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More Time Markers
These new terms are used in exactly the same way as DaHjaj today, wa'leS tomorrow, tugh soon, not never and so on.
| cha'Hu' | the day before yesterday |
| cha'leS | the day after tomorrow |
| povam | this morning |
| povvam | this afternoon |
| ramvam | this night |
| povetlh | that morning |
| povvetlh | that afternoon |
| ramvetlh | that night |
| latlh po | the other morning |
| latlh pov | the other afternoon |
| latlh jaj | the other day |
| latlh ram | the other night |
| DaHjaj po | this morning |
| DaHjaj pov | this afternoon |
| DaHjaj ram | tonight |
| wa'Hu' po | yesterday morning |
| wa'Hu' pov | yesterday afternoon |
| wa'leS po | tomorrow morning |
| wa'leS pov | tomorrow afternoon |
| DungluQ | noon |
| pemjep | midday |
| pagh rep | midnight |
| ramjep | midnight |
Most of the above terms are derived from the following root nouns representing parts of the day.
| jaj | day (from dawn to dawn) |
| jajlo' | dawn |
| po | morning |
| pem | daytime |
| pov | afternoon |
| choS | twilight, dusk |
| ram | night |
Seconds, Minutes, Hours
Klingon also has nouns for seconds, minutes and hours.
| lup | second (n) |
| tup | minute (n) |
| rep | hour (n) |
To understand how to count with these units of time, you will need to learn some numbers.
Some Basic Numbers
The following are the ten digits of Klingon you will be expected to use.
| pagh | zero, 0 |
| wa' | one, 1 |
| cha' | two, 2 |
| wej | three, 3 |
| loS | four, 4 |
| vagh | five, 5 |
| jav | six, 6 |
| Soch | seven, 7 |
| chorgh | eight, 8 |
| Hut | nine, 9 |
To count in tens, attach the number-forming unit maH tens unit to the number:-
| wa'maH | ten, 10 |
| cha'maH | twenty, 20 |
| wejmaH | thirty, 30 |
| loSmaH | forty, 40 |
| vaghmaH | fifty, 50 |
| javmaH | sixty, 60 |
| SochmaH | sixty, 60 |
| chorghmaH | sixty, 60 |
| HutmaH | sixty, 60 |
To count eleven, twenty seven and so on, simply state wa'maH wa', cha'maH Soch and so on.
| wa'maH vagh | 15 |
| cha'maH cha' | 22 |
| wejmaH Soch | 37 |
| loSmaH vagh | 45 |
| vaghmaH Hut | 59 |
To count in the hundreds, attach the number-forming unit vatlh hundreds unit to the number:-
| wa'vatlh | 100 |
| cha'vatlh | 200 |
| wejvatlh | 300 |
| loSvatlh | 400 |
| vaghvatlh | 500 |
| javvatlh | 600 |
| Sochvatlh | 700 |
| chorghvatlh | 800 |
| Hutvatlh | 900 |
These numbers are used in the same way as tens numbers:-
| wejvatlh wa'maH vagh | 315 |
| wejvatlh Soch | 307 |
| loSvatlh vagh | 405 |
| loSvatlh cha'maH cha' | 422 |
| Hutvatlh vaghmaH | 950 |
| javvatlh javmaH jav | 666 |
| Sochvatlh HutmaH | 790 |
| Hutvatlh HutmaH Hut | 999 |
We will be going back to numbers to look at them in greater detail further down the line, but for now here is how you can use these numbers to tell the time.
Like all the above time markers, these terms come before the object-verb-subject portion of the sentence.
