The Phantom Menace
It all filters into one of Yoda’s great lessons: aggression and violence do not make a Jedi or a person strong. The meaning behind this quote is strengthened when one sees that Yoda knows the reality of war and battle in the prequel era. “Luminous beings are wenot this crude matter.” The Empire Strikes Back. Natural Reader is a professional text to speech program that converts any written text into spoken words. The paid versions of Natural Reader have many more features. If you are interested in using our voices for non-personal use such as for Youtube videos, e-Learning, or other commercial or public purposes, please check out our Natural Reader.
leads_to.wav (204Kb)
YODA: Fear is the path of the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.
sense_fear.wav (59.1Kb)
YODA: I sense much fear in you.
alwaystwo.wav (91.5Kb)
YODA: Always two there are, a master, and an apprentice.
Free Text-To-Speech and Text-to-MP3 for US English Easily convert your US English text into professional speech for free. Perfect for e-learning, presentations, YouTube videos and increasing the accessibility of your website. Fear is the path. Beware of the darkside. A Jedi uses the force. Afraid to loose her. Agree with you the council.
The Empire Strikes Back
afraid.wav (119Kb)
LUKE: I'm not afraid.
YODA: Ohhh...you will be, you will be.
always_with_you.wav (51Kb)
YODA: Always with you it can not be done.
beware.wav (131Kb)
YODA: Yes. A Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side.
commitment.wav (122Kb)
YODA: A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind.
consume.wav (174Kb)
YODA: If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate you destiny, consume you it will, as it did to Obi-Wan's apprentice.
control.wav (73Kb)
YODA: Control, control, you must learn control...
dagobah.wav (443Kb)
LUKE: I feel like...
YODA: Feel like what?
LUKE: Like we're being watched
YODA: Away put you weapon, I mean you no harm!
YODA: I'm wondering, why are you here?
LUKE: I'm looking for someone...
YODA: Looking? Found someone you have I would say hmmm?
LUKE: Right.
YODA: Help you I can, yes...mmm
LUKE: I don't think so, I'm looking for a great warrior.
YODA: Ahhh! Great warrior. Wars not make one great...
decideyoumust.wav (224Kb)
YODA: Decide you must, how to serve them best, if you leave now, help them you could but...you would destroy all for which they have fought and suffered...
feeltheforce.wav (65Kb)
YODA: You must feel the force around you.
for_my_ally.wav (214Kb)
YODA:For my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. It's energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we...not this crude matter.
future.wav (78Kb)
YODA: Difficult to see, always in motion are the future...
go_to_dagobah.wav (237Kb)
OBI-WAN: You will go to the Dagobah system.
LUKE: Dagobah System?
OBI-WAN: There you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me.
hearyounothing.wav (16Kb)
YODA: Hear you nothing that I say?
helpyou.wav (77Kb)
YODA: Help you I can, yes, mmmmm.
idontbelieve.wav (107Kb)
LUKE: I don't belive it.
YODA: That is why you fail...
lasthope.wav (235Kb)
YODA: Told you I did, reckless is he...now matters are worse...
OBI-WAN: That boy is our last hope.
YODA: No..there is another...
mudhole.wav (175Kb)
YODA: Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is...ahhh...ehh..
LUKE: Mmm...R2 let him have it.
YODA: Mine, mine!
LUKE: R2!
myowncouncil.wav (216Kb)
YODA: What knows you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own council will I keep on who is to be trained!
no.wav (22Kb)
YODA: Nooo...awwww...
no_different.wav (133Kb)
YODA: No different, only different in you mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.
notfar.wav (78Kb)
YODA: Yoda not far, patience, soon you will be with him...
notready1.wav (278Kb)
YODA: I can not teach him, the boy has no patience...
OBI-WAN: He will learn patience.
YODA: Much anger in him.
notready2.wav (314Kb)
YODA: Much anger in him, like his father.
OBI-WAN: Was I any different when you tought me?
YODA: He is not ready.
