Tibetan/Grammar

Each consonant in Standard Tibetan implicitly carries a vowel along with it. By convention, each consonant carries an «a» with it. To add an «e», «i» or «o» after a consonant, one simply adds an accent over a consonant; to add a «u» after a consonant, one adds an accent below the consonant. The Tibetan consonants are shown below.

On this page, I have given examples of Tibetan morphology. In general, Morphology is concerned with how words are formed in a language. Throughout this page, I use the Apertium tagset to describe the properties of the words and phrases given as examples. The main resource I used to create this page was Hand-book of Colloquial Tibetan: A Practical Guide to the Language of Central Tibet. I used an online Tibetan transliterator to transliterate the text on this page.

Parts of Speech

The main parts of speech in Standard Tibetan are similar to those of English. In particular, these include articles, nouns, adjectives, cardinal & ordinal numbers, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, postpositions and conjunctions. Examples for these parts of speech are given in the sections below.

Verbs

Infinitives

Verb tenses are expressed in two ways: either the verb root or spelling is modified or additional syllables are added to convey a different meaning. This later case can use affixes or parts of other verbs to convey the desired meaning. In English, the simplest form of a verb is its infinitive; this is not the case in Tibetan. To create an infinitive, an affix must usually be added to a given verb. In general, this participle is almost always «pa» or «wa». The suffix «pa» is added when the final letter of the root is any consonant except for «r» or «l». On the other hand, the suffix «pa» is used if the verb root ends in «r», «l» or any vowel. Some examples of this pattern are shown here:

• ལོཀ་པ (Lok-pa)<v> ↔ དོ་ཝ (Do-wa) ("to read" → "to go")
• ཉེན་པ (Nyen-pa)<v> ↔ ཇལ་ཝ (Jal-wa) ("to hear" → "to measure")
• ཛིང་པ (Dzing-pa)<v> ↔ ས་ཝ (Sa-wa) ("to fight" → "to eat")

Note how the roots of Lok-pa, Nyen-pa and Dzing-pa all end in consonants that are not «r» or «l», and so they are followed with the «pa» suffix to produce the infinitive. In the same way, the roots of Do-wa, Jal-wa and Sa-wa all end either in vowels or in «r» or «l», and so they use the suffix «wa» to produce the infinitive.

Tense

The pronoun generally indicates the tense of a verb. This structure is similar to English. The pronoun determines the "doer" of the verb, while the verb does not change.

Definite Present Tense

In the following example, observe that the verb དུང་གྷི་ཡོ (dung-ghi-yo - "beating") remains mostly unchanged, where the pronouns at the beginning of the phrases change more dramatically. This indicates a change the "doer" of the verb.

• ངརང་གྷི་དུང་གྷི་ཡོ (Ngarang-ghi dung-ghi-yo)<v><pl> ↔ ངཙོ་གྷི་དུང་གྷི་ཡོ (Ngats'o-ghi dung-ghi-yo)
  • "I am beating" → "We are beating"
• ཁྱོརང་གྷི་དུང་གྷི་དུ (Khorang-ghi dung-ghi-du)<v><pl> ↔ ཁྱོཙོ་གྷི་དུང་གྷི་དུ (Khyots'o-ghi dung-ghi-du
  • "Thou art beating" → "You are beating"
• ཁོརང་གྷི་དུང་གྷི་དུ (Khorang-ghi dung-ghi-du)<v><pl> ↔ ཁོཔཻ་དུང་གྷི་དུ (Khopai dung-ghi-du)
  • "He is beating" → "They are beating"

Present Imminent Tense

We now consider the present imminent tense with the verb གང་ཡིན (Gang-yin), which first-person, and གང་རེ (Gang-re), which is second and third-person.

• ང་དོ་ཝཻ་གང་ཡིན (Nga do-wai gang yin)<v><pl> ↔ ང་ཙོ་ཝཻ་གང་ཡིན (Nga-ts'o do-wai gang yin)
  • "I am just going" → "We are just going"
• ཁྱོ་ཙོ་ཝཻ་གང་རེ (Khyo do-wai gang re)<v><pl> ↔ ཁྱོཙོ་ཙོ་ཝཻ་གང་རེ (Khyo'ts'o do-wai gang re)
  • "Thou art just going" → "Ye are just going"
• ཁོ་དོ་ཝཻ་གང་རེ(Kho do-wai gang re)<v><pl> ↔ ཁོ་པ་དོ་ཝཻ་གང་རེ (Kho-pa do-wai gang re)
  • "He is just going" → "They are just going"

Expanded Forms

In Tibetan, it is common to expand words, and in particular verbs, for the sole purpose of elucidating the meaning of a phrase. Both the terser and expanded versions of the following verbs are correct, and may be used interchangeably.

