Klingon/Grammar/Plurals

Plurals in Klingon are a bit more complicated than in English. There are no less than three endings for plurals. However, everything is still quite simple - except for the dreaded irregular nouns.

What does plural mean?
A plural is a word that shows there is more than one thing being talked about. E.g. - 'dogs' is plural; there must be more than one dog being talked about (you wouldn't say 'one dogs').

Words to learn
be'Hom - girl (pl. be'Hompu')

mIn - eye (pl. mInDu')

yan - sword (pl yanmey)

peng - torpedo (pl. cha)

-pu'
-pu' is the suffix used for beings capable of using language. So the plural of be'Hom (girl) is be'Hompu' (girls). A common memory aid is to think of -pu'  as equivalent to the English suffixed component -folk. be'Hom is girl, be'Hompu' is *girlfolk.

-Du'
-Du' is the suffix used for body parts. So the plural of mIn (eyes) is mInDu'. Click here for a list of body parts. A common memory aid is to remember this is analogous to the defunct dual case in English. -Du' is similar to "du"al. One might consider this a relic of a dual case in an older Klingon. It is acceptable in modern Klingon to use -mey however this suggests amputation or removal from the body, with a sense of "scattered around". *minmey would be "disembodied eyes scattered around".

-mey
-mey is the plural suffix for everything else. The plural of yan (sword) is yanmey (swords). A common memory aid is to remember this suffix is to think of -mey as starting with the letter m as in English more. yan is sword, yanmey is more than one sword.

Irregular noun plurals
Some plurals are completely different to the singular word. Sorry - you'll just have to learn these. For, example, the plural of peng (torpedo) is cha.

Click here for a list of some irregular nouns.