Make Sentences
Suffixes -'egh and -chuq
This unit introduces the "Type 1" verb suffixes.
The Type 1 verb suffixes indicate that the subjects of the verb somehow affect themselves or each other, as described below.
-'egh indicates that the subject of the verb affects itself (or the subjects affect themselves). For example, from legh (see), one could form legh'egh torgh "Torg sees himself" or legh'egh puqpu' "the children see themselves" (perhaps in a mirror).
-chuq indicates that the subjects of the verb affect each other. It only makes sense if the subject is plural: "we, you, they". For example, leghchuq puqpu' would mean "the children see each other" — that is, each child sees another child.
In more technical terms, the suffix –'egh makes a verb reflexive, while the suffix –chuq makes it reciprocal.
Plurals
As you have already seen, forming plurals is about as easy as in English — where the basic rule is "just add -s". You may also remember that in Klingon, the plural ending depends on whether the noun is a being capable of language or a body part or something else.
Beings capable of language take -pu' (tlhIngan "a Klingon", tlhInganpu' "Klingons").
Body parts take -Du' (and you will practice those in a later unit).
Everything else takes -mey (nagh "a rock", naghmey "rocks"). You will get some chances to practice using this suffix in this unit.
Note that Klingons do not generally consider robots (no matter how smart or independent) to qualify as "beings capable of language". Thus robots usually (and in this course, always) use the plural suffix -mey: one qoq, several qoqmey.
(If you, the one taking this course, are a language-using robot, we apologize for any perceived slight this simplification may inflict.)
Plural suffixes are optional in Klingon, so "the rocks" could be translated as naghmey, but also as just nagh.
The special case of mang
The word mang "soldier" is introduced in this unit and as a being capable of language could uses the plural mangpu'. A note should be made that this is not the simple plural it appears to be. There is a separate word, negh,which is used to refer to a group of "soldiers" as a whole. The plural word mangpu' has an implication that you are talking about each individual soldier in the group. Thus mangpu' might be translated as "each of the soldiers". For purposes of this unit the simple plural "soldiers" will also be accepted.
Some more names
While you'll still see Torg (male) and Mara (female) throughout the course, this unit also introduces a few more names for variety. Note that these are not typical English names, but rather well known Klingon names. As such, the English spellings of these names can be a little unusual. We do not insist that you memorize both the Klingon spelling and the English spelling. If you type the Klingon version of the name in your English translation it will generally be accepted as correct. Thus you really only need to learn the Klingon spelling of the names.
A few of these are female: beylana, ghIrIlqa', luqara' (B'Elanna, Grilka, Lukara)
Most of them are male: DuraS, ghawran, martaq, mogh, molor, moratlh, qeylIS, wo'rIv (Duras, Gowron, Martok, Mogh, Molor, Morath, Kahless, Worf).
Vocabulary
wo'rIv – Worf (male name)
qeylIS – Kahless (male name)
