|
WORD CLASSES AND MORPHOLOGY
|
Nouns and Pronouns
BASICS
Nouns are never inflected hence always stay unchanged. There are no articles ("a" or "the"). Suffixes can be added to change the meaning of the word or a sentence. Further, there is no grammatical gender in Klingon.
NUMBERS
To state the plural of a word, the appropriate suffix is attached to the noun. If context is clear, you do not need the suffix. There are three types of plural suffixes: one for beings capable of speech, one for body parts, and one for anything else.
|
| Plural Suffixes |
| Plural |
Prefix |
Klingon example |
English translation |
| capable of speech |
-pu' |
tlhInganpu' |
Klingons |
| body parts |
-Du' |
qamDu' |
feet |
| things |
-mey |
balmey |
bottles |
|
Verbs
BASICS
Verbs are never changed for tense, gender, plural or anything else. They are combined with prefixes, indicating who is doing something and suffixes indicating how something happens.
PREFIXES
There is a big set of prefixes for nearly every possible combination of object and subject. There also a few prefixes with no object, for sentences like "I eat". The third person singular (he, she and it) and plural (they) takes no suffix at all, therefore it is called the "zero-prefix" (ø).
|
| prefixes with no object |
| Pronoun |
Prefix |
Verb |
Klingon example |
English translation |
| I |
jI- |
Sop |
jISop |
I eat |
| you |
bI- |
leng |
bIleng |
you travel |
| he/she/it |
ø |
Suv |
Suv |
he fights |
| we |
ma- |
'oj |
ma'oj |
we are thirsty |
| you (pl.) |
Su- |
bom |
Subom |
you all sing |
| they |
ø |
Qong |
Qong |
they sleep |
|
|
SYNTAX
|
The Klingon sentence order is what makes it look so difficult to learn. On the other hand, it makes it a lot easier, because the word order is never changed. It is always the following:
object - verb - subject
|
[back]
|