• ཏ་ཝ (Ta-wa) <v> ↔ མིཀ་ཏ་ཝ (Mik ta-wa) ("to see")
• ས་ཝ (Sa-wa <v> ↔ ཏོ་སི་ཝ (To si-wa) ("to eat")
• དོཀ་པ (Dok-pa) <v> ↔ ཡི་གེ་དོཀ་པ (Yi-ge dok-pa) ("to read")
• ཉལ་ཝ (Nyal-wa) <v> ↔ ཉེ་ཉལ་ཝ (Nye nyal-wa) ("to sleep")

Nouns

Gender

Many nouns in Tibetan have masculine and feminine cases. In general, this is indicated by variation in a servile participle. However, such an affix does not always mean that a noun is gendered. For example, many substantive terms contain the suffix «mo», which is often but not always used to indicate that a noun is feminine. For example, each of the following nouns use the «mo» suffix to indicate a feminine noun.

• པུ་ཙ་ (Pu-tsa)<n><f> ↔ པུ་མོ (Pu-mo) ("boy" → "girl")
• ཁྱོ་པོ (Khyo-po)<n><f> ↔ ཁྱོ་མོ (Khyo-mo) ("husband" → "wife")
• ཇཔ (Jha-pa)<n><f> ↔ ཇམོ (Jha-mo) ("cock" → "hen")
• གུཔོ (Gü-po)<n><f> ↔ གུམོ (Gü-mo) ("father-in-law" → "mother-in-law")
• ན་ཝོ (Na-wo)<n><f> ↔ ན་མོ (Na-mo) ("host" → "hostess")

Interestingly, male nouns can take on a range of suffixes, whereas female nouns consistently use the «mo» suffix.

Declension

Declension of nouns involves changing suffixes. Here is a first example, which deals with the noun ཀྱེརྨེན་ཆི (Kyermen chi) meaning "a wife."

• ཀྱེརྨེན་ཆི (Kyermen chi) <n><nom> ↔ ཀྱེརྨེན་ཆི (Kyermen chi) ("A wife")
• ཀྱེརྨེན་ཆི (Kyermen chi) <n><gen> ↔ ཀྱེརྨེན་ཀྱི(Kyermen kyi) ("Of a wife")
• ཀྱེརྨེན་ཆི (Kyermen chi) <n><dat> ↔ ཀྱེརྨེན་ལ (Kyermen la) ("To a wife")
• ཀྱེརྨེན་ཆི (Kyermen chi) <n><acc> ↔ ཀྱེརྨེན (Kyermen) or ཀྱེརྨེན་ལ (Kyermen la) ("A wife")
• ཀྱེརྨེན་ཆི (Kyermen chi) <n><loc> ↔ ཀྱེརྨེན་ན (Kyermen na) ("On or at a wife")
• ཀྱེརྨེན་ཆི (Kyermen chi) <n><abl> ↔ ཀྱེརྨེན་ནེ (Kyermen ne) ("From a wife")
• ཀྱེརྨེན་ཆི (Kyermen chi) <n> ↔ ཀྱེརྨེན་ཀྱི (Kyermen kyi) ("By a wife") (agentive)

Slight variations are used in the affixes for the genitive and agentive cases when the noun ends in «k» or «ng». For example

• གྷྱོཀ་ཆི (Ghyok chi) <n><nom> ↔ གྷྱོཀ་གྷི (Ghyok-chi) ("A cannon")
• གྷྱོཀ་ཆི (Ghyok chi) <n><gen> ↔ གྷྱོཀ་གྷི (Ghyok-ghi) ("Of a cannon")
• གྷྱོཀ་ཆི (Ghyok chi) <n> ↔ གྷྱོཀ་གྷི (Ghyok-ghi) ("By a cannon") (agentive)

and

• ཆཧང (Chhang) <n><nom> ↔ ཆཧང (Chhang) ("A beer")
• ཆཧང (Chhang) <n><gen> ↔ ཆཧང་གྷི (Chhang-ghi) ("Of a beer")
• ཆཧང (Chhang) <n> ↔ ཆཧང་གྷི(Chhang-ghi) ("By a beer") (agentive)

Genitive Case

The genitive case marks possession and is translated as "of." In Tibetan, the last sound of the noun determines the genitive suffix. The following rules determine the appropriate suffixes:

• Last sound: འ་ «'a» or any vowel → suffix: འི་ «'i»
• Last sound: ག་ «'g» or ང་ «-ng» → suffix: གི་ «gi»
• Last sound: ན་ «-n», མ་ «-m», ར་ «-r» or ལ་ «-l» or any other secondary suffix (i.e. འོ «'o») → suffix: ཀྱི་ «kyi»
• Last sound: ན་ «-n», མ་ «-m», ར་ «-r» or ལ་ «-l» → suffix: གྱི་ «gyi»

Consider the following examples of the genitive case.

