tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Apr 27 22:41:34 1997
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RE: KLBC: Must
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC: Must
- Date: Mon, 28 Apr 97 05:05:37 UT
jatlh Edy:
> > > > I want to say "You MUST die"
> > > >
> > > > Is it good: jIHeghqu' ?
>
> > {jIHeghqu'} means "I DIE," with "die" emphasized. It does not mean "you
> > must
> > die" at all.
> >
> > As I said in another post, the "must" will be covered by using the suffix
> > {-nIS}.
> >
> > Oh, yeah: don't forget to capitalize the {I} in {HIja'}.
>
> Let me see: When you give an imperative order to someone (yI of course -
my
> mistake), you have to use -nIS (NEED) to assume a value of MUST, is it?
No! When you are making a statement involving something that must be done,
{-nIS} is used. When you are making an imperative, {-nIS} makes no sense.
Consider *{yIqetnIS}. "Need to run!" is hardly a useful action. How do you
command someone to need something? No, the appropriate command would be
simply {yIqet}. The fact that you are using the prefix {yI-} indicates that
you are ordering someone to do something.
> - naDev QaStaH nuq (What is going on here?)
{qaS} must be spelled with a lowercase {q}. {QaS} means "troops."
{naDev qaStaH nuq} does indeed mean "What is going on here?" But there's a
much better way to say this: {chay'?} TKD tells us in section 6 that {chay'}
by itself means "What's going on?"
> - Heghegh (He commit suicide)
The suffix has a glottal stop at the beginning: {-'egh}. *{Hegh'egh} means
"He dies himself," which is not grammatical. What you need is {HoH'egh} "He
killed himself," or "He committed suicide."
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97323.0