Klingon/Lesson 3

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Sentences with an object

Introduction

In this lesson, you will learn how to form sentences with two nouns - a subject and an object. We will also introduce some more verb prefixes and a couple of verb suffixes.

Vocabulary

Here a few more words:

puq	(noun)	child
jup	(noun)	friend
qIp	(verb)	hit
legh	(verb)	see
ghobe'	(exclamation)	no
HISlaH / HIja'	(exclamation)	yes

There are two words for yes, HISlaH and HIja'. There is no difference in their meaning.

Verb Prefixes

Here are three more verb prefixes:

Prefix	Subject	Object
qa-	I	you (sing.)
vI-	I	him / her / it / them
Sa-	I	you (plural)

Grammar

Transitive Verbs

In lesson 2 we saw simple sentences with only a subject and a verb. In Klingon, the subject is placed after the verb. For example:

ba' loD.

The man sits. or The man is sitting.

In English, the verb sits is intransitive, which means there is no object. Verbs such as see or hit, are transitive - they require an object. The subject is the person or thing carrying out the action of the verb, the actor. The object is the person or thing that has the action inflicted upon them, the target.

In a sentence such as:

The woman hit the man.

The subject is the woman and the object is the man and the word order is SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT.

In Klingon, the word order of a sentence is reversed; it is OBJECT-VERB-SUBJECT. The object comes first, then the verb and finally the subject:

	loD qIp be'.	The woman hit the man.
	be' qIp loD.	The man hit the woman.

Transitive verbs can also be used with verb prefixes with an object:

	qaqIp.	I hit you (sing.)
	Salegh.	I see you (plural).

Verb Suffixes

Verb suffixes are placed at the end of a verb. An example in English would be -er which is placed at the end of a verb such as fight to give a noun such fighter.

Our first suffix is -laH. It is translated as can or is able:

qetlaH.

He can run. or She is able to run.

Our next suffix is -'a'. It forms a question:

Qam'a'?

Is he/she standing?

The question is always one that would be answered by yes or no.

We can use both of these suffixes on the same verb. If so, -laH must come before -'a':

	yItlaH'a'?	Can she walk? or Is he able to walk?
	jIba'laH'a'?	Can I sit? or Am I able to sit?
	HISlaH. bIba'laH.	Yes. You can sit.

In lesson 2 we also saw -be', used to negate a verb.

yItlaHbe'

She can't walk. or He is not able to walk.

Exercises

Go and read this lesson again, memorize the new words and then try these exercises. If you need to, go back and read the previous lessons.

Conclusion

In this lesson, you learnt how to form sentences with a subject and an object.

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