Help:A Guide to Klingon/verbs

Verbs
A prefix is optional, and if used there can be only one. Prefixes are used when the subject of a verb is a pronoun.

There are ten types of suffixes:
 * Rovers can appear anywhere, usually, and more than one may be used.
 * There are nine types of numbered suffixes. Only one of each type may be used for a compound word. These suffixes must appear in type order: PREFIX-VERB-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9.

Prefixes
none indicates that no prefix is required. For the blank entires, the object is translated by -'egh or -chuq.

Imperative prefixes
Another set of prefixes are used to form commands. In English, the subject is not usually translated.

Roving Suffixes
The general rule is that these may occur anywhere after the verb but there are several exceptions. More than one rover may be used.

Suffix Type 6: Qualification
These suffixes indicate the certainity of the action.

Suffix Type 7: Aspect & Tenses
There are no verb tenses in Klingon. The tense can usually be inferred from the context. The following suffixes indicate whether a verb action is completed or ongoing.

More on tenses
A sentence such as juH vIjaH can mean any of the following: Without any other indication of when the action happened, it is usual to consider it present tense: I am going home.
 * I am going home.
 * I went home.
 * I will go home.

If a time is given, it provides context for inferring the tense:
 * wa'Hu' juH vIjaH - Yesterday I went home.
 * wa'les juH vIjaH - Tomorrow I will go home.
 * jaj wa' juH vIjaH - On Sunday I went home. or On Sunday I will go home.

Relative Clause Marker
A relative clause modifies a noun, called the head noun. In English, relative clauses start with a relative pronoun such as that, what, which, who, whom or whose. Most of these pronouns have other meanings in English.

The Klingon equivalent of the relative pronoun is the syntactic marker -bogh:
 * Heghpu'bogh loD - the man who died
 * loD lulbogh - the man whom she fights
 * qach vIparHa'bogh - the house which I like

If both subject and object are nouns, then the noun that is modified, the head noun, is indicated by -'e':
 *  loD lulbogh bee'  - the woman who fights the man''

A relative clause can also be used to translate constructions such as a man in a coat. This can be rendered:
 *  wep tuQbogh loD'e'  - a man who is wearing a coat

Subordinate Clause Markers
In English, a subordinate or dependent clause is usually attached to a main clause. They normally start with a dependent word such as because or if.

The following syntactic markers introduce subordinate clauses in Klingon. The subordinate clause can occur before or after the rest of the sentence.

Nominalizers
A nominalizer transforms a verb into a noun.