Author Topic: Verb to be...  (Read 9628 times)

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Nunoks300

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Verb to be...
« on: January 17, 2014, 02:12:44 pm »
Hi, I'm new to the forum (and dothraki) and I have a question. I would like to know if the verb to be exists in dothraki, and if it does, then could you please tell me the infinitive.

For instance, how do you say: I am smart ( I know that I is Anha).

Qvaak

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Re: Verb to be...
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2014, 03:26:24 pm »
The verb you use for sentences like "I was a librarian" "The ball is red" or "We are here" is called copula and not all languages use verb to express it - and Dothraki does not. Existential claims like "Librarians exits" are a bit different, and for them Dothraki has at least a verb vekhat.

Many sentences that in English are copula sentences are actually not in Dothraki, because Dothraki has a lot of stative verbs that can be used for assigning qualities. All adjectives have verb forms. Think how you can use a verb to stand or and adjective like erect or upright. Well, Dothraki can do this with any real adjective, so they don't need to say stuff like "The ball is red" or "The man was tall." They saometimes still say, but rarely. Mostly they just say ~ "The ball reds" and "The man talled".

When Dothraki want to use a true copula sentence, they use zero-copula (see http://wiki.dothraki.org/Syntax#Zero_Copula_Sentences and http://www.dothraki.com/2011/12/to-be-or-not-to-be/). This is, funnily, akin to the way English imitate primitive speak: "Me Tarzan, you Jane".

Yer villi - "you are wise"
Yer ville - "you are wise" using zero-copula to stress that this is a general quality you have, not a momentarily state.
Game of Thrones is not The Song of Ice and Fire, sweetling. You'll learn that one day to your sorrow.

Nunoks300

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Re: Verb to be...
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2014, 01:57:55 pm »
What if I want to say for example: "You aren't a king."
If it was "You are king" it would be "Yer khal." (I think  :P) But in the negative do you say "Yer vos khal"?

Qvaak

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Re: Verb to be...
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2014, 02:58:41 pm »
Ya. That should be the way it works. "You no king," basically. If you want to make it sound even more like "You no king," you might go with Yer vo khal, because you can always elide the s in vos when the next word starts with a consonant  :P
Game of Thrones is not The Song of Ice and Fire, sweetling. You'll learn that one day to your sorrow.