Klingon Sentences 102 - Verb Prefixes: Spot The Pattern

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So far, you have seen how to make simple Klingon sentences:-

jagh HoH tlhIngan The Klingon kills the enemy

Dargh maS be' The woman prefers tea

tlhIngan pup loDnal The husband kicks the Klingon

nargh tlhIngan The Klingon escapes / The Klingon is escaping

Qap HaSta The visual display is working

Now what do you make of these sentences?

Dargh vIqem I'll bring the tea / I'm bringing the tea

Dargh Daqem You are bringing the tea / You'll bring the tea

Dargh qem She is bringing the tea

What's going on here? There's only a verb and an object. The subject's missing, and what are the bits that go before the verb qem bring?

Now what about these sentences?

qara' I command you

vIra' I command him

Sara' I command you (pl.)

chora' You are commanding me / You command me

Dara' You command him

jura' You command us

Now both the subject and the object are missing, and there are other bits before the verb, which is the same in all cases: ra' command.

Is there a pattern to these? Let's see.

Try and see if you can form the following sentences, keeping the subject and object the same, and using different verbs. The verbs are HIV attack, qIp hit, Qorgh care for (look after, as in nursing) and rur resemble.

Now try out the sentences, following the above patterns - including some examples of the simple sentence types already established earlier by way of comparison.

HIv	qIp	Qorgh	rur
The wife attacks the Klingon.	The wife hits the Klingon.	The wife cares for the Klingon.	The wife resembles the Klingon.
I attack you.	I hit you.	I care for you.	I resemble you.
I attack him.	I hit him.	I care for him.	I resemble him.
You attack me.	You hit me.	You care for me.	You resemble me.
You attack us.	You hit us.	You care for us.	You resemble us.

Now did you get the following?

HIv	qIp	Qorgh	rur
tlhIngan HIv be'nal.	tlhIngan qIp be'nal.	tlhIngan Qorgh be'nal.	tlhIngan rur be'nal.
qaHIv	qaqIp	qaQorgh	qarur
vIHIv	vIqIp	vIQorgh	vIrur
choHIv	choqIp	choQorgh	chorur
juHIv	juqIp	juQorgh	jurur

What you are looking at is the most important tool in learning how to construct Klingon sentences, a construction that underpins every Klingon sentence: the Klingon subject-object verb prefix.

Every working Klingon sentence has a moHaq prefix - even the ones with a third-person subject and object such as The wife beats the Klingon; third-person subject-object sentences simply have a null prefix; just the bare verb.

The Klingon Dictionary has a table which lists all of the verb prefixes. Here it is below.

Subject		(none)	me	you	him/her/it	us	you (pl.)	them
Object
I		jI-	--	qa-	vI-	--	Sa-	vI-
you		bI-	cho-	--	Da-	ju-	--	Da-
he/she/it		0	mu-	Du-	0	nu-	lI-	0
we		ma-	--	pI-	wI-	--	re-	DI-
you (pl.)		Su-	tu-	--	bo-	che-	--	bo-
they		0	mu-	nI-	lu-	nu-	lI-	0

Notes

There is always only one subject; only one direct object.

The column headed (none) has the prefixes you would use for a verb without an object. Examples:-

I eat	jISop	We eat	maSop
I sleep	jIQong	We sleep	maQong
I fight	jISuv	We fight	maSuv
You eat	bISop	You (pl.) eat	SuSop
You sleep	bIQong	You (pl.) sleep	SuQong
You fight	bISuv	You (pl.) fight	SuSuv
He/she/it eats	Sop	They eat	Sop
He/she/it sleeps	Qong	They sleep	Qong
He/she/it fights	Suv	They fight	Suv

An entry marked with -- cannot be made using verb prefixes. You need another arrangement, which will be covered in a future lesson.

An entry which is a 0 is a null prefix; there is nothing placed before the bare root verb.

Putting It Together

Let's take a look at this table again. There is something here that needs to sink in.

Every Klingon verb uses these prefixes. The root verb (qIp, Sop, HIv, rur, tIv) never changes - just the prefix changes.

tlhIngan Hol has no irregular verbs. Furthermore, it doesn't have different classes of verb (such as French, which has verbs of different classes ending in -er, -ir and -re).

Once you know the prefix table off by heart, you can conjugate every single Klingon verb the same way. Meaning that you will only ever need to learn this one table off by heart. Ever.

Well, when I say one table ... but that is the subject of the next lesson, Giving Commands - The Imperative Prefix.

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