Dzongkha/Grammar

Parts of Speech

Noun (མིང་)

Nouns in Dzongkha will use the tag <n>.

Common Noun (མིང་ཙམ་)

Common nouns in Dzongkha will use the tag <cl1>. Nothing remarkable, just the good ol' simple nouns.

• ཁྱིམ<n><cl1> ("house")
• མེ་ཏོག<n><cl1> ("flower")

Gendered Noun (རྟགས་མིང་)

Gendered nouns in Dzongkha have different forms for males and females. These will use the tag <cl2>, with <f> and <m> added to denote gender. The default neutral noun is male.

• གཡག <n><cl2><f> ↔ འབྱི ("yak")
• བ <n><cl2><f> ↔ གླང ("ox")

Honorific Noun (ཞེ་སའི་མིང་)

Honorific nouns in Dzongkha are used when the original form is deemed inappropriate in terms of politeness in a certain conversation. These will use the tag <cl3>.

• ལུས་ <n><cl3> ↔ སྐུ ("body")
• མགུ་ཏོ <n><cl3> ↔ དབུ ("head")

Pronouns (མིང་ཚབ་)

Pronouns in Dzongkha will use the tag <prn>.

Dzongkha Personal Pronouns

	singular	plural
first person	ང་ nga I	ང་བཅས་ ngace we
second person	ཁྱོད་ chö you	ཁྱོད་ chä you
third person	ཁོ་/མོ་ kho/mo he/she	ཁོང་ khong they
honorific	ནཱ་ nâ he/she/you	ནཱ་བུ་ nâ-bu they, you

Verb (བྱ་ཚིག་)

Standard or "lexical" verbs in Dzongkha will use the tag <v>, which is shortened from <vblex>. The bare stem of any verb, by itself, is a steady-state present tense, using the tag <stpr>. There exist two unique verb classes of interest, which are listed below.

Modal Verb

Modal verbs in Dzongkha will use the tag <vbmod>.

"To be" Verb

"To be" verbs in Dzongkha will use the tag <vbser>.

Auxiliary Verb

Auxiliary verbs in Dzongkha will use the tag <vaux>.

Adjective (ཁྱད་ཚིག་)

Adjectives in Dzongkha will use the tag <adj>.

Descriptive Adjectives (ངོ་བོའི་ཁྱོད་ཚིག།)

• མེ་ཚ་ཏོག་ཏོ། <n><adj> ("hot fire")
• ཕོ་སྐྱེས་དོད་རི་རི། <n><adj> ("strong man")

Quantitative Adjectives (གྲངས་ཀྱི་ཁྱོད་ཚིག།)

Nouns <n> can be pluralized <pl> with an qunatitative adjective suffix «ཆ་ཁྱབ་» or «ཚུ»:

• ཕམ་ <n><pl> ↔ ཕམ་ཆ་ཁྱབ། ("parent" becomes "parents")
• བྱི་ལི་ <n><pl> ↔ བྱི་ལི་ཚུ། ("cat" becomes "cats")

Note that while «ཚུ» can be independently attached to any kind of noun, «ཆ་ཁྱབ་» is context dependant. It is usually used to pluralize nouns referring to people.

Adverb (དབྱེ་ཚིག་)

Adverbs in Dzongkha will use the tag <adv>.

• ཁུ་སིམ་སི་སྦེ་སྡོད། <adv><cnjadv><v> ("sit silently")
• ལེགས་ཤོམ་སྦེ་སླབ། <adv><cnjadv><v> ("speak nicely")

«སྦེ» is a common linking particle that is used to impose the meaning of adverb (ཁུ་སིམ་སི་ - silently) onto a verb (སྡོད་ - sit). We will use the tag <cnjadv> for such instances.

Postposition

Postpositions in Dzongkha will use the tag <post>.

Interjection

Interjections in Dzongkha would use <ij> tags.

Examples: དབའི། ཨ་ལའུ། ཨ་ཛའི།

Numeral

There are two number systems generally followed: the decimal system and the vigesimal system.

Numerals in Dzongkha will use the tag <num>.

Determiner

Determiners in Dzongkha will use the tag <det>.

The definite article «དེ» can also be written as «འདི་» in its free form. It functions as a demonstrative pronoun, which can be used by itself as the subject of a sentence.

• དེ་ཁོ་གི་ཨིན། <det><prn><gen><v> ("that's his")

Here «གི» is a possessive (or genetive) case marker.

By contrast, the bound morpheme «དེ» is a definite article suffixed to the noun phrase that it modifies.

• རོ་ཁྱི་དེ་ <n><det> ("the dog")
• བྱི་ལི་དེ་ <n><det> ("the cat")

Alternations

Genitive Suffix

Genitive suffixes in Dzongkha indicate possession or a part-to-whole relationship, similar to English ‘of’. There are several different suffixes to be used based on ending of the original word.

གྱི་ after words ending in ན་, མ་, ར་ and ལ་.

• ཁྱིམ་ <n><gen> ↔ ཁྱིམ་གྱི་ ("house" becomes "house's")
  • ཁྱིམ་གྱི་ལྡེ་མིག་ house's key = the key to the house

ཀྱི་ after words ending in orthographic ད་, བ་, and ས་.

• ང་བཅས་ <n><gen> ↔ ང་བཅས་ཀྱི་ ("us" becomes "our")
  • ང་བཅས་ཀྱི་ཁྱིམ་ our house

གི་ after words ending in orthographic ག་ and ང་, and certain words ending in vowels.

• ཁོང་ <n><gen> ↔ ཁོང་གི་ ("they" becomes "their")
  • ཁོང་གི་རོ་ཁྱི་ their dog

• ཁོ་ <n><gen> ↔ ཁོ་གི་ ("he" becomes "his")
  • ཁོ་གི་མིང་ his name

འི་ after certain words ending in vowels, and sometimes used in combination with གི་.

