Overview

To be or not to be

Klingon does not have a verb "to be". Instead, pronouns help to fill that role.

jIH means "I" or "me" but also means "I am" in sentences such as tlhIngan jIH "I am a Klingon".

ghaH means "he", "she", "him", or "her" and also means "he is" or "she is" in sentences such as tlhIngan ghaH "He is a Klingon" or "She is a Klingon".

To specify who the "he", "she", or "it" is, Klingon uses pronouns in combination with a "Type 5" noun suffix -'e'. "Torg is a Klingon" is tlhIngan ghaH torgh'e', and "The men are Klingons" is tlhInganpu' chaH loDpu''e'.

The "Type 5" noun suffix -'e' will be covered in more detail later. For now, please only use it where it is grammatically required — this means only in sentences where a pronoun is used for "to be".

Using verbs adjectivally and "to be"

Using a verb that can be used adjectivally for a statement, the verb includes "to be" in the verb – you do not use a pronoun as "to be" for this: val jagh ("The enemy is smart"). A pronoun may still be used to represent the subject – val ghaH "she is smart", but we consider "is" to be part of val rather than part of ghaH.

With a verb as an adjective following the noun it describes there is no "to be" in the English translation. If you want to use such a noun phrase as the topic in a "pronoun as to be" sentence, the -'e' suffix goes on the end of the whole noun phrase (appearing to attach to the verb).

Compare:

• val tlhIngan SuvwI' "The Klingon warrior is smart."
• val ghaH "She is smart."
• SuvwI' val "the smart warrior"
• tlhIngan ghaH SuvwI' val'e' "The smart warrior is a Klingon."

This, that, these, those

"This, these" and "that, those" use "Type 4" noun suffixes: -vam and -vetlh, respectively: Ha'DIbaHvam "this animal", Ha'DIbaHmeyvetlh "those animals".

Whether "this" or "these" is appropriate as a translation of -vam depends on whether the noun is singular or plural; similarly with "that" or "those" for -vetlh.

These type 4 suffixes come after the type 2 plural suffix and -'e' would come last as a type 5 suffix.

Chasing forest sarks

A Sargh "sark" is a Klingon riding animal. The phrase, "chasing forest sarks" is an idiom for "doing something complex and difficult".