For convenience, you can use a standard Terran day of 24 hours, each hour 60 minutes long, each minute 60 seconds long. When telling the time, the hours part is expressed as X-hundred hours - X-vatlh rep - even if the time is something like 14:00 hours or 19:00 hours:-
| pagh rep | midnight, zero hundred hours |
| wa'vatlh rep | 01:00 |
| cha'vatlh rep | 02:00 |
| wejvatlh rep | 03:00 |
| loSvatlh rep | 04:00 |
| vaghvatlh rep | 05:00 |
| javvatlh rep | 06:00 |
| Sochvatlh rep | 07:00 |
| chorghvatlh rep | 08:00 |
| Hutvatlh rep | 09:00 |
| wa'maHvatlh rep | 10:00 |
| wa'maH wa'vatlh rep | 11:00 |
| wa'maH cha'vatlh rep | 12:00 |
| wa'maH wejvatlh rep | 13:00 |
| wa'maH loSvatlh rep | 14:00 |
| wa'maH vaghvatlh rep | 15:00 |
| wa'maH javvatlh rep | 16:00 |
| wa'maH Sochvatlh rep | 17:00 |
| wa'maH chorghvatlh rep | 18:00 |
| wa'maH Hutvatlh rep | 19:00 |
| cha'maH vatlh rep | 20:00 |
| cha'maH wa'vatlh rep | 21:00 |
| cha'maH wa'vatlh rep | 22:00 |
| cha'maH wa'vatlh rep | 23:00 |
A time such as X hours:Y minutes (e.g. 11:23) is stated as X-hundred, Y hours. The comma in the time is a convenience inserted here so you can separate the hours figure from the minutes figure.
Witching Hour: To state a time lying after midnight and before 1 am (00:01 - 00:59) the format is pagh, Y rep where Y represents the minutes.
| 00:01 | pagh, wa' rep |
| 00:15 | pagh, wa'maH vagh rep |
| 00:59 | pagh, vaghmaH Hut rep |
| 01:23 | wa'vatlh, cha'maH wej rep |
| 02:45 | cha'vatlh, loSmaH vagh rep |
| 03:32 | wejvatlh, wejmaH cha' rep |
| 04:17 | loSvatlh, wa'maH Soch rep |
| 09:20 | Hutvatlh, cha'maH rep |
| 11:30 | wa'maH wa'vatlh, wejmaH rep |
| 14:15 | wa'maH loSvatlh, wa'maH vagh rep |
| 17:30 | wa'maH Sochvatlh, wejmaH rep |
| 21:10 | cha'maH wa'vatlh, wa'maH rep |
| 23:59 | cha'maH wejvatlh, vaghvatlh Hut rep |
Other Klingon time units include:-
| Hogh | week |
| jar | month |
| DIS | year |
If, instead of describing a specific time, you want to describe something as having taken place "X minutes / hours / days / months / years ago," or something which will take place "X minutes / hours / days / months / years from now," place these terms after the number:-
| leS | days from now |
| Hu' | days ago |
| waQ | months ago |
| wen | months from now |
| ben | years ago |
| nem | years from now |
| pIq | time period ago |
| ret | time period from now |
To number days ago, days from now, you can attach leS or Hu' directly to the number:- thus loSleS means four days from now, and SochHu' means seven days ago.
For all the other units, the unit term remains separated from the number. Note that none of the time units takes a plural suffix of any type.
| wejleS | 3 days from now |
| wa'maH SochleS | 17 days from now |
| chorghleS | 8 days from now |
| HutHu' | 9 days ago |
| chorghmaHHu' | 80 days ago |
| vaghHu' | 5 days ago |
| wa' waQ | one month ago |
| cha' waQ | 2 months ago |
| Soch wen | 7 months from now |
| cha'maH vagh ben | 25 years ago |
| wa'maH jav nem | 16 years from now |
| jav rep pIq | six hours ago |
| bID rep pIq | half an hour ago |
| wa' Hogh pIq | one week ago |
| javmaH lup pIq | sixty seconds ago |
| wa' tup pIq | one minute ago |
| cha'maH tup ret | twenty minutes from now |
| cha' Hogh ret | two weeks from now |
| wej Hogh jav jaj jav rep vaghmaH tup ret | three weeks, six days, six hours and fifty minutes from now |
| bID rep ret | half an hour from now |
Twenty-First Century
To describe longer periods requires other terms. bov means era (n), and vatlh DIS poH means century:-
| qeylIS bov | The Era of Kahless |
| vatlh DIS poH cha'maH wa' | The Twenty-First Century |
Finally, of course, the word for time itself is:-
| poH | time (n) |
| poH | time (v) |
And yes, poH is also a verb. be' vIpoHta' I timed her.
And that's almost it for time-related posts. The last lesson will bring everything together with one last question: "What Time Is It?"
