Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles

In the verb section the approach to explain Tibetan verbs is changed to that of the "three thematic relations: Theme, Location, and Agent" - there will be discrepancies to the other grammar section until they are matched with it

Articles on Tibetan Grammar

1. Introduction

2. Formation of the Tibetan Syllable

3. Formation of the Tibetan Word

4. First case: ming tsam

5. La don particles

6. La don particles—Notes

7. Originative case

8. Verbs

9. Verbs—Notes

10. Syntactic particles

by Stefan J. Eckel

The la don Particles

Case	Particles
Second Case: Objective Case, ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་	སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་
Fourth Case: Purposive Case, དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་	སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་
Seventh Case: Locative Case, རྟེན་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་	སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་

Each of these three Tibetan cases refer to the same set of seven particles. These are the la don particles ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་. The la don particles are in essence three particles ལ་, ན་ and སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་(which are the five different spellings of one particle) which have overlapping usages within these three cases.

There is no connection between the fact that the la don are actually three different particles and the fact that Tibetan place them together into three cases coming from Sanskrit i.e. Objective Case ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་, Purposive Case དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་, Locative Case རྟེན་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་.
It is simply a coincidence that there are three Tibetan particles-combined as the la don-that have overlapping functions which are similar to those found in the three Sanskrit cases.

This is not in any way to disregard the feats of the great Tibetan grammarians and must not and by no means be understood as a lack of appreciation of their marvelous works. Please refer to Nicolas Tournadre in "The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics" for a presentation on the particular value, importance and uniqueness of the Tibetan grammar literature.

three different case marking particle	combined into one group	applied to three different cases taken form Sanskrit
ལ་   ན་   སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་	la don   ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་	ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ Objective Case ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་     ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ Purposive Case དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་     ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ Locative Case རྟེན་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་

The three different particles of the la don are not identical in their function. And though they might at times presented as generally to be at least nominal equivalent in their function, practically this equivalence does not appear.
Because of their overlapping usage and the Tibetan way of combining them as la don these three particles are treated here together. (An exclusive or predominate usage of the particles for a given function will be pointed out.)

Overview of the Functions

Note: not all functions are included in the overview

	སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་	ལ་	ན་
functions within a clause	location in space and time	location in space and time	location in space and time; adverbs of time
		referential
		topical
		recipient, purpose, direction of the action of a verb
	adverbs
	qualifier of identity, qualifier of equivalence
	identity of transformation
	verb - verb connection, verb - adjective connection
	substitute for associative particle དང་
coordination of clauses	adverbial / simultaneity	simultaneity: "while", "and", "while (this is that is not)"	conditional and temporal "if", "when"

Independent of Verb Type

Location in Space

Place of Activity

Objective case, Tib. ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་རྒྱ་གར་ལ་ཆོས་བསྟན།

Buddha          India      Dharma taught

The Buddha taught the Dharma in India.

Direction

ཞིང་ལ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།

field water irrigate

to irrigate the field

Location in Time

Locative case

དེའི་ཚེ་ན་

that time

at that time

ཁོ་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་ལྷ་སར་བསྡད།

he time long Lhasa stayed

He stayed a long time in Lhasa.

དུས་དང་གནས་སྐབས་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་འཆི་བ་ཁོ་ན་སྒོམས།

time     circumstance   all            death   only meditate

At all times and circumstances meditate only on death.

Adverb of Time with ན་

from སྔ་མ་: "in the past, before, past time, earlier"

སྔ་ན earlier, previously

སྔ་ན་མེད་པ་ previously nonexistent

དུས་སྔ་མ་ནས་ད་ལྟའི་བར་

time former now until

from former times to now

Note: also སྔར་ "in the past, preceding, former, before", with a frozen la don

སྔར་ནས་འདྲིས་པའི་གྲོགས་པོ་

past  to be acquainted  friend

the friend [one] is acquainted with from the past

Purpose

ཞིང་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ལོ་ཏོག་སྨིན་པ་ལ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།

farmer pl.        the crop  ripen     water irrigate

The farmers irrigate for the ripening of the crop.

Referential Qualifier

A referential qualifier is marked by ལ་.

མོ་ལ་བུ་ཞིག་སྐྱེས།

she child a born

A child was born to her.

