tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 09 10:25:12 2003

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Re: yu' jIghaj...



qeraqjih:
> > What I was actually trying to say was, "I speak German, but my
> > English is better" How do you get a sense of one thing being better
> > than something else in German, is there a suffix I can add to /QaQ/
> > to make it /QaQ/er or litterally am "gooder"?

There's no comparative suffix, but if you want to use a verb suffix try:

   [loQ] *Germany* Hol vIjatlh, 'ach *England* Hol vIjatlhchu'.
   I speak German, but my English is better.
   ("I speak [a little] German, but I speak English fluently.")

It's not explicit, but both the sequence of clauses and {'ach} "but" imply 
a comparison.

Elijah Ravenscroft :
>good question! would you use the law'/puS construct, and if so, how? if
>not, what's preferable?

If you want to use law'/puS, off the top of my head I can think of:

1. *Germany* HolwIj QaQ law' *England* HolwIj QaQ puS.
    My German is better than my English.

2. *Germany* Hol SovwIj QaQ law' *England* Hol SovwIj QaQ puS.
    My knowledge of German is better than my (knowledge of) English.

and we also have the noun {laH} "ability".

Adding a purpose clause to law'/puS, we have two examples.  The first is:

    tlhutlhmeH HIq ngeb qaq law' bIQ qaq puS
    Drinking fake ale is better than drinking water. TKW
    ("For drinking, fake ale is better than water.")

which yields:

3. jatlhmeH *Germany* HolwIj QaQ law' *England* HolwIj QaQ puS.
    I speak German better than English.
    ("For speaking, my German is better than my English.")

4. vIjatlhmeH *Germany* Hol QaQ law' *England* Hol QaQ puS.
    I speak German better than English.
    ("For me to speak it, German is better than English.")

I'm sure others will have other suggestions.



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons 



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