• ཨམ་ཚུ་ <n><gen> ↔ ཨམ་ཚུའི་ ("wife" becomes "wife's")
  • ཨམ་ཚུའི་ལགཔ་ wife's hand

• ང་ <n><gen> ↔ ངའི་གི་ ("me" becomes "my")
  • ངའི་གི་བུམོ་ my daughter

Locative Suffix

Locative suffixes in Dzongkha indicate location or destination, similar to English ‘in’

ནང་ is the standard locative suffix.

• ཁྲོམ་ <n><loc> ↔ ཁྲོམ་ནང་ ("market" becomes "in the market")

• ཡིག་ཚང་ <n><loc> ↔ ཡིག་ཚང་ནང་ ("office" becomes "in the office")

• ཤོག་ལེབ་བཅུ་ཐམ་ <n><loc> ↔ ཤོག་ལེབ་བཅུ་ཐམ་ནང་ ("page ten" becomes "on page ten")

ཁར་ occurs in combination with a limited set of nominals.

• གཡུས་<n><loc> ↔ གཡུས་ཁར་ ("village" becomes "in/to the village")

Past Tense Suffixes (འདས་པ་)

«ཅི», «ཡི», and «ནུག» suffixes are used to denote past tense.

• ཏི་རུ་བསགས་ <n><v><past> ↔ ཏི་རུ་བསགས་ཅི། ("save money" becomes "saved money")

• ཡོན་ཏན་སྦྱངས་ <n><v><past> ↔ ཡོན་ཏན་སྦྱངས་ཡི། ("knowledge learn" becomes "knowledge learned")

• གོ་ལ་ཚུ་འཁྱུ་ <n><pl><v><past> ↔ གོ་ལ་འཁྱུ་ཚུ་ནུག། ("wash clothes" becomes "washed clothes")

Present Tense Suffixes (ད་ལྟ་བ་)

«དོ» and «དེས» suffixes are used to denote present tense.

• ས་རྐོ་ <n><v><pres> ↔ ས་རྐོ་དོ། ("dig soil" becomes "digging soil")

• ལྟོ་ཟ་ <n><v><pres> ↔ ལྟོ་ཟ་དེས། ("eat food" becomes "eating food")

• ཐུན་གཏང་ <n><v><pres> ↔ ཐུན་གཏང་དེས། ("recite prayer" becomes "reciting prayer")

Future Tense Suffixes (མ་འོངས་པ་)

«ནི», «འོང», and «གེ» suffixes are used to denote future tense.

• བལྟ་ <v><fut> ↔ བལྟ་ནི། ("look" becomes "will look")

• ལགཔ་གཅད་ <n><v><fut> ↔ ལགཔ་གཅད་འོང་། ("break hand" becomes "will break hand")

• རྡོ་ཚུ་སྤུང་ <n><pl><v><fut> ↔ རྡོ་ཚུ་སྤུང་གེ། ("collect stones" becomes "lets collect stones")

Imperative Suffixes (སྐུལ་ཚིག་)

«ཤིག», «ཞིག», and «ད» suffixes are used to attribute an imperative tone.

• ཡི་གུ་བྲིས་ <n><v><imp> ↔ ཡི་གུ་བྲིས་ཤིག། ("write" becomes "write" with an imperative meaning)

• དཔེ་ཆ་སྟོན་ <n><v><imp> ↔ དཔེ་ཆ་སྟོན་ཞིག། ("study teach" becomes "teach" with an imperative meaning)

• ལྟོ་འབད་ <n><v><imp> ↔ ལྟོ་འབད་ད། ("make food" becomes "make the food")

Subordinate Suffix ("མི")

The suffix མི་ ‐mi is attached directly to the stem of the verb, and this ending converts the verb into a nominal constituent which can be used either independently as a nominal head or attributively to modify a noun.

• ཡི་གུ་འབྲི་ <v><sbo> ↔ ཡི་གུ་འབྲི་མི། ("write" becomes "writer" (or one who writes))

• ཚོན་གཏང་ <v><sbo> ↔ ཚོན་གཏང་མི། ("paint" becomes "painter" (or one who paints))

• ཞབས་ཁྲ་འཐེན་ <v><sbo> ↔ ཞབས་ཁྲ་འཐེན་མི། ("sing" becomes "singer" (or one who sings))

Comparative and Superlative

The comparative is formed by means of the suffix བ་ -wa (English equivalent is ‘than’).

• སྟག་ཚེར་མེ་ཏོག་དེ་ཉིམ་གང་ཤར་མེ་ཏོག་<n><det><n><comp><adj> ↔ སྟག་ཚེར་མེ་ཏོག་དེ་ཉིམ་གང་ཤར་མེ་ཏོག་བ་འཇའ། ('rose is more beautiful than sunflower')

• ཀརྨ་དེ་རྡོ་རྗེ་<n><det><n><comp><adj> ↔ ཀརྨ་དེ་རྡོ་རྗེ་བ་རྒས། ('karma is older than dorji')

The superlative is formed by means of the postposition ཤོས་ -sho.

• མེ་ཏོག་འཇའ་ཤོས་<n><adj><sup><n> ↔ མེ་ཏོག་འཇའ་ཤོས་སྟག་ཚེར་མེ་ཏོག་ཨིན། (‘rose is the most beautiful flower’)

A type of superlative meaning can also be expressed by comparison with ‘anything’.

• སྟག་ཚེར་མེ་ཏོག་ག་ནི་<n><comp><adj> ↔ སྟག་ཚེར་མེ་ཏོག་ག་ནི་བ་འཇའ་པས། ('rose is the most beautiful')