[tlhIngan Hol] The grammatical number of NOUN + 'ar

[De'vID]

On 8 September 2017 at 13:15, Felix Malmenbeck <felixm at kth.se> wrote:
> In TKD §6.4, this is written of the word 'ar:
>
>
> ------------
>
> Finally, 'ar how many? how much? follows the noun to which it refers. It can
> never follow a noun with a plural suffix
> (-pu', -mey, -Du'; see section 3.3.2).
>
> ------------
>
>
> I've always taken this to mean that a noun followed by 'ar is grammatically
> singular, and so we must say, for example, qachvam Dab nuv 'ar?, rather than
> *qachvam luDab nuv 'ar?*.
>
>
> However, it now strikes me that there is another possible interpretation,
> namely that while the noun followed by 'ar is never marked with a plural
> suffix, it could still be considered grammatically plural, and thus allow
> for sentences such as *qachvam luDab nuv 'ar?*.

I don't understand. If you don't know how many of something there is,
how could you know whether it was singular or plural?

-- 
De'vID