LUKE: Yoda!
onlyafulltrained.wav (325Kb)
YODA: Only a fully trained Jedi Knight with the Force as his ally will conquer Vader and his Emperor. If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil.
powerful.wav (108Kb)
YODA: Awww...father, powerful jedi was he...mmmm...
saveyou.wav (77Kb)
YODA: Strong is Vader, mind what you have learned, save you it can...
sizemattersnot.wav (113Kb)
YODA: Size matters not, look at me, judge me by my size do you?
throughtheforce.wav (179Kb)
YODA: Through the force, things you will see, other places, the future, the past...old friends long gone..
to_old.wav (129Kb)
YODA: He's too old, yes..too old to begin the training...
trynot.wav (64Kb)
YODA: No, try not, do or do not...there is no try...
use_the_force.wav (73Kb)
YODA: Use the force...yes....
whywish.wav (41Kb)
YODA: Why wish you become jedi?...mmm?
youarereckless.wav (78Kb)
YODA: You are reckless!
OBI-WAN So was I, if you remember...
youmustnotgo.wav (172Kb)
YODA: Luke! You must complete the training!
LUKE: Ahh...I can't keep the vision out of my head, they are my friends I got to help them.
YODA: You must not go!
Return of the Jedi
900years.wav (89Kb)
YODA: When ninehundred years old you reach, look as good, you will not..mmm?
anger_fear_agression.wav (118Kb)
YODA: Anger, fear, aggression, the dark side are they.
confrontvader.wav (131Kb)
YODA: Vader, you must confront Vader, then, only then, a jedi will you be...and confront him you will.
fathersfate.wav (180Kb)
YODA: Do not underestimate the powers of the emperor, or suffer your fathers faith you will...
inyourfamily.wav (236Kb)
YODA: The force runs strong in your family....pass on what you have learned...
Yoda Text To Speech Voice
lastjedi.wav (59Kb)
YODA: The last of the jedi will you be...
nomore.wav (133Kb)
YODA: No more training do your require, already know you that what you need.
old.wav (103Kb)
YODA: That face you make, look I so old to your eyes?
old_and_weak.wav (70Kb)
YODA: Sick have I become, old and weak...
soonrest.wav (67Kb)
YODA: Soon will I rest...yes..
thereisanother.wav (299Kb)
YODA: There is another, sky...sky...Skywalker...
twilight.wav (467Kb)
YODA: Strong am I with the force, but not that strong....twilight is upon me and soon night must fall, that is the way of things, the way of the force...
yourfather.wav (457Kb)
YODA: Your father he is...told you did he?
LUKE: Yes...
YODA: Unexpected this is, and unfortunate...
Non-video sound clips
interactive.wav (72Kb)
The Interactive Yoda saying 'Let the Force flow.'
chasingamy.wav (89Kb)
A sound clip from the movie Chasing Amy where Silent Bob recites some Yoda lines.
dr_demento.au (1.39Mb)
Yoda parody of 'Lola' by the Kinks by Dr. Demento (the Weird Al song)
everybodys-free.mp3 (2.37Mb)
A parody of 'Everybody's free (to wear sunscreen)' by Baz Luhrmann with Yoda giving advice.
takeitback.mid (26.5Kb)
Yoda parody 'Come Back' of 'Take it back' by Pink Floyd in .mid form (music only, no voices)
weird_al.mid (51.2Kb)
Yoda by Weird Al (and Dr. Demento) in .mid form (music only, no voices)
weird_al_accordion.mid (51.2Kb)
Yoda by Weird Al (and Dr. Demento) in accordian style in .mid form (music only, no voices)
weird-al.mp3 (2.72Mb)
Yoda by Weird Al in .mp3 form (CD-quality)
weird-al.wav (1.75Kb)
Yoda by Weird Al in .wav form (not quit as good as .mp3, but way better than .mid)
ymca.mid (26.5Kb)
YODA parody of YMCA in .mid form (music only, no voices)
yoda.ra (32Kb)
A RealAudio clip from the Yoda exibit at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian.
(4.02Mb)
The song ' yoda'=' by=' liquid=' plumber=' in=' .mp3=' form=' (cd-quality).
Yoda rapping (he's in the background, pay attention, and you can hear him) in .mp3 format (CD-quality).
yodas_theme.mid (51.2Kb)
Yoda's theme from the movies in .mid form (music only, no voices)
Let's examine one of the great classic problems in linguistics: Yoda. And how he talks.
Yoda? Know him you do, surely. The great Jedi master he is! The little green Jedi master he also is. And speak in backwards sentences he does.
OK, that last statement isn't really true. The sentences aren't completely backwards. He doesn't say 'Him to you take will I'; he says 'Take you to him I will.' What's more, not all his sentences are like this. Actually only about half are, depending on the movie; the rest are in normal English word order.
