Re: KLBC-First part of translation from Qov's sentences

[Quvar valer <levinius@gmx.de>]

Am 01.11.2002 19:19:35, schrieb "Gina Robertson" <torres213@earthlink.net>:

>> When I first met Gina she could not speak Klingon at all.
>I couldn't fine could not anywhere in TKD so I changed 
>it to was not, if there is info on the word could, 
>please tell me what section to look in. 
"could" is the past tense of "can".
"can" means "to be able".
There is verb suffix #5: {-laH} "be able, can"

>Klingon was not able to be spoken by Gina at all when she was first met by me.
You can also say
"Gina could not speak klingon when I met her for the first time"

>thlIngan jatlhlaHbe' Gina {at all} wa'DIch muqIHDI'
"Klingon" is {tlhIngan Hol}.
You don't need the "at all".
Also the {wa'DIch}. First, you don't need it, because {qIH} implies the "first time", second, it is 
used to describe something, like the "first qep'a'". It's not used for time stamps, like "today".
And you need to change the prefix. The sentence was "when *I* met *her* ...", you wrote: "when she met 
me...". (you probably confused this because of your "passive" translation of the sentence ["...by 
me"])

> Don't give me a full translation, just information 
> on what's wrong and why, I want to translate it myself... eventually.
That's a good attitude.
But this time, you almost need to change nothing. Your sentence is almost perfect, just a few little 
mistakes. majQa'!

Quvar
Beginners' Grammarian
  ghojwI'pu'wI' vISaH