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Articles on Tibetan Grammar
1. Introduction
2. Formation of the Tibetan Syllable
3. Formation of the Tibetan Word
4. First case: ming tsam
5. agentive particle
6. Connective Particle
7. La don particles
8. La don particles—Notes
9. Originative case
10. Verbs
11. Verbs—Notes
12. Syntactic particles

by Stefan J. E.

Formation of the Tibetan Word

This section is just intended as an introduction and information. You will become naturally familiar with Tibetan words in the process of learning Tibetan, so there is no need to learn everything presented here. The important informations will be pointed out during class.

	This section contains Tibetan script. Without proper Tibetan rendering support configured, you may see other symbols instead of Tibetan script.

Definition from བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, the Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary:

མིང་ཚིག་: ...དོན་གྱི་ངོ་བོ་སྟོན་པ་མིང་སྟེ། བུམ་པ། ཀ་བ་ལྟ་བུ་དང༌། དོན་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་སྟོན་པ་ཚིག་སྟེ། རི་མཐོན་པོ། ངས་བཤད། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཉན་ལྟ་བུའོ།

མིང་ཚིག་, name word: "showing the essence of the object" is the name, like "vase" or "pillar", and "showing the particularities of the object" is the word / phrase like "high mountain", "I explained", "you listened".

Simple nouns

One syllable

མགོ་, head; ཁྱི་, dog; གྲུ་, boat; གྲོ་, wheat; ཤིང་, wood; གཡག་, bos grunniens; མིག་, eye; མི་, person, man; རྩྭ་, grass; མེ་, fire; ཉ་, fish; བྱ་, bird; ཁ་, mouth

Two syllables

ཅོག་ཙེ་, table; སོག་ལེ་, saw (the carpenters tool); སྟ་རེ་, axe; སྟོན་ཀ་, autumn

Compound nouns with པ་ and བ་

The endings པ་ and བ་ are used to form nouns and are then part of the noun as second syllable without adding any extra meaning. (See Compound nouns).

ཀོ་བ་, hide, leather; ཁང་པ་, house; བུམ་པ་, vase; ཐོ་བ་, hammer; ཟླ་བ་, moon

With the same root as a verb:
འཁོར་ལོ་, wheel, with འཁོར་བ་, to turn, spin


to turn		v.i.	ཐ་མི་དད་པ
འཁོར་བ།	འཁོར་བ།	འཁོར་བ།
past	pres.	fut.	imp.

Compound nouns

Nouns, adjectives and verbs forming compound nouns

Noun and noun


ཀོ་གྲུ་
leather boat
leather-boat, a boat made from animal hide; (ཀོ་བ་, hide, leather)

སྦྲ་ཐག་, rope of a yaks' hairs, སྦྲ་, thick material woven from long, coarse yak hairs ཐག་པ་, rope, string


ཚོང་ཁང་
business house
shop; (ཁང་པ་, house)


མིག་ཆུ་
eye water
tears


ཆུ་མིག་
water eye
well


སྙིང་རུས་
heart bone
courage, endeavour; (རུས་པ་, bone)

Noun and adjective


ཉེ་རིགས་
near lineage
relatives, kinsman ཉེ་བ་, near; རིགས་, lineage, family line, caste, blood-line, class, type


གླང་ཆེན
ox big
elephant; ཆེན་པོ་, big, great


བྱ་རྒོད་
bird wild
vulture

Adjective and adjective


Two adjectives with opposite meaning forming an abstract noun

ཆེ་ཆུང་, size; ཆེ་བ་, bigger, ཆུང་བ་, smaller
མང་ཉུང་, quantity; མང་པོ་, many, ཉུང་ངུ་, few
ཕྲ་སྦོམ་, thickness; ཕྲ་མོ་ / ཕྲ་བ་, subtle, fine, tiny, སྦམ་པོ་, thick, rough, coarse, bulky

Compound nouns where the meaning is not clearly apparent from knowing the words in the compound

[...]

