Sentences 101 - Basic Sentences

A basic Klingon sentence, along the lines of jagh HIv tlhIngan The Klingon attacks the enemy, has a very specific word order, one which you might take a bit of getting used to.

The sentence order is

OBJECT -- VERB -- SUBJECT

This is actually the reverse of standard English: the equivalent of our sentences having the structure the enemy attacks the Klingon where it is the Klingon (the subject) doing the attacking, and the enemy (the object) still being the one attacked.

NOTE: In Klingon, there is no definite or indefinite article: loD can mean man, a man or the man.

Ten examples:

be' ra' tlhIngan The Klingon commands the woman
loD SIgh loDHom The boy influences the man
Soj Sop be'nal The wife eats the food
tlhIngan SIgh be' The woman influences the Klingon
be'Hom Qorgh be' The woman takes care of the girl
ghu' jIH tlhIngan The Klingon monitors the situation
Soj qem loDHom The boy brings food
Dargh ngeH jup The friend sends tea
nob qeng tlhIngan The Klingon bears a gift
loDHom qIp be'Hom The girl hits the boy
Sometimes, a sentence comprises just the subject and a verb (e.g. "the Klingon fights," "the man speaks"). The word order is the same, but the object is dropped:-

VERB -- SUBJECT

pup be'nI' The sister kicks
Sop loD The man eats
jatlh be' The woman speaks
Qap Hol Language works
Suv tlhIngan The Klingon fights

This basic sentence order works for all examples where there is a single subject and a single object. For sentences where the subject or object is in a different person, such as the first person (I, me; we, us) or second person (you), you will need to learn something new about Klingon verbs; verb prefixes.

These verb prefixes will be covered in the next few lessons.