Descriptions - Adjectival Verbs

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In a previous lesson, you were exposed to adverbials - words which change the manner of the action being taken, such as describing an action taking place quickly or forcefully.

Klingon also has a way of describing and qualifying nouns, in a similar way to the method we use adjectives to describe nouns - green, blue, big, fast, slow, expensive, lazy and so on.

tlhIngan Hol uses certain verbs to perform this function. In The Klingon Dictionary, these are verbs described in the English section with the word "be ":-

tIn	big, be big, large
mach	small, be small
'eq	early, be early
paS	late, be late
Sum	nearm be near, nearby
Hop	distant, be distant, far
tuj	hot, be hot
bIr	cold, be cold
qutlh	cheap, be cheap
wagh	expensive, be expensive

There are many other such verbs, describing ...

- physical properties:-

tIQ	ancient, be ancient
'IH	beautiful, be beautiful
moH	ugly, be ugly
Dal	boring, be boring
Daj	interesting, be interesting
Doj	impressive, be impressive
wov	bright, be bright
Hurgh	dark, be dark
let	hard, be hard
tun	soft, be soft
Huj	strange, be strange
taQ	weird, be weird
le'	special, be special, exceptional
motlh	usual, be usual
Huv	clear, be clear, unobstructed
naQ	complete, be complete, entire, whole
pIm	different, be different
rap	same, be the same
nIb	identical, be identical
nIv	superior, be superior
QIv	inferior, be inferior
HoS	strong, be strong
HoSghaj	powerful, be powerful
puj	weak
teH	true, be true
ngeb	false, be false, fake, counterfeit
taD	frozen, be frozen
'ugh	heavy, be heavy
tIS	light, be lightweight
Qey	tight, be tight
'ut	essential, be essential, necessary
law'	many, be many
puS	few, be a few, be a handful
Qav	last, be last, final, ultimate
rIn	finished, be finished, completed

- colours:-

chIS	white, be white
qIj	black, be black
Doq	red, be red, orange
SuD	blue, be blue, yellow, green

- and states of mind:-

Quch	happy, be happy
'IQ	sad, be sad
mob	alone, be alone
QeH	angry, be angry
'It	depressed, be depressed
tlhab	free, br free, independent
mogh	frustrated, be frustrated
tlhaQ	funny, be funny
qur	greedy, be greedy
qej	grouchy, be grouchy, mean
'uH	hung over, be hung over
ghung	hungry, be hungry
'oj	thirsty, be thirsty
Doy'	tired, be tired
pIv	healthy, be healthy
rop	ill, be ill, sick
po'	skilled, be skilled
'um	qualified, be qualified
tlhIb	incompetent, be incompetent
ngoj	restless, be restless
ngoy'	responsible, be responsible

There are many more of these adjectives - new adjectives will be introduced as and when needed.

Using Adjectives

These words are technically verbs, and tlhIngan Hol treats them as such. As verbs, they can be used in a sentence, in effect in the same place as a regular verb - in which case, they never take an object, and they always take a verb prefix indicating no object (jI- I, bI- you, ma- we, Su- you (plural) and nothing at all in the case of he, she, it and they.

jIQuch	I am happy
bI'IQ'a'	Are you sad?
mob	She is alone
QeH tlhIngan	The Klingons are angry
mogh SuvwI'	The warrior is frustrated
SutlhaQ	You're all funny
qur	He's greedy
maqej	We're grouchy
Su'uH	You're all hung over
let baS	The metal is hard
Huj Dochvetlh	That's strange
taQ	It's weird
le' Dargh	The tea is special
nIb mu'mey	The words are identical
nIv jagh	The enemy is superior
bIQIv	You are inferior
bIpIv	You are healthy
marop	We are ill
puj jaghmey	The enemies are weak

Modifying Nouns

These verbs can also be used to modify nouns, e.g. grouchy Klingon, green tree, incompetent fool and so on.

When used to modify a noun in this way, the verb takes no prefix at all:-

tlhIngan qej	The grouchy Klingon
Sor SuD	green tree
Dargh SuD	green tea
qoH tlhIb	an incompetent fool
tera'ngan Quch	The happy Terran
puq Qup	A young child
loD qan	An old man
lon non	a rotten corpse
woS puj	a weak chin
Qu' Qatlh	a difficult task
veng tIn	big city
ghu qej	grouchy baby
be' tay	the civilised woman
loD val	the clever man

When using such a qualified noun, the noun-plus-adjective is treated as a single noun, whether subject or object, in the sentence. Any noun suffixes (e.g. plural suffixes, -mo' due to, -vam this, -vetlh that, etc) are attached to the noun; the adjective can take certain suffixes of its own, but from a limited list.

puj Darghvetlh	That tea is weak
Darghvetlh puj vItIvbe'	I did not enjoy that weak tea
SuvwI' SuD Suv SuvwI' chIS	The white warriors fight the blue warriors
Soj Daj Sop tlhInganpu'	Klingons eat some interesting food
Daj Sojvam	This food is interesting
not Dal Sojvetlh	That food is never boring
qatlh jaq SuvwI'vetlh	Why is that soldier bold?
chay' SuvwI'vetlh HoSghaj DaSuvta'	How did you fight that powerful warrior?
loDpu' qej tIHIv	Attack those grumpy men!

Next, you will look at all the suffixes encountered to date; then you will look at two further special suffixes, called rovers, both of which are useful with normal and adjectival verbs alike - -Ha' and -qu'.

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