Endnotes

@@ Line 54: / Line 54: @@
 ====Noun and adjective====
-<!--
+{{gsample|ཉེ་རིགས་|near lineage|relatives, kinsman<br>{{gtib|ཉེ་བ་}}, near; {{gtib|རིགས་}}, lineage, family line, caste, blood-line, class, type}}<br>
-  ཉེ་རིགས་   "realtives, kinsman" ཉེ་བ་ "near" རིགས་ " lineage, family line, caste, blood-line; class, type"
-near lineage
-གླང་ཆེན་   "elephant" ཆེན་པོ་ "big, great"  བྱ་རྒོད་   "vulture"
+{{gsample|གླང་ཆེན|ox big|elephant; {{gtib|ཆེན་པོ་}}, big, great}}<br>
-ox     big						  bird wild;...
-.1.3 adjective and adjective
+{{gsample|བྱ་རྒོད་|bird wild|vulture}}
-two adjectives with opposed meaning forming an abstract noun
-ཆེ་ཆུང་ "size"     ཆེ་བ་ "bigger"   ཆུང་བ་ "smaller"   མང་ཉུང་ "quantity"     མང་པོ་ "many"   ཉུང་ངུ་ "few"
+====Adjective and adjective====
+{{grule|Two adjectives with opposite meaning forming an abstract noun}}
-ཕྲ་སྦོམ་  "thickness" ཕྲ་མོ་ / ཕྲ་བ་  "subtle, fine, tiny" སྦམ་པོ་  "thick, rough, coarse, bulky"
+* {{gtib|ཆེ་ཆུང་}}, size; {{gtib|ཆེ་བ་}}, bigger, {{gtib|ཆུང་བ་}}, smaller
+* {{gtib|མང་ཉུང་}}, quantity; {{gtib|མང་པོ་}}, many, {{gtib|ཉུང་ངུ་}}, few
-.1.4 compound nouns where the meaning is not clearly apparent from knowing the words in the compound
+* {{gtib|ཕྲ་སྦོམ་}}, thickness; {{gtib|ཕྲ་མོ་}} / {{gtib|ཕྲ་བ་}}, subtle, fine, tiny, {{gtib|སྦམ་པོ་}}, thick, rough, coarse, bulky
+====Compound nouns where the meaning is not clearly apparent from knowing the words in the compound====
+<!--
       རྡོ་རིང་   "stone pillar, obelisk, monument" རྡོ་རྗེ་   "vajra;..." རྡོ་ཞོ་   "lime" (quick and slaked)
 stone long  				     stone lord                   stone  yogurt, curd
@@ Line 188: / Line 187: @@
 རྟག་ཏུ་སེམས་གྱ་གྱུ་མི་མངའ་བ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་  "always through a mind-without-deceit-ness"
-allways mind  deceit not  have      "through "
+always mind  deceit not  have      "through "
 * ཉིད་ has different meanings, one very common is "this one, that very, itself"
@@ Line 208: / Line 207: @@
-This process can also accure with taking off and then using the noun’s postfix-letter.
+This process can also occur with taking off and then using the noun’s postfix-letter.
   གཟེར་ " nail, stake" both   གཟེར་བུ་ and  གཟེ་རུ་   "spike, little nail"  (taking off and using the ར་)
 ལུག་ "sheep" both  ལུག་གུ་ and  ལུ་གུ་   "lamb"    (taking off and using the ག་)
-A change of the noun’s vowel can also accure.
+A change of the noun’s vowel can also occur.
 རྟ་   "horse"    རྟེའུ་   "foal"  སྟ་རེ་   "axe"    སྟེའུ་   "small axe"  བུ་  "bird"    བྱིའུ་   "little bird"
-མཚོ་   "lake"    མཚེའུ་   "pond, small lake"  རྡོ་   "stone"    རྡེའུ་   "pepples, small stone"
+མཚོ་   "lake"    མཚེའུ་   "pond, small lake"  རྡོ་   "stone"    རྡེའུ་   "pebbles, small stone"
 ཁྱོ་ / ཁྱོ་བོ་ / ཁྱོ་ག་ "husband"      ཁྱེའུ་   "child"
@@ Line 227: / Line 226: @@
 son
-ཁྱི་ཕྲུག་   "puppy" བྱ་ཕྲུག་   "fledglings, birdling" ཕག་ཕྲུག་   "piggy"
+ཁྱི་ཕྲུག་   "puppy" བྱ་ཕྲུག་   "fledglings, birdling, nestling" ཕག་ཕྲུག་   "piggy"
 dog		         bird			          swine
@@ Line 247: / Line 246: @@
 .2.10  ས་
-ས་ itsefl means "place, earth, ground, land, soil, base, territory; the element earth; stage, state, level, ground"
+ས་ itself means "place, earth, ground, land, soil, base, territory; the element earth; stage, state, level, ground"
-related to that ས་ froms noun with the meaning "the place where"
+related to that ས་ forms noun with the meaning "the place where"
