High Valyrian Pronouns: The Best Guide to 8 Cases
Table of Contents
High Valyrian pronouns look intimidating at first glance — a single word like “I” can appear as nyke, yne, yno, or ynot depending on its job in the sentence. The good news is that the system is completely regular: pronouns inflect for all eight cases, and once you learn the pattern, every form becomes predictable. This guide lays out the full tables of High Valyrian pronouns with documented forms.
Quick Answer
High Valyrian personal pronouns are nyke (I), ao (you, singular), ziry (he/she/it), īlon (we), jeme (you all), and pōnta (they). They inflect for all eight noun cases — for example, “me” is yne (accusative) and “to me” is ynot (dative). Because verbs already mark person and number, subject pronouns are usually dropped except for emphasis — that is the essence of High Valyrian pronouns.
The Personal Pronouns: Full Declension Table
Below are the documented forms of the High Valyrian pronouns. The third person has two sets of forms: one for solar and lunar referents (ziry and friends) and one for terrestrial and aquatic referents (ūja and friends) — the same “heaven/earth” split the reference grammar uses. Note that first and second person pronouns merge the instrumental and comitative into a single -ma form.
| Case | I | you (sg.) | he/she/it (sol./lun.) | he/she/it (ter./aq.) | we | you (pl.) | they |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | nyke | ao | ziry | ūja | īlon | jeme | pōnta |
| Accusative | yne | avy | ziry | ūī | īlon | jemī | pōnte |
| Genitive | yno | aō | zijo | ūō | īlo | jemo | pōnto |
| Dative | ynot | aōt | zijot | ūjōt | īlot | jemot | pōntot |
| Locative | nykē | aō | zirȳ | ūjā | īlō | jemē | pōntā |
| Instrumental | ynoma | aōma | zijosy | josa | īloma | jemme | pōntosa |
| Comitative | ynoma | aōma | zijomy | joma | īloma | jemme | pōntoma |
| Vocative | nykys | aōs | zirys | ūjus | īlos | jemys | pōntus |
A few things in this High Valyrian pronouns table surprise English speakers. There is no separate word for “me” — you just use the accusative yne. The dative ynot covers “to me” and “for me.” And the two third-person columns exist because High Valyrian pronouns track the noun class of their referent: ziry for people, dragons, and other solar/lunar nouns, ūja for terrestrial and aquatic ones. When in doubt about a human referent, lunar is the usual default, since most words for humans are lunar.
Pro-Drop: Why You Can Usually Skip the Pronoun
High Valyrian verbs agree with their subject in person and number, so the pronoun is often redundant. Iksan already means “I am” — the -n ending says “I” — and iksā already means “you (singular) are.” Adding nyke or ao on top of that is grammatically fine but adds emphasis, like stressing ” I am” in English. The reference grammar describes High Valyrian as a pro-drop language for exactly this reason: pronouns appear when the speaker wants emphasis, contrast, or clarity, not by default — which is why High Valyrian pronouns are often left unspoken.
This is the single biggest adjustment for English speakers. If every one of your sentences starts with nyke, you will be understood, but you will sound like a textbook. Drop the pronoun and let the verb ending do the work — omitting High Valyrian pronouns is the norm, not the exception. Our guide to how to structure High Valyrian sentences shows how much information the verb carries on its own.
Possessive Adjectives: Saying “My,” “Your,” “His”
Here is a rule the reference grammar states explicitly about High Valyrian pronouns: personal pronouns generally do not use the genitive to express possession. You do not say *yno vala for “my man.” Instead, High Valyrian uses possessive adjectives — words meaning “my,” “your,” and so on that agree with the possessed noun in class, case, and number, exactly like other High Valyrian adjectives.
| Owner | Possessive adjective (citation form) | Example |
|---|---|---|
| my | ñuha | ñuha (lunar nominative singular), ñuhi (lunar nominative plural), ñuhys (solar nominative singular) |
| your (sg.) | aōha | agrees with the possessed noun |
| his / her / its | zȳha | agrees with the possessed noun |
| our | īlva | agrees with the possessed noun |
| your (pl.) | jeva | agrees with the possessed noun |
| their | pōja | agrees with the possessed noun |
Notice how these High Valyrian pronouns change with the possessed thing, not the owner: ñuha modifies a lunar singular noun, ñuhi a lunar plural one, and ñuhys a solar singular one — all documented forms. Possessive adjectives also commonly follow the noun rather than preceding it, which is normal in High Valyrian and gives the phrase a slightly more formal feel. When you need the standalone “mine / yours” (with no noun attached), use the possessive pronouns instead: ñuhon “mine,” aōhon “yours,” zȳhon “his/hers/its,” īlvon “ours,” jevon “yours (pl.),” pōjon “theirs.”
