Interrogate Someone
Questions and negatives
You will come across some verbs that are questions — is he handsome? are you smart? — and/or are negative — he is not handsome, I am not stupid.
These are formed with the verb suffix -'a' for a yes/no question and the verb suffix -be' for negative. The verb suffix -'a' is classified as a "type 9" verb suffix and will always be the last suffix on a verb. You will learn more about suffix types in future lessons, but the important point here is that if there are multiple suffixes on a verb, the interrogative verb suffix -'a' always comes last. The verb suffix -be' is classified as a "rover", and the nature of its "roving" will be explained once you have learned more suffixes.
These suffixes can be added to any verb to turn it into a question or a negative. For example, jIQong "I slept", jIQong'a'? "did I sleep?", jIQongbe' "I did not sleep"; bIval "you are smart", bIval'a'? "are you smart"?, bIvalbe' "you are not smart".
Notice that to make a sentence into a question in English, we might add the words, "do", "did", or "will". Or the verb and subject might switch places to make it a question. The rules for which change you make in English can be slightly complex, but in Klingon it is simple. In Klingon, the only change is the addition of the -'a' suffix.
Negative questions are also possible: valbe"a' torgh? "Is Torg not smart?", yItbe"a' mara? "Didn't Mara walk?" (Note that the -'a' is placed after the -be' since it always comes last on the verb.)
Please note that the -'a' verb suffix is not used when there is a question word such as "who", "what", "where", "when", "why", or "how". It is only used to turn a statement into a yes/no question. Question words will be covered later in this course, but as an example and a preview yaj 'Iv? ("Who understands?") uses the question word 'Iv ("who?"), but does not include the -'a' interrogative verb suffix. Note that the suffix -'a' is not used because that is not a yes/no question and instead uses a question word.
The words HISlaH and ghobe'
HISlaH means "yes" and ghobe' means "no". These words are primarily used to answer yes/no questions. English often uses "yes" and "no" for refusal or acceptance, but Klingon uses other words for refusal or acceptance. Qo' (which is used to express refusal, as in "I won't!") and lu' (which is used to express acceptance, as in "I will!").
Outside of this course, you may also see the word HIja' used to answer questions with "yes". Both HISlaH and HIja' mean "yes" and they are direct synonyms with no different connotations. This course will only show you the word HISlaH for "yes", but it will accept HIja' as another correct answer.
Note that unlike the English word "no", the words ghobe' and Qo' cannot be used as determiners (as in "We have no bananas."), nor as adverbs ("I am no better."); they are strictly used as exclamations. For those other meanings, Klingon requires you to negate the verb, instead, with the suffix -be'.
Apostrophes and quotes
Remember that Klingon uses the apostrophe ( ' ) as a letter.
Klingon does not use the double-quote character ( " ) as a letter — when you see what might look like a double-quote in the middle of the word, it is actually two apostrophes side by side. For example, maw' means "to be crazy" or "he/she is crazy"; when you add the question suffix -'a', you get maw"a'? "is he/she crazy?". Duolingo can tell the difference and will not accept the double-quote.
Vocabulary
-'a' – interrogative verb suffix (type 9 verb suffix)
DaHjaj – today (n)
qama' – prisoner (n)
Qob – be dangerous (v)
nep – lie (v)
vIt – tell the truth (v)