 སྡོད་ས་ "place to stay or live, residence, dwelling"
 སྡོད་པ་ "to stay, live, reside, remain, to sit" 		བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད་པ།  བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད།  ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
@@ Line 267: / Line 266: @@
 .1 པ་ / བ་change
-Euphonic changes of  པ་and པོ་ to བ་ and བོ་ do not accure in all usages*. If :
+Euphonic changes of  པ་and པོ་ to བ་ and བོ་ do not occur in all usages*. If :
 པ་ after ག་ ད་ ན་ བ་ མ་ ས་ ད་དྲག་
 བ་ after ང་ འ་ ར་ ལ་ མཐའ་མེད་
@@ Line 284: / Line 283: @@
 ཞིང་ "field" ཞིང་པ་ "farmer"  མདའ་ "arrow" མདའ་པ་ "archer"
 སྨན་ "medicine" སྨན་པ་ "doctor"  ཁྱིམ་ "household, house" ཁྱིམ་པ་ "householder, layman" རྟ་ "horse" རྟ་པ་ "horseman"  གར་ "dance, acting" གར་པ་ "dancer, actor"
-རྣལ་འབྱོར་ "yoga" རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་ "yogin"
+རྣལ་འབྱོར་ "yoga" རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་ "yogi"
 showing connection
@@ Line 320: / Line 319: @@
 འགྲོ་བ་ to go,  (verbal root འགྲོ་ (see verbs))
-verbal adjectives as quallifier 	འགྲོ་བའི་མི་འདི་	"this walking person"
+verbal adjectives as qualifier 	འགྲོ་བའི་མི་འདི་	"this walking person"
 			         	 to go  person this
 as a noun			འགྲོ་བ་ "the goer, the going one, migrators" for "sentient beings"
@@ Line 326: / Line 325: @@
 མཐོང་བ་ to see (verbal root མཐོང་)
-verbal adjectives as quallifier 	མཐོང་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་འདི་     "this seeing king / this king who sees",
+verbal adjectives as qualifier 	མཐོང་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་འདི་     "this seeing king / this king who sees",
 			        	to see        king    this   	or "this king who is seen"
@@ Line 351: / Line 350: @@
 .8  པོ་/ བོ་ / མ་/ མོ་  as genus-indicator for nouns
-མ་/ མོ་ are used to form the feminin form, either for nouns which do have a masculine form, or those without.
+མ་/ མོ་ are used to form the feminine form, either for nouns which do have a masculine form, or those without.
-(Often only the feminin form is expressed.)
+(Often only the feminine form is expressed.)
-པོ་ / བོ་ are not as storng a genus-indicator as མ་/ མོ་  and nouns with པོ་ / བོ་ might be still used as just general terms.
+པོ་ / བོ་ are not as strong a genus-indicator as མ་/ མོ་  and nouns with པོ་ / བོ་ might be still used as just general terms.
 གྲོགས་ "a friend"  གྲོགས་པོ་ also "a friend" or specifically "a male friend"
@@ Line 374: / Line 373: @@
 .10   བོ་ / མ་ / མོ་  genus-neutral nouns
-བོ་ / མ་ / མོ་  can be part of a noun without indiacting a genus.
+བོ་ / མ་ / མོ་  can be part of a noun without indicating a genus.
 གད་མོ་ "laughter" བགད་པ་ "to laugh"		བགད་པ།  དགོད་པ།  བགད་པ།  དགོད།  ༼ཐ་དད་པ༽
@@ Line 410: / Line 409: @@
 .14  ཡས་པ་   ཀླས་པ་
-One meaning of  ཡས་ /  ཡས་པ་ and ཀླས་ /  ཀླས་པ་  when coming after a word is to express negation in termes of absence, of being without like the English "-less".
+One meaning of  ཡས་ /  ཡས་པ་ and ཀླས་ /  ཀླས་པ་  when coming after a word is to express negation in terms of absence, of being without like the English "-less".
 མཐའ་ཡས་ "limitless, ..." 	དཔག་ཡས་ "unfathomable..." 	གཞལ་ཡས་ "measureless"
@@ Line 439: / Line 438: @@
+-->
--->
 '''<nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>'''
 =Endnotes=

Tibetan Grammar - Formation of the Tibetan Word: Difference between revisions