HV Word for 'it's'

[DannyJeffrey]

Rytsas tolvys!

Could anyone tell me how you say 'it's' in High Valyrian? As in 'it's cold' or 'it's an iron sword'.

Kirimvose!

[Hrakkar]

Although I don't know a lot about HV, my bet is there is no translation for this particular word. "it's" is a contraction of "it is", and is very much an English-ism. My bet is you would be better starting with translating "It is". Contractions and idioms will come in time.

[Eight Flower]

The term linguists like to use for pronouns that have no antecedent and are used to express conditions (e.g. 'it's cold) is dummy subject.

'Is' in 'it's cold' is technically termed a copula and fills a function halfway between verbal and adjectival. A copula denotes equivalency and is not strictly speaking temporal and so can't properly be called a verb.

Some languages have copulae, some don't. This is not so much a vocabulary question as a grammar question.

Namely: how does Valyrian express general conditions?

[Aegon Targaryen]

Hello, It's is a contraction of it is. So it comes from the verb to be. The verb to be in HV is sagon. As you know, it is a 3rd person singular pronoun, so the verb must be conjugated with that pronoun. It is is conjugated in simple present. HV does not write the prounoun to conjugate the verb. I mean, if you want to say He speaks german, in valyrian you just conjugate the verb by adding endings. In the example before, He speaks german, in HV  it would literally  sound like Speaks german. Because if you add the ending -s, you know that the verb is conjugated  in Simple Present 3rd person singular.

However, as any other language, HV has irregular verbs, for example sagon. The simple present is called in valyrian Active, Indicative, present. So, It is or It's is translated as issa. It's cold = Iōrvī issa , It's an iron sword =Āegenka korzī issa

Maybe for It is cold you should use aorist instead present but I don't know. Because aorist is timeless, I mean if you want to say It is cold but referring to the environment or weather. Or maybe to express something that is not happening at the moment. For example, She plays piano every Monday but that is not happening at the moment, it is like a feature (?) The same goes with In november, my city (it) is cold  because of the influence of the wind... that It's cold should be conjugated in a time called Aorist.

I am not a native speaker, sorry if I wrote something wrong. 

[Eight Flower]

The same goes with In november, my city (it) is cold  because of the influence of the wind... that It's cold should be conjugated in a time called Aorist.

I am not a native speaker, sorry if I wrote something wrong. 

Aegon, though you're translating the verb 'to be' in seemingly detailed fashion, this might not actually be an answer to the question. The reason is not an issue with vocabulary but with grammar.

Pronouns, usually, require antecedents to fully convey meaning. If you walked up to a stranger (or a friend) on the street, and said 'He speaks German' the listener would know you meant a singular male agent but would have no notion of who exactly 'he' was. 'He' only has definition when anteceded by a noun (phrase) indicating one agent. However, if you walked up to a person on the street and said 'It's cold.' or 'There's a storm coming.' the pronoun does not require an antecedent. The words are usually pronouns but they've effectively subsumed the notion of general conditions, either spatial, climatic or temporal. Of course not all languages use pronouns as 'dummy subjects' in this way to describe general conditions, nor are forms of 'to be' necessarily the verbs used.

Some languages express subjective experience of climate with the equivalent of 'feel' or 'perceive'. So instead of 'It's cold' the meaning might be expressed as 'I feel the cold air.' Or the language might use a verb normally associated with movement to denote temporal conditions. Instead of 'It's late.' the language may use something like 'Time has run far.'

Do we have any text from the dialogue or from DJP where a character speaking Valyrian expresses an idea about general conditions?

[Aegon Targaryen]

Eight Flower, I know about the antecedent. I thought he asked about a literally the translation of "it's". I am a spanish speaker and we have a lot of sentences without antecedent. Obviously I'm not an expert in HV nor linguistics  and I'm not going to discuss with you because you are right. Maybe you mean something like this. That's from a dialogue from Third Season

Konir sagon kostos daor =That’s not possible.
It literally is translated as That can't be.

Or maybe something like "There is". In valyrian does not exist a verb to say "there be". It exists a verb that means "to lack". If you want to say There's no ... you just use "to lack". If you want to say "there is ..." it would be like "to not lack".

mijegon [mi'jegon]
v. V-fin. to lack. →inst.
Dōrior dārion udrirzi mijessis. — There’s no country without a language.

If I'm messing everything, sorry,  I did not mean it.