This unit introduces the noun suffix -vaD.

It indicates the beneficiary of an action (for whom something is done?) and is often translated as for or to. Note that "beneficiary" is a linguistic term and the action is not always to the benefit of the beneficiary. If you give a bomb to someone, they are the beneficiary, even though the bomb does not necessarily benefit them.

Note that the word "action" is used a couple times in the above paragraph. This suffix connects a noun to a verb when that noun is neither the subject nor the direct object. An example of it's use is that the recipient of verbs of speaking or giving would be marked as the beneficiary.

Another example would be its use with pong to name, to call to mark the beneficiary—the person or thing given a certain name—e.g. SoHvaD mara vIpong I will call you Mara (in the sense of: I will use the name Mara for you). The English translation does not appear to use a preposition, but Klingon does use -vaD to indicate the "beneficiary" or "recipient" of the naming.

Placement of -vaD

A noun marked with -vaD cannot be used as an object or subject and will occur before the OVS structure of the sentence. Since this suffix marks the syntactic role of the noun or noun phrase, like -Daq, -vo', and -'e', you may not combine any of these suffixes together and you can only choose one syntactic role for the noun or noun phrase.

You can, however, combine the syntactic markers with other suffixes like plurals and possessives. If a noun has multiple suffixes, -vaD will always be the last.

If -vaD (like the other syntactic markers) is placed on a noun phrase created using noun + adjectival verb, this suffix moves to the end of the phrase, thus appearing to attach to the verb: jupwI' QIpvaD paq vInob I will give the book to my stupid friend.

The prefix trick

In English, we can say either I gave the book to him or the shorter I gave him the book, without to; the sentences mean the same thing and the word order makes it clear what is meant.

Klingon also allows one to abbreviate sentences that would use -vaD in some cases. The recipient has to be first or second person (to me, to you, to us) and there must either be a third-person direct object (a singular or plural noun or one of the pronouns him, her, it, them), or there is no object stated and the verb cannot take a person as a direct object.

To abbreviate a sentence like this, the verb prefix will show the subject as usual, but will show the indirect object (the beneficiary/recipient) rather than the direct object.

For example, cho- is the verb prefix for: subject = you (one person), object = me. If we say paq chonob, it will mean you gave me a book: the same thing as jIHvaD paq Danob you gave a book to me.

In the shorter version, paq chonob, it is clear that me is not the direct object (the thing given) because an explicit object paq is present.

In the longer version, jIHvaD paq Danob, the verb prefix Da- (subject = you, object = it) agrees more straightforwardly with the direct object.

Similarly, qoqmey ghonob! Give us the robots! would be understood the same way as maHvaD qoqmey tInob! Give the robots to us!—gho- you!–us (imperative/command) will be understood with us as the indirect object because the direct object qoqmey is present.

As an example of a verb that cannot take a person as a direct object, jatlh to say, to speak can only take things such as languages, speeches, or sentences as direct objects. Thus qajatlh cannot mean *I speak you but has to mean I speak to you.

This abbreviated way of forming sentences using the verb prefixes in a different way rather than using -vaD is also known as "the prefix trick".

Noun-noun

There is sometimes a temptation to use the -vaD suffix to relate two nouns when English uses the word for, as in, a message for the captain. Klingon does not use the -vaD suffix for this kind of connection and in the vast majority of cases, you are better off using the genitive noun-noun construction: HoD QIn a message of the the captain or the captain's message.