Sentences 104 - Questions And Negative Statements

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In the last lesson, you discovered how to ask a closed question, of the type requiring a yes or no answer, by attaching the suffix -'a' interrogative to a pronoun, converting a declarative statement such as

tlhIngan jIH

I am a Klingon

into

tlhIngan jIH'a'

Am I a Klingon?

The -'a' suffix is, in fact, an example of a verb suffix.

It is not just nouns which have suffixes: verbs have them, too, and -'a' interrogative is one of them. -'a' turns a verb into a closed yes/no question:-

be' SIgh tlhIngan	The Klingon influences the woman
be' SIgh'a' tlhIngan	Does the Klingon influence the woman?
Dargh vIghaj	I have tea
Dargh vIghaj'a'	Do I have tea?
vIjatlh	I'll say it, I am saying it
vIjatlh'a'	Do I say it? Shall I say it?
nargh be'nal	The wife is escaping
nargh'a' be'nal	Is the wife escaping?
DangeH	You are sending it
DangeH'a'	Are you sending it?

Negative Statements

In the same way, -be' negative, not can also be applied to a sentence to negate it:-

be' SIgh tlhIngan	The Klingon influences the woman
be' SIghbe' tlhIngan	The Klingon does not influence the woman
Dargh vIghaj	I have tea
Dargh vIghajbe'	I do not have tea
vIjatlh	I'll say it, I am saying it
vIjatlhbe'	I am not saying it
nargh be'nal	The wife is escaping
narghbe' be'nal	The wife is not escaping
DangeH	You are sending it
DangeHbe'	You are not sending it

You can combine -be' and -'a' to make a negative interrogative - a question along the lines of Is X not doing Y?

In forming such phrases, the order of the suffixes is -be''a'

Note: The placement of the -be' verb suffix has a special rule, which will be revealed in a later lesson; it is enough for now to know that for basic sentences such as these, the order of the verb suffixes is -be' then -'a'.

be' SIgh tlhIngan	The Klingon influences the woman
be' SIghbe''a' tlhIngan	Does the Klingon not influence the woman?
Dargh vIghaj	I have tea
Dargh vIghajbe''a'	I do not have tea
vIjatlh	I'll say it, I am saying it
vIjatlhbe''a'	Am I not saying it?
nargh be'nal	The wife is escaping
narghbe''a' be'nal	Is the wife not escaping
DangeH	You are sending it
DangeHbe''a'	Are you not sending it?

Please note that neither -be' nor -'a' can be used in an inperative verb - that is, a verb with an inperative prefix.

There are other verb suffixes, each with their own function in tlhIngan Hol sentences. There are also other kinds of noun suffix, too - and the lessons to come will cover each of these suffixes in detail, including the very special rules of syntax which apply to Klingon nouns and verbs.

Some very important lessons are about to come your way. But for right now, the next couple lessons will focus on asking some more types of question: namely who? and what?

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