a desktop or browser extensions if they aren’t working. 

-The Omni Loot Table: The loot mega-table that allows the user to roll randomly on the 135 tables this blog has collected. This grants a DM literally millions of unique trinkets, equipment and items that players can find to enrich their world and playing experience.

-Character Creation Loot Generator: This generator creates an sample of trinkets, curiosities and loot, pulled from a wide list of other tables that is meant to provide the player with items to encourage engaging roleplaying. Best used at character creation to help with ideas of where the character has traveled, what they’ve accomplished and what they’ve chosen to carry with them.

-All Trinkets: Interesting baubles or semi magical items that have little to no practical in game or mechanical use for an adventurer.

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-All Unique Armors: Splint mail, studded leather and sturdy shields of all shapes, sizes and mysterious backgrounds. Distinctive armors that can serve as the basis for family heirlooms, legendary artifacts and magical or masterwork weapons.

1   /   2   /   3   /   4   /   5   /   6   / 

-Masterwork Armor Bonuses: Over a dozen homebrew armor improvements, enhancements and modifications created though superior craftsmanship. These masterpieces are more useful than standard armor but less powerful than a +1 armor.

-All Artifacts: Artist masterpieces, rare magics and opulent combinations of jewels and precious metals. These objects can be found in the throne rooms of kings, the demiplanes of archmages and the pinnacle of a dragon’s hoard.

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-All Books: An eclectic library of dusty tomes, fictional textbooks, pocketbooks, paperbacks, hardcovers, booklets, leaflets and magical manuals.  

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-Book Descriptions: A short list of quirks, physical descriptions and eccentricities to add additional characteristics to the book trinket list. Rollable Book Descriptions table

-All Cloaks: A collection of unique descriptions of cloaks for DM’s to give to their players as magical or mundane loot and for players to use during character creation to help flesh out their personal style.

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- All Circlets, Crowns and Coronets: Resting on the noble head of the mighty king or regal queen are the physical manifestations of their wealth and power. The symbols of their right to rule, these various headdresses are often tailor made to serve as metaphor for the monarch’s personality or that of their kingdom.

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-All Minor Magical Items: Not-quite-wondrous objects, common magic items, utility and niche magical equipment, underpowered relics or depowered artifacts. These options are essentially cantrips and weak magic spells in physical form and are perfect for low level characters.

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-All Necklaces: Amulets, lockets and pendants that grant an immediate glance into the bearer’s personality, wealth, rank or social class and often serves as an iconic part of that character’s look. While a locked metal torque can instantly mark the bearer a penniless slave and a string of lustrous pearls mark their owner a flauntingly wealthy noble, so can an adventurer’s necklace mark them as a creature to bestow quests upon.

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-All Rings: Enough bands, loops and rings to wear three on every finger and toe while still having dozens to spare. These tiny bejeweled circlets of bone, metal and wood always add more to the story than the sum of their parts.

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-All Sealed Glass Vials: Faulty potions, weak elixirs, alchemical supplies, spell components, ritual elements, enchanting materials, crafting ingredients and magically preserved biological samples.

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-All Unique Weapons: Blades, bludgeons and bows of all shapes, sizes and mysterious backgrounds. Distinctive weapons that can serve as the basis for family heirlooms, legendary artifacts and magical or masterwork weapons.

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-Masterwork Weapon Bonuses: Over 20 homebrew weapon improvements, enhancements and modifications created though superior craftsmanship. These masterpieces though more powerful than ordinary weapons but weaker than a +1. Rollable Masterwork Bonus Table

-Running the Numbers: On Balancing Homebrew Masterwork Weapon Bonuses

-Random Weapon + Random Masterwork Weapon Bonus.

-Random Unique Weapon + Random Masterwork Weapon Bonus.

-Minor Weapon Enchantments: A collection of minor bonuses that are weaker than a standard +1 weapons, as they come with trade-offs, risks, prerequisites, limited uses or niche benefits. These enchantments provide feat-like bonuses, low level class abilities, modify damage types, provide short bursts of power or replicate the effects of low levels spells. Rollable Minor Weapon Enchantments Table.

-Random Weapon + Random Minor Weapon Enchantment.

-Random Unique Weapon + Random Minor Weapon Enchantment.

-All Unique Minor Magic Weapons: A collection of weapons of artifact level  flavorful but low level power. Much like the Minor Weapon Enchantments, these provide small bonuses and combat options that are restrained by limited uses, niche situations or come with risky drawbacks. 

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-All Valuables: More useful than simple baubles touched mystery, these items have either a clear purpose, a reliable ability or are made from a fairly costly material. The items could fetch fair prices to collectors of the strange, jewelers, antique or art dealers or simply to barter with if the owner is short on actual currency.

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-All Worthless Trinkets: Vaguely interesting garbage, vendor trash and junk loot. Not magical or mysterious like regular trinkets or worth anything more than a copper piece or two even if you could find someone to buy it in the first place.

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—Keep reading for all reference and resource tables.

The main question I've gotten through chats and asks that I've never actually answered is "How do you make monsters?" Because I had NO IDEA how to explain that without pages of text tumblr wouldn't let me type. So here you go, a guide on making monsters from scratch. A DM-guide adjacent version, using their resources in a way that makes more sense. My lifelong speech impediment isn't going to overcome my desire to make videos, not when I can just spend 4 hours recording until my voice fried. Seriously though, I'm new to recording but I've made a few hundred monsters, this is the basics of what I do when making monsters.

A scholar that is clearly lost, however you're not sure how he is someone important at all. It even looks like he's glad that he didn't manage to arrive at the event on time.

An old lady (of a race that has a long lifespan), that knows a little way to much about the party's adventure... She doesn't spends much time talking about it though, do you want to buy her pots?

A kid. Just a kid. Make them annoying.

A knight that is very proud about their job and duty, but they just want their shift to end so they can go home to their wife.

A merchant that has a cart in the middle of the fair, however everytime the party goes to another shop or stand he pops up from behind the counter. Turns out the town doesn't receive many merchants so he has to supply all of their needs. He's stressed.

A teen dragon that discovered how to transform into a human, problem is they definitely look 30 but they still are just a teenager, and a moody one.

A shop owner that fucking hates commerce. She's in it because of her family, so she tries to sell the goodies pratically for free and she really wants you to take all of her items. The catch? It's a feather shop. Not magic feathers, not pens, just normal feathers. Probably from a bird that died that morning.

A janitor from a library or big shop that is just too aware of everything. Like, they point out the players class or race without barely batting an eye. They comment on how they "had never seen a chaotic good one in real life". And indirectly disses the players choices they made 2 sessions ago? (Basically a character for the dm to rant a little while not completely breaking the 4th wall)

A woman in her mid-40s (or the equivalent) that is just really excited to meet the party? Her dream was to be an adventurer when she was little so she is definitely asking some weird questions.

A blacksmith that makes weapons purely for the aesthetic. He really doesn't care if it's functional or not, he's just doing cause it looks cool.

A bard that got kicked out of their band or caravan. At first you don't know why but after their 3rd performance of a one-person musical you get it. He wants to stick with the party though. Good luck.

A doggie!! It's cute!! And fluffy!! And it talks!! And it talks? A DOG THAT TALKS!!!!

The most ripped person the party has ever met, they have tons of skulls of big animals on their shoulder. They polish them. They hang them on a wall and start to take notes. They are an archeologist.

A magician that is really not magic at all, he's just so good at card tricks that the town thinks he's a sorcerer. He's freaking out.

A girl that is immune to all kinds of poison, however that is making a little bit hard for her to pursue her cooking career. Apparently poison ivy is not a good seasoning for most people.