Type 4 is the largest class of noun suffixes. It consists of all the possessive suffixes, plus suffixes which can be translated as English this and that. The possessive suffixes are:

-wIj my -maj our
-lIj your -raj your (plural)
-Daj his, her, its -chaj their

Thus, juH home occurs in juHwIj my home, juHllj your home, juHchaj their home, etc.

When the noun being possessed refers to a being capable of using language, a special set of suffixes is used for first- and second-person possessors:

-wI' my -ma' our
 -lI' your -ra' your (plural)

These suffixes occur in, for example, joHwI' my lord and puqlI' your child. It is grammatically correct to use the regular possessive suffixes with nouns referring to beings capable of speech (as in puqlIj your child), but such con- structions are considered derogatory; joHwIj for my lord borders on the taboo. Students of Klingon should bear this in mind.

To indicate that one noun is the possessor of another noun (e.g., enemy's weapon), no suffix is used. Instead, the two nouns are said in the order possessor-possessed:

jagh nuH enemy's weapon (literally, enemy weapon).

This construction is also used for phrases translated by of the in English, such as weapon of the enemy. (See also section 3.4.)

There are two suffixes indicating how close to the speaker the object referred to by the noun is.

-vam this

Like its English translation, this suffix indicates that the noun refers to an object which is nearby or which is the topic of the conversation.

nuHvam this weapon (near me as I speak)

yuQvam this planet (that we've been talking about)

When used with a plural noun (one with a plural suffix or an inherently plural noun), -vam is translated these.

nuHmeyvam these weapons

-vetlh that

This suffix indicates that the noun refers to an object which is not nearby or which is being brought up again as the topic of conversation.

nuHvetlh that weapon (over there)

yuQvetlh that planet (as opposed to the one we were just talking about)

When used with a plural noun, -vetlh is translated those:

nuHmeyvetlh those weapons

There is no Klingon equivalent for English a, an, the. In translating from Klingon to English, one must use context as a guide to when to use a or an and when the. In this book, a or an and the are used in translations to make the English sound more natural.