ང་ལ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་སྡིག་པའི་ལས་མི་ཆུང་ངོ།།

I     you      evil     deeds not small

For me your evil deeds are not small.

སེམས་ཅན་ཆེན་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་བུ་གཅིག་པ་དང་འདྲ།

Mahasattva          all             son   same    similar, like

Mahasattva was for everyone like their son.

གཟུགས་བརྙན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་ལ་བུད་མེད་དོ་སྙམ་

image, reflection  woman   woman    to think

to think in regard to an image of a woman [that it is] a woman

Topical

A topical element can be marked by ལ་

དང་པོ་ལ།

first

regarding the first

དང་པོ་རང་ལུགས་བཞག་པ་ལ།

first   own system  to define; to put

firstly, [in regard to] the presentation of our own position

་་་་༌། དེ་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་པའི་དད་པ་ནི།

that      trust              faith

in regard to that, the trusting faith:

Adverbial

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

ཁོང་གིས་གསལ་བར་བཤད།

he          clear        explained

He explained clearly.

བདེན་པར་ཡོད་པ

truth          exist

truly existent

མྱུར་དུ་ quick, swift quickly, swiftly

མྱུར་བ་

དེ་ལྟ་བུར་ཡོད་པ་ that like  be to be like that

དེ་ལྟ་བུ་

རྒྱུན་དུ་ continuum continuously

རྒྱུན་

རྟག་ཏུ་ permanent always, constantly, permanently

རྟག་པ་

Qualifier of Identity / Equivalence

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

For a note about ambiguities see: Note on ambiguities.

མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཆེ་བར་སྣང༌།

human those big to appear

Those people appear as big.

ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན།

household grave only  apprehend

to apprehend a household merely as a grave

གཅིག་དུ་མར་སྣང༌།

one    many  appear

one appearing as many

Identity of Transformation

What something is transformed into is marked by སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

མཁས་པར་འགྱུར་བ

learned      to become, change into

to become learned

ལྷ་རུ་གྱུར་

god   became

became a god

དུམ་བུར་གཅོད་པ་

pieces      cut

to cut (something) in to pieces

རྒྱལ་པོས་ནི་སྟ་རེས་མགོ་བོ་དུམ་བུར་གསེས།

king           axe     head    pieces     split, shred

The king split the head into pieces with an axe.

Joining of Noun and Verb

With སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

These may form new lexicalized² words.

འོད་དུ་འཚེར་བ་

light    to emit, shine, to be bright

to emit light, to be bright

ཉམས་སུ་ལེན་

experiences to take

to practice

ཉམས་སུ་མྱོང་བ་

experiences to experience

to experience

² To make or coin a new word or accept a new word into the lexicon of a language.

Verbs with la don

The topic here is the usage of the la don particles directly between a (nominalized) verb or a clause ending in a verb and another verb or adjective. e.g.: བླང་བར་རུང་. This usage quite often expresses an infinitive construction or gerund from an English point of view. (There are different approaches and opinions on how to treat this grammatically.)

For the usage between clauses see: Coordination.

See: Note on classifications for verbs with la don and Note on omissions.

Direct verb-verb relation

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

Verb and auxiliary verb

རྙེད་པར་འགྱུར།

find    future auxiliary

(one) will find / obtain

རྒྱལ་པོ་བསྲུང་བར་ཡོང༌།

king     protect  future / to come

the king will be protected

ཕྲུ་གུ་སྐྱེས་སུ་ཟིན་ཀྱང་་་

child born  past auxiliary even

even though the child was (already) born, ...

Modal Relation

Modality: covering expressions of how the world (situation, circumstances) might be and should be; this includes expressions of necessity, permissibility and probability, and negations of these.

See: Note on classifications for verbs with la don and Note on ambiguities for a further explanation of these relations and the reasons for the coming classifications and their names.

Expressing a Quality

epistemic status

མྱུར་དུ་འཆི་བར་ངེས་པས་

soon     die     certain

because it is certain [that one] will die soon ...

Evaluative status

གཅིག་པུ་འགྲོ་དགོས་

alone     go    need    (omitted བར་ between the two verbs)

(one) needs to go alone

ཇི་ཙམ་ལེན་ནུས་པ་དེ་ཙམ་བླང་བར་རུང་སྟེ།

as much take able that just take  appropriate

just as much as [one] is able to take on [it] is appropriate to take on

Expressing