What language does Yoda speak? The answer to this is surprisingly clear: It's English (duh). In all five of the movies he's in, he speaks only English. This is not to say that he doesn't speak any other language, but we actually don't have any evidence he does. He could be a monolingual speaker of the kind of English he speaks. There are dialects of English that are more different from the Queen's English than Yoda's is.
What's more, if Yoda's native language is not English, we can't infer any details of it from how he speaks English. The fact that he shows a stylistic quirk in English doesn't mean that he brought it over from another language. He may have, but he may just like the structure of that way of speaking. After all, he only sometimes uses the 'reversed' word order — which means when he does, he probably does it by choice. He could easily have picked it up from English. After all, the people who wrote him did.
Let's look at a few characteristic sentences of Yoda English:
Nothing more will I teach you today.
Size matters not.
Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they.
If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice.
For 800 years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained!
Much to learn you still have.
When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not.
Lost a planet Master Obi-Wan has.
Now let's look at some bits of English that do not come from Yoda, but sound like they could have:
Round about the cauldron go; in the poison entrails throw.
Else the Puck a liar call.
Yoda Text 2 Speech Free
For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered.
I like him not.
Come, they told me, the newborn king to see.
Yoda Text 2 Speech Text
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring.
Of your father I won't even speak.
The first four are from Shakespeare. The fifth is from a well-known Christmas song (with 'pa-rum-pa-pum-pum' removed; thanks to Arnold Zwicky for that example). The sixth is from Walt Whitman. The last is from The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler, and it shows a characteristic turn of phrase in Yiddish-influenced English.
These sentences remind us of Yoda-style things we can do in poetry and other stylized forms. We can put not at the end ('I like him not') rather than attach it to the auxiliary do ('I don't like him'); this used to be standard English. We can move the verb to before the subject ('Duncan have I murdered'). We can put the conjugated verb at the end — which was standard in dependent clauses in Old English (and still is in German). And most importantly, we can bring stuff from the end to the front, as Yoda does.
When you bring a later part of the sentence to the beginning, it's called fronting. You can front just a noun or prepositional phrase — 'Jackets we hang here, ties we pile over there'; 'The life of Riley, you live'; 'For $5 you came here?' — or you can front a verb with it as well, as long as you keep a conjugated verb (such as an auxiliary do or have or will) at the end — 'Likes it hot, he does'; 'Park in my spot, will he?' Sometimes we even leave off the verb at the end, when we start with a shortened sentence and then clarify: 'Makes a lot of money, your friend?'
Why do we front things? To put key information first. Perfunctory bits can wait till the end. Perhaps when 900 years old you are, do this you will also, as dead you may be before finish the sentence you will. Going with this, Yoda typically keeps the conjugated verb at the end — maybe because 900 years ago that's what we normally did in subordinate clauses in English — and puts the not at the end — because, again, it's old-style and more direct.
And why not? What would you do if you wanted something that sounds a little quirky and exotic and appropriate to a wise Jedi master who happens to be a two-foot-high green gremlin-like creature with the voice of Miss Piggy? Why not draw on archaic and poetic forms, and also on colloquial forms and some turns of phrase associated with Yiddish-influenced English, which is stereotyped as knowing and witty?
Because remember: Yoda didn't write his own lines. He is a character in five movies written by several different screenwriters. In Yoda-Speak: A Study of Yoda's Speaking Patterns and Their Frequencies, Michael Kaminsky gives a detailed run-down of how Yoda's speech varies from movie to movie — and screenwriter to screenwriter. So you have different versions of Yoda's speech; sometimes, for instance, the pronoun comes before the verb ('Received a coded message we have'), sometimes after ('Heard from no one have we'). But somehow they all manage to adhere more or less to a recognizable, comprehensible style.
And that's the thing about Yoda-speak: We understand it. It is comprehensible English because it is written by English speakers, for English speakers, using things you can do in English. If we were to put the words in the order you'll get them in even some of English's closest neighbor languages, it would be much stranger and harder to understand:
Is planet lost at Master Obi-Wan. (Gaelic)
I not you will-teach more today. (French)
I will my own counsel on them, who trained become, keep. (German)
In some other languages, you couldn't even do word-for-word — you might get just one or two words with a lot of prefixes and suffixes. And in extraterrestrial languages? All bets are off.
But Yoda speaks English.