[tlhIngan Hol] Expressing "some of"

mayqel qunenoS mihkoun at gmail.com
Thu Nov 29 06:27:44 PST 2018


SuStel:
> I think the difference is that paq'batlh is talking about the quantity of Klingons,
> while you are using a number of as a synonym for some. A number of is English idiom,
> and you're trying to literally translate the idiom. What paq'batlh translates is not an idiom but literal.

ok, don't misunderstand me; I'm not trying to argue. I'm genuinely
trying to understand..

The original sentence was:
{tugh, Hargh SuvwI'pu'vam mI'}
soon, a number of these warriors will fight

When I wrote this sentence, I had in mind "soon, some (i.e. an unknown
quantity) of these warriors will fight".

I just can't see the difference between my sentence, and the paq'batlh
one; is the difference that the paq'batlh sentence specifies the
quantity, by saying "an equal number" ?

Anyway, I'm not trying to say that my original sentence is correct; in
fact in the first message of this thread, I wrote "I feel that they
are wrong, but I can't understand why".

And I'm perfectly happy to be writing {'op SuvwI'vam} or {'op
SuvwI'pu'vam} for "some of these warriors".

But I just can't see, how the paq'batlh sentence and the one I wrote,
are actually any different.

~ mayqel qunen'oS



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