How do you say little in Klingon?

Answer 1

The main way is with the verb mach (pronounced like the word "macho", but without the 'o' at the end". Rhymes with "watch".) mach means "to be little" or "to be small". You can use it like a verb, as in these examples:

mach vulqangan Duj. -- "The Vulcan ship is little."

jImachbe'. -- "I am not little."

mach'a' QaghDaj? -- "Was his mistake little?"

mach can also be used like an adjective, by placing it after the noun you want to modify:

taj mach -- "a little dagger"

taj mach lo'vIpbe' SuvwI'na'. -- "A true warrior is not affraid to use a little dagger."

jagh mach HoHmeH taj mach yIlo'. -- "Use a little dagger to kill a little enemy."

Another way one might encounter to say "little" is with the noun suffix -Hom. -Hom (pronounced like the city "Rome" but starting with the ch sound from the name of the German composer "Bach", or the Yiddish word "chutzpah") is an diminutive, so it makes the noun it's attached to smaller or less important than it normally would be. It is the opposite of the augmentative suffix -'a', which makes the noun bigger or more important. Usually size alone is not the distinction; really -'a' and -Hom move the noun into the next bigger or smaller class. Some examples illustrate:

loD -- "a man"

loD mach -- "a little man"

loDHom -- "a boy"

SuS -- "wind"

SuS'a' -- "a gale"

SuSHom -- "a breeze"

Still, sometimes the best translation for -Hom involves the word "little":

QaghHom -- "a little error", "a minor error"

bom -- "a song"

bomHom -- "a little song", "a song-let"

Finally, there's the adverbial loQ, which means "a little bit". loQ is pronounced like English "low", but with a choking sound at the end. The Q (which is different from a q) is pronounced like a choking sound in the back fo your throat. Examples:

Q: tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh'a'? -- "Do you speak Klingon?"

A: loQ. -- "A little."

loQ Qob Qu'. -- "The mission is a little bit dangerous."

loQ vIQID neH. -- "I only wounded him a little."

loQ mach 'uQ. -- "The dinner is a little small."

Answer 2

"Science" in Klingon is QeD. "Scientist" is tej.