tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Mar 14 04:44:23 1994

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"rIn"



Some issues have come up lately involving the word "rIn".


David Barronvo':

>qeqvam 'oH qeq Qav vaj vIrInDI'  jIrInbejtaH jay' 'e'  vISov vIneH

>This is my last set so when I am done I want to know I'm f***king FINISHED.

I'm somewhat uneasy with this.  I think I would assert that *you*
are not finished, the *task* is finished.  This usage of rIn seems a
little English-idiomatic.  I seem to recall, for instance, that
French has a different idiom for it.  If you say "je suis fini" -- I am
finished (as opposed to "j'ai fini" -- I have finished), it means
you are really FINISHED, i.e. about to die.

I'll bet my old French teacher would be happy to know that I
remembered that.


>>tugh jInmolwIjmo' vIvumta'
>
>This didn't come out the way you wanted.  What you actually have here is
>more like "I accomplished working because of my project soon," which makess
>no sense.  There is a verb for "to finish, to accomplish," <rIn>.  I would
>simply recast this using it:
>
>	tugh jInmolwIj vIrIn
>
>"I will finish my project soon."  Notice that you do not need to include
>any tense marker on the verb, because <tugh> does that for you.  Does this
>make more sense?

Well, I hate to correct the corrector, but we have a problem here.
This is misuse of rIn.  rIn does NOT mean "to finish, to
accomplish".  rIn means "to BE finished, accomplished" (emphasis
added, duh).  You could use rInmoH, or you could use the verb ta'
(as opposed to the suffix), which does indeed mean "to accomplish."

                --Krankor



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