tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 09 11:11:19 1996
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Re: help with this.
>Date: Wed, 9 Oct 1996 08:19:11 -0700
>From: [email protected] (Denny Shortliffe)
>>
>>I'm just starting out at learning tlhIgan Hol and was wondering about the following simple phrase.
>>
>>I wanted to translate 'target the engines' to tlhIgan and came up with the following:
>>
>>DoS QuQ
>>
>>I understand this translates to target engine so If I added -pu' to give {QuQpu'}, does this give me the plural.?
>Short answer: No
>Longer answer: {DoS} is a noun you could use it if you were saying "the
>target is the engine". The correct _verb_ is {puS} [to aim or train, as
>in train a gun].
Your answers (short and long) were *mostly* (not qualifier) correct and
clear... but this is clearly a newcomer asking a newcomer's question (as
indeed the first line of the question states) and so should have been left
to the Beginner's Grammarian. Remember, if KLBC were the only criterion,
how would any newcomers know to use it? You have to BE here to see it!
Consider also the verb Qeq (aim) from CK (not in dictionary).
>Therefore the correct translation of, what I assume is an order to be
>issued to your crew, "Target the engines!" is {QuQmey puS}. Note that
>this is in "clipped klingon", i.e., the informal speech used in the heat
>of battle. The more formal version would require the use of a verb suffix
>to indicate the imperative, thus {QuQmey yIpuS}.
If the engines indeed are plural, it must be QuQmey tIpuS (not yIpuS).
~mark