• ཆོས (Chos) and འཁོར་ལོ (Khro-lo) <n><gen> ↔ ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ (Chos-kyi khor-lo)
  • "Dharma" and "wheel" → "Wheel of dharma"
• ལུག (Lug) and པགས་པ (Pags-pa) <n><gen> ↔ ལུག་གི་པགས་པ (Lug-gi pags-pa)
  • "Sheep" and "skin" → "Skin of sheep" or "sheepskin"
• པི་ལིང་ཙོ (P'i-ling-ts'o) <n><gen> ↔ པི་ལིང་ཙོཨི (P'i-ling-t'soi)
  • "Englishmen" → "Of the Englishmen"

Agentive Case

The agentive is built on top of the genitive case. It is generally translated as "by." In Tibetan, the difference is represented in a suffix. The rules for which suffix to use are as follows;

• Last sound: འ་ «'a» or any vowel → suffix: ས་་ «-s»
• Last sound: ག་ «'g» or ང་ «-ng» → suffix: གིས་ «gis»
• Last sound: ན་ «-n», མ་ «-m», ར་ «-r» or ལ་ «-l» or any other secondary suffix (i.e. འོ «'o») → suffix: ཀྱིས་ «kyis»
• Last sound: ན་ «-n», མ་ «-m», ར་ «-r» or ལ་ «-l» → suffix: གྱིས་ «gyis»

Consider the following examples of the agentive case.

• ཀྱེརྨེན་ཆི (Kyermen chi)<n> ↔ ཀྱེརྨེན་ཀྱི (Kyermen kyis) ("A wife"→"By a wife")
• མབཇཧ་ཡི (Mabjha shi)<n> ↔ མབཇཧ་ཡི (Mabjha yis) ("A peacock"→"By a peacock")

Plural

The plural number for nouns is not always expressed in Tibetan. Oftentimes, the substantive is accompanied by a modifying adjective such as "some," "many" or "all" which indicates that a noun should be considered plural. This is usually the case with inanimate verbs (i.e. ones that do not directly refer to people). When referring to people, the suffix «ts'o», «tsh'o», «cha», «chak» or sometimes «nam» can be added to pluralize a noun.

• ཏེབ (Teb) <n><pl> ↔ ཏེབ་ཙོ (Teb-tso) ("Book"→"Books")
• མི (Mi) <n><pl>} ↔ མི་ཙོ (Mi-tso) ("Person"→"Persons/People")
• པི་ལིང (P'i-ling) <n><pl> ↔ པི་ལིང་ཙོ (P'i-ling-ts'o) ("Englishman"→"Englishmen")

Pronouns

There are three numbers for pronouns: one, two and many. Pronouns in the second and third person can also vary in a number of classes. In particular, the second person can be in one of three classes: ordinary, honorific or pejorative. On the other hand, the third person can take on three forms: ordinary, familiar (male) and familiar (female). These are enumerated below.

Person	Category	Tags	Singular	Dual	Plural
First	N/A	<prn><pers>	ང་ (Nga)	ང་གཉིས་ (Nga-gnyis)	ང་ཚོ་ (Nga-tsho)
Second	Ordinary	<prn><pers>	རང་ (Rang)	རང་གཉིས་ (Rang-gnyis)	རང་ཚོ་ (Rang-tsho)
	Honorific	<prn><pers>	ཁྱེད་རང་ (Khyed-rang)	ཁྱེད་རང་གཉིས་ (Khyed-rang-gnyis)	ཁྱེད་རང་ཚོ་ (Khyed-rang-tsho)
	Pejorative	<prn><pers>	ཁྱོད་ (Khyod)	ཁྱོད་གཉིས་ (Khyod-gnyis)	ཁྱོད་ཚོ་ (Khyod-tsho)
Third	Ordinary	<prn><pers>	ཁོང་ (Khong)	ཁོང་གཉིས་ (Khong-gnyis)	ཁོང་ཚོ་ (Khong-tsho)
	Familiar (male)	<prn><pers>	ཁོ་(རང་) (Kho-(rang))	ཁོ་(རང་)གཉིས་ (Kho-(rang)-gnyis)	ཁོ་(རང་)ཚོ་ (Kho-(rang)-tsho)
	Familiar (female)	<prn><pers>	མོ་(རང་) (Mo-(rang))	མོ་(རང་)གཉིས་ (Mo-(rang)-gnyis)	མོ་(རང་)ཚོ་ (Mo-(rang)-tsho)

For example, Tibetan has the following correspondences:

