tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 05 08:03:00 1999

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RE: wot moHaqmey

jatlh QInteS:
> chay' wot moHaqmey vIqawlaH?

jIjatlh:
> tIlo'.

And now for a few more suggestions.

The easiest way to remember the prefixes is to get into the habit of using
them regularly, but how often do you get a chance to use, for example, <ju->
or <tu->. A common technique people use is to find an example of a prefix
and remember the example. I once used <pI-> in a story, and for about a year
the way I remembered it was to think of <pIQongmoHlaH> - "we can put you
(sing) to sleep". ghunchu'wI' (I think) has a wonderful little phrase for
<nI->: <nIteb nIteb> - "they fill you up all by themselves". Two canon
phrases that people sometimes use are <chay' jura'?> and <lIchopbe'chugh
gheymey>.

Another thing to do is to quiz yourself in the shower, in the car on the way
to work, while waiting in line at the grocery store, etc. Pick a row or
column from the prefix table and see if you can remember all the prefixes.
For example: subject I (1s): 
obj none jI- 
obj you (2s) qa- 
obj him/her/it (3s) vI- 
obj y'all (2p) Sa- 
obj them (3p) vI-

Or, object you plural (2p):
subj I (1s) Sa-
subj he/she/it (3s) lI-
subj we (1p) re-
subj they (3p) lI-

This will help you figure out where the holes are, and later when you're
safely out of the shower or car, you can look up the ones you didn't get.

And don't worry too much about not knowing the all prefixes off the top of
your head. I went through a large part of my BG term using the little prefix
chart refrigerator magnet on a semi-regular basis. I feel like I know all of
them now, but I am certain it will be a year or two before I can confidently
use any of the less common ones in spoken conversation.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

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