tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Apr 27 22:41:34 1997

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RE: KLBC: Must



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


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