• ང (Nga) <prn><pers><pl> ↔ ངན་ཚོ(Ngan-tso) ("I" → "We")
• ཁྱེ་རང (Khye-rang) <prn><pers><pl> ↔ ཐེ་རང་ཚོ (Khe-rang-tsho) ("You" → "You all")
• ཁོང (Khong) <prn><pers><pl> ↔ ཁོང་ཚོ (Khong-tsho) ("He/She" → "They")

Note that «tsho» and «tso» are sometimes interchangeable as suffixes for plural pronouns. Thus we could write ངན་ཚོ (Ngan-tsho) or ངན་ཙོ (Ngan-tso) for "we." Also, the third-person singular pronoun ཁོང (Khong) means either he or she. If one wants to refer to someone by their gender, one can use ཁོ (Kho) or ཁོ་རང (Kho-rang) for a male and མོ (Mo) or མོ་རང (Mo-rang) for a female.

Adjectives

In Tibetan, adjectives can go before or after the verb they're modifying. It seems that in writing, adjectives almost always follow nouns. However, it is commonplace in common speech to precede a noun with a modifying adjective. When this occurs, the noun is always spoken in the genitive case. Consider this example:

• པུཙ་ཙོཀ་པ་ཨི་ཨཀ་དི (Putsa tsok-pa-i ak di) → "The hand of the dirty boy"

In this case, the adjective ཏོཨོཀ་པ་ཨི (Tsok-pai-i) meaning "dirty" directly follows the noun པུཙ (Putsa) which we saw above in the discussion of gendered nouns. In this case, པུཙ is in the nominative case because it precedes the adjective. Literally, the order of this sentence reads "Boy dirty of hand the." in English.

Now consider another example:

• ཐེ་མོ་ཆཧེམཔོ་དི་ཡི་མིཀ་སེརཔོ་དི (Dhe-mo chhempo di-yi mik serpo di) → "The yellow eye of the large bear"

The adjectives in this sentence are ཆཧེམཔོ (Chempo) meaning "large" and སེརཔོ (Serpo) meaning "yellow". Word for word, this sentence translates to "Bear large the eye yellow the." Here too, all adjectives appear after the nouns.

This is not always the case. The following sentence is an example:

• དི་ལོ་མ་ལེནཆེན་ཀྱི་ས་ལ་ཤོ་དྷུ་དི (Di lo-ma lenchen-kyi sho-dhu di) → "The leaf down on the wet ground"

Word for word, the adjective ལེནཆེན (Lenchen) meaning "wet" qualifies and precedes the noun ས (Sa) meaning "ground." In this case, ས is in the genitive case because it follows the adjective, which contrasts with the sentence structures of the previous two examples.

Negatives

Adjectives can be made negative by changing suffixes. In particular, many adjectives terminate with the «chen» suffix. When replaced with the «me» suffix, they become the antonyms/negatives of the given adjectives. Here are several examples:

• ཤེངཆེན (Shengchen) <adj> ↔ ཤེངམེ (Shengme) ("Broad" → "Narrow")
• ཁོཨི་ཆེན (Khoi-chen) <adj> ↔ ཁོཨི་མེ (Khoi-me) ("Important" → "Unimportant")
• ཙུལཆེན (Ts'ulchen) <adj> ↔ ཙུལམེ (Ts'ulme) ("Just" → "Unjust")
• རིན་ཆེན (Rin-chen) <adj> ↔ རིན་མེ (Rin-me) ("Precious" → "Worthless")
• གྱཀཆེན (Gyakchen) <adj> ↔ གྱཀམེ (Gyakme) ("Fat" → "Thin")

Conjunctions

In Standard Tibetan, conjunctions are generally expressed by means of the gerundial and continuative particles. Interestingly, the counterpart of the common English word "and" is དྷང (Dhang), which translates literally to "with." In this way, a sentence like "horses and cows and sheep and goats" would be rendered in the following way:

• ཏཊསའོ་དྷང,་བྷམོ་ཙའོ་དྷང,་ལུཀ་ཙའོ་དྷང,་རམཊསའོ (Ta-ts'o dhang, dbamo ts'o dhang, luk-ts'o dhang, rama-ts'o)
  • "With horses, with cows, with sheep, goats"

In this way, it is important to note that each "dhang" accompanies the word preceding it. In longer enumerations/lists, it is common to completely omit "dhang." It would not be uncommon for the above sentence to be written as

• ཏ་བྷ་ལུཀ་ར་ཙའོ (Ta-bha luk ra-ts'o)

where the plural suffix ts'o indicates that the noun is plural (see noun section above). Similarly, we could write

• ལཔུཀ་ཉུངམ་ཡེརྨ་ཉོ་ཤིཀ (Lapuk nyungma yerman yo shik!)
  • "Buy radishes, turnips and peppers"