tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Oct 26 00:46:27 2002

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Re: Learning Project (hopefully)



At 14:55 02-10-25 -0700, you wrote:
>  are these correct?

Hmm, I'm afraid you have every single one backwards.  This makes it 
unlikely that you are guessing, but something is wrong here.

I *suspect* that what you are doing is looking up the words, putting them 
in what seems to you to be the right order, and then, knowing the Klingon 
order is supposed to be Object-Verb-Subject, naming the object and subject 
based on the order.  Please don't try to put the words in the right order 
based on English.  That will fail almost every time.  English order is 
usually Subject-Verb-Object, but there are exceptions. You CAN learn to 
identify the subject and object properly.  If Jeremy's suggestion helps, 
great.  Here is my explanation.

Remember that the subject DOES the action of the verb, and the object has 
the action done TO it.  So find the verb, you're good at that, and ask "who 
or what does this?"  The answer is your subject.  Now ask "who or what is 
it done to?" and that is your object.

I guess my explanation comes out almost the same as Jeremy's.  Must be 
because we're talking about the same thing.

> > Here are some more like those first ones, so you can check if you
> > understand these now, and try for 100%.
> >
> > The child steals chocolate.
>Object child
>Verb steals
>Subject chocolate, because that is what is being stolen
>puq nIH yuch.

The verb is steals.  Who or what steals?  The child.  Therefore child is 
the subject.
Who or what gets stolen?  The chocolate.  So chocolate is the object.

yuch nIH puq


> > And try translating these into English:
> >
> > Hegh Sa'
>The general is dead

Sure.  This can also be "the general dies" or "the general will die."

> > De' lIj ghojwI'
>Information was forgotten by the student. <<not sure this one is right >>

It's more straightforward than that.  "The student forgot the information."
Don't make any attempt to put the translated words in the same order as the 
original words.

> > SoS qaw puq
>The mother remembers the child.

I think you looked up the words, managed to make sense of them without 
rearranging anything, so you stopped.  You have to keep going, and make 
sure you know the KLINGON sense.

SoS             qaw           puq
mother     remember     child
object         verb         subject

Who remembers?  The subject remembers.  The subject is puq -- the child
Who gets remembered?  The object.  The object is SoS -- the mother.

So the correct translation is "The child remembers the mother."

And here are some more.  Keep at it.  You'll get it.

The person bites the asteroid.
A woman dislikes deodorant.
The child borrowed a helmet.  (you don't need to do anything special 
because it is borrowED)
The general demands liquor.
The woman understands.
The man has a cape.



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