Numbers and Time
Klingon Grammar 1
Course 1 · Chapter 10 · Numbers and Time
The last chapter fills two gaps in the grammar: counting, and saying when something happens. Klingon has no tense (Chapter 4), so time is carried by words, which makes these words more important than in English. The chapter ends with a recap of the whole course and a look at what to learn next.
Numbers
The ten basic digits are separate words, and Klingon has a word for zero:
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pagh | wa' | cha' | wej | loS | vagh | jav | Soch | chorgh | Hut |
Ten is not a separate word: it is the multiplier -maH, attached to a digit. A multiple of ten is the digit with -maH, and the larger power comes first when you build a number:
The pattern is regular, so nothing has to be memorised beyond the digits and the multipliers. Compare Hungarian (tizenegy "eleven", nyolcvanhét "eighty-seven": tens first, then units) and Esperanto (okdek sep); Klingon puts the larger part first, as they do, and not "seven and eighty" as in German.
Other forms use suffixes: -DIch makes an ordinal (loSDIch "fourth") and -logh counts times (wa'maH cha'logh "twelve times"). A noun after a number does not need its plural suffix, as in raS DIghor "we broke the tables" (the plural raSmey is also allowed).
Time
Time words are adverbs, and adverbs open the sentence, with time adverbs before other adverbs (Chapter 5). The most useful ones:
| Klingon | Meaning | Build |
|---|---|---|
| DaH | now | |
| DaHjaj | today | DaH "now" + jaj "day" |
| wa'Hu' | yesterday | wa' one + -Hu' days ago |
| wa'leS | tomorrow | wa' one + -leS days from now |
| cha'Hu' | two days ago | cha' + -Hu' |
| wejleS | three days from now | wej + -leS |
The pair -Hu' and -leS works for any number, which is why Klingon needs no separate words for "the day after tomorrow". DaHjaj is mostly used as a time stamp; for "today" as the subject or topic of a sentence, Klingon uses jajvam, "this day", as you saw in Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam. Esperanto's hodiaŭ, hieraŭ and morgaŭ (Introduction to Linguistics 7) are single words; Klingon builds the same ideas from a number and a suffix.
A Native Saying
Klingon's own idioms are as blunt as its greetings. One is a comparison, 'IQ rav rur, "he is as sad as a floor": literally "he is sad; he resembles a floor". It shows the usual building blocks: 'IQ "be sad" and rur "resemble" are verbs (qualities are verbs, Chapter 5), and rav "floor" is the object.
Course Complete: What You Have Covered
| Chapter | Topic | Key idea |
|---|---|---|
| 1 The Warrior's Tongue | origin and writing | an a priori language by Marc Okrand; case matters in the spelling |
| 2 Sounds and Spelling | phonology | 21 consonants and 5 vowels; q/Q, H, tlh; consonant-first syllables |
| 3 Nouns | noun suffixes | five ordered types: size, plural, qualification, possession, syntax |
| 4 Verbs and Prefixes | verb prefix | one prefix names subject and object together |
| 5 Pronouns and Sentences | syntax | object – verb – subject; "to be" with noun + pronoun; qualities are verbs |
| 6 Verb Suffixes | suffix groups 1–7 | at most one suffix per group, in rank order |
| 7 More Verb Suffixes | groups 5, 8, 9 and rovers | -lu', -be', -wI', -meH; rovers move and change meaning |
| 8 Questions and Commands | sentence types | -'a'; question words stay in place; yI-, HI-, pe-; -Qo' |
| 9 Joining Sentences | complex sentences | conjunctions, clause suffixes, -bogh relative clauses |
| 10 Numbers and Time | counting and time | -maH and other multipliers; -Hu' and -leS |
Klingon is a useful test case for the ideas in Introduction to Linguistics: it is agglutinative like Hungarian (Introduction to Linguistics 4), its object–verb–subject order is the rarest of the word orders in Introduction to Linguistics 5, and its community shows that a planned language grows once people use it (Introduction to Linguistics 8).
Where to Go Next
The planned follow-ups are Klingon Basic Conversation 1, which applies this grammar to dialogues, and The Story of Klingon, on how and why the language was made. The wider constructed-languages course Constructed Languages places Klingon alongside Esperanto, Tolkien's languages and others. For a deeper reference, Marc Okrand's The Klingon Dictionary and the Klingon Language Institute remain the authorities; check any form in this course against them before relying on it.
Hands-On Exercises
Write the Klingon for: 11, 20, 87, 100, and 235. Then read loSmaH jav and wejvatlh chorgh as numbers, and form the ordinal "fifth".
📄 View solutionTranslate wa'leS ghaytan nujatlh, and explain the prefix nu- and the position of each word. Then give the Klingon for "two days ago" and "three days from now", and say why Klingon needs no separate word for "the day after tomorrow".
📄 View solutionBuild and gloss a sentence of your own that uses at least five features from the course, for example: "If I can speak Klingon, I am a warrior." Show the prefix, root, suffixes with group numbers, the word order, and name each feature used.
📄 View solutionChapter 10 Quick Reference
- Digits: pagh wa' cha' wej loS vagh jav Soch chorgh Hut
- Multipliers: -maH 10, -vatlh 100, -SaD 1,000, -netlh 10,000, -bIp 100,000, -'uy' 1,000,000; larger powers first (chorghmaH Soch = 87)
- Ordinal -DIch; times -logh; a noun after a number needs no plural
- Time: DaH now, DaHjaj today, N-Hu' days ago (wa'Hu' yesterday), N-leS days from now (wa'leS tomorrow)
- Time adverbs open the sentence, before other adverbs
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