"tengchaHDaq yInSIp tu'lu'be'chugh wIDablaHbe'."
Translation:If there is no oxygen on the space station, we cannot live there.
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I take exception to the need to have "there" in the English translation. The use of the the prefix wI- make it clear that the verb takes an object, but an actual object is understood even if it's not shown. In the absence of any other information, "there" is easily inferred, but still isn't required. And surely there are larger contexts where "there" would be flat out wrong. If you feel the need to specify "there" then the Klingon phrase should explicitly use it.
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Live there is just a colloquial way to say inhabit it, which is what the Klingon sentence literally says. If you're saying the English should allow we cannot live without the there, I disagree: we cannot live there expresses your ability to inhabit a location; we cannot live expresses your ability to stay alive. The Klingon word Dab is about inhabiting, not being alive.
A compelling point. I am convinced. Have a lingot!
(you can have a 2nd one if you tell me how to do boldface or italics in these discussions)
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Thanks! The discussions use Markdown to format text. You can find a general Markdown cheatsheet here.
Boldface is text surrounded by two asterisks; italics is text surrounded by single asterisks. Links and line breaks are supported, and I'll bet a lot of other styles are too, though I haven't tried most of them.
The discussions use Markdown to format text.
Excellent. Thank you muchly.