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Say for instance I want to say something like, "I'm looking for bears and the lost sheep." I would think that would be to use the genitive case, making something like:

mIl'oDmey chIlpu'ghach DI'raqmey je vInejtaH
bear-<pl> lose-<perf>-<nom> sheep-<pl> too <I-them>-look for-<continuous>

But that looks kind of odd, and I've heard that using the nominalizer suffix "-ghach" is often discouraged, and should replaced by using sentences as objects if possible. Would

mIl'oDmey DI'raqmey 'e' chIlpu' je vInejtaH
bear-<pl> sheep-<pl> that lose-<perf> and <I-them>-look for-<continuous>

work and make more sense?

Also, how would "I can bear the loss of sheep." be translated? My first guess would be to just reverse the noun-noun-construction so that "DI'raqmey" is the genitive noun:

DI'raqmey chIlpu'ghach vISIQlaH
sheep-<pl> lose-<perf>-<nom> <I-it>-endure/bear-<ability>

Would some sort of subclause make more sense here too? Just the same one?:

DI'raqmey 'e' chIlpu' vISIQlaH
sheep-<pl> that lose-<perf> <I-it>-endure/bear-<ability>

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  • You might want to visit the Klingon Language Institute, who maintain much material on the tlhIngan-Hol. Among their resources, they maintain a mailing list where one may discuss anything in tlhIngan-Hol, or tlhIngan-Hol in English. Commented Jul 29, 2019 at 18:41

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  1. I would translate it as I am looking for bears and I am looking for the sheep that are lost. — I don't know the word for sheep, so I assume from your question that it's DI'raq:

mIl'oDmey vInejtaH 'ej DI'raqmey chIlpu'bogh vInejtaH
bear-<pl> <I-them>-look for-<cont> and sheep-<pl> lose-<perf>-<rel> <I-them>-look for-<cont>

See: Klingon Dictionary 6.2 (Complex Sentences) and 6.2.3 (Relative Clauses)

  1. Your second sentence, I can bear the loss of sheep. — I would opt for a subordinate clause, If I lose sheep, I can bear it.:

DI'raqmey vIchIlpu'chugh vISIQlaH
sheep-<pl> <I-them>-lose-<perf>-if <I-it>-bear/endure-<ability>

See: Klingon Dictionary 6.2.2 (Subordinate Clauses)

Disclaimer: I'm not a Klingon expert, so this might not be 100% accurate.

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