Author Topic: Question about direct address and plurals?  (Read 10166 times)

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Sadie

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Question about direct address and plurals?
« on: July 28, 2012, 10:10:28 pm »
I am, slowly, learning some of the very basic Dothraki phrases. However I stumbled across a problem whenever using them toward a group of my friends.

Specifically, what I am trying to say is "Ride well, my friends!". I know that "Dothras chek" means "ride well", zhey is used to indicate who is being addressed, "okeo" is friend, and "anni" is "my" or "of mine". So saying "Ride well, my friend!" (singular) would be "Dothras chek, zhey okeo anni!", correct?

If I'm right up to there, then my problem is in turning "okeo" plural so I may address a group of friends. How would I plural "okeo"?

Thank you dearly ahead of time! I apologize if the question has a ridiculously obvious answer, but after combing  the wiki for an hour I'm kind of at my wit's end trying to figure it out.

ingsve

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Re: Question about direct address and plurals?
« Reply #1 on: July 29, 2012, 03:35:18 am »
Hi and welcome.

Plurality depends on the animacy of the noun in question, there are inanimate nouns and animate nouns. Inanimate nouns show no plurality while animate nouns indicate plural by adding an /-i/. Okeo is an animate noun and since it ends in a vowel the -i turns into a -si instead so the plural is okeosi.

The sentence you tried is pretty much correct (for a singular friend). In plural it would be Dothras chek, zhey okeosi anni.
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Qvaak

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Re: Question about direct address and plurals?
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2012, 12:37:00 pm »
The Wiki pages most relevant to the question are Noun Animacy Noun Cases and Plurality, all of which can be found under our learning hub Learning Dothraki.

It's good to notice, that while the sentence in question changes from singular to plural just by changing the noun declension, often that is not enough. The verbs, most of all, often agree with the subject's plurality, so while "My friend rode well." is Okeo anni dothra chek, "My friends rode well." is Okeosi anni dothrash chek.
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