tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Apr 14 23:33:30 2003
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Re: 'aH tIQ
On Mon, 14 Apr 2003, Rocas wrote:
> At 02:42 PM 4/14/03 -0700, you wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Apr 2003, SuSvaj wrote:
> > QublaHchugh ghom'a' QeH, vaj qubbej wanI'vetlh.
>
> "If an angry mob can think, then that event is certainly rare."
>
> I think maybe you want:
>
> qubbej QublaHbogh ghom'a' QeH
>
> Why do I want that? Did I make a grammatical error?
I don't know what the common opinion is, but I see most of the Type 9
suffixes as being clauses, and without a main sentence, they become
sentence fragments. Of course, in retrospect, I guess you had a base
sentence. It struck me as odd.
DloraH pointed out you were probably referring to the previous comment,
ie. "That event would be rare if angry mobs could think."
My initial suspicion was that you were trying to simply say "It's rare for
an angry mob to be able to think." But the translation comes out more
like "if an angry mob could think, it would be rare." Which is legitimate
English, but both are kinda klunky.
I tend to kringe when I see "wanI'vetlh". :)
...Paul
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