Reflexive Pronouns: “Myself,” “Yourself”
High Valyrian reflexive pronouns are built transparently from the pronoun stems plus -la, and they are fully documented:
| Myself | Yourself (sg.) | Himself / herself / itself | Ourselves | Yourselves (pl.) | Themselves |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nykēla | aōla | zirȳla / jāla | īlōnda | jemēla | pōntāla |
As with other High Valyrian pronouns, the third-person reflexive has distinct solar/lunar (zirȳla) and terrestrial/aquatic (jāla) forms. If you can decline the personal pronoun, you can build the reflexive — the pattern is the same stem with the reflexive ending attached.
Demonstrative Pronouns: “This” and “That”
The High Valyrian pronouns for “this” and “that” split by distance and by animacy, and the demonstratives decline like adjectives:
- bisa — “this,” for animate things (people, animals)
- kesa — “this,” for inanimate things
- bona — “that,” for animate things
- kona — “that,” for inanimate things
The substantive forms kesïr (“this one here”) and konïr (“that one there”) are used when the demonstrative stands alone as a noun. Like all adjectives, demonstratives agree with their noun in class, case, and number — kesa is just the citation form you will find in the High Valyrian dictionary.
High Valyrian Pronouns in Real Sentences
A few documented sentences show how naturally High Valyrian pronouns work once the tables are familiar. Morghor zijomy amāzis — “The dead come with it” — uses the third-person comitative zijomy (“with it”) for an animate referent. And Voktys Eglie aōt gaomilaksir teptas — “The High Priest gave you a mission” — shows the second-person dative aōt (“to you”) as the indirect object. Try rendering sentences like these through the Valyrian to English translator to see each pronoun form identified, or build your own in the English to Valyrian translator and check that the cases came out right. For everyday phrases that use these pronouns in context, browse the High Valyrian phrases collection. You can cross-reference these forms on the public High Valyrian wiki.
Related Valyrian Tools
- Valyrian to English translator — identify High Valyrian pronouns in real Valyrian text.
- English to Valyrian translator — draft English sentences and check the pronoun cases.
- High Valyrian dictionary — look up every pronoun’s documented forms.
- High Valyrian phrases — see pronouns used in natural phrases.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the High Valyrian words for I, you, he, she, we, and they?
Nyke (I), ao (you, singular), ziry (he/she/it), īlon (we), jeme (you all), pōnta (they). Note that ziry covers he, she, and it for solar and lunar referents; terrestrial and aquatic referents use ūja instead.
How do you say “me” and “my” in High Valyrian?
“Me” is the accusative yne — there is no separate word. “My” is the possessive adjective ñuha (in its lunar nominative singular form), which changes to agree with the possessed noun: ñuhi for a lunar plural noun, ñuhys for a solar singular noun, and so on. Do not use the genitive yno for possession.
Do you need to include the pronoun with every High Valyrian verb?
No. High Valyrian is a pro-drop language: verb endings already mark person and number, so iksan (“I am”) needs no nyke. Include the pronoun only for emphasis or contrast.
Why are there two words for “he/she/it”?
Third-person pronouns track the noun class of their referent. Use ziry (and its declined forms like zijo, zijot) for solar and lunar referents — which includes most people — and ūja (with forms like ūō, ūjōt) for terrestrial and aquatic referents.
How do you say “myself” in High Valyrian?
Nykēla. Reflexives add -la to the pronoun stem: aōla (yourself), zirȳla (himself/herself/itself), īlōnda (ourselves), jemēla (yourselves), pōntāla (themselves).
What is the difference between ñuha and ñuhon?
Ñuha is the possessive adjective “my” — it must modify a noun and agrees with it (ñuha, ñuhi, ñuhys…). Ñuhon is the possessive pronoun “mine,” used standalone when there is no noun to modify, and it declines like a third-declension noun.
High Valyrian pronouns are the connective tissue of the language: small words that carry case, class, and person all at once. Learn the nominative six by heart, remember that the genitive is not for possession, drop the subject pronoun whenever the verb already says it, and the tables above will stop looking like a wall of forms and start reading like a familiar toolkit.