tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Apr 02 19:27:55 2002
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RE: of a certain age
> >Or one could use a verb referring to the continued existence, maybe even
> >something generic like {taH}:
> >
> > {'ar poH taHpu' targhHomlij?} {loS Hogh taHpu'!}
> > ("How long has your targlet survived/lived?" "She has survived four
> > weeks.")
>
> I'll let the BG explain the proper use of {'ar} and {poH},...
And with that we turn to TKD p70; "/'ar/ follows the noun to which it
refers.
poH 'ar - "How many periods of time".
The noun /poH/ is "period of time"; there is no mention of a unit of
measurement, or how long a period of time is (because it's variable). So
one could always answer this question with wa' "one", or any other infinite
quantity, because you don't specify a unit. We see that in this case there
is a unit of measurement volunteered in the answer.
This next part refers to both sentences.
loS Hogh taHqu'.
How does the /loS Hogh/ fit into the sentence? "Four weeks ago..."? "Four
weeks from now..."? What you want is "During four weeks..."
"During...", we have the suffix -vIS (which must be accompanied by -taH);
but being only (verb) suffixes, they need a verb to attach to. /qaS/.
One can still use /poH/; presumably the one asking doesn't know which would
be more appropriate, weeks, months, years, etc. Unless the one giving the
answer wants a punch in the face, he would give an answer in an appropriate
unit. If the one asking has a general idea of how long, he should ask using
a more specific unit, like week, month, etc.
(See Voragh's message about the -pu')
qaStaHvIS Hogh 'ar taH targhHomlIj?
"During how many weeks has your targhHom survived/endured?"
qaStaHvIS loS Hogh taH.
"During four weeks it has survived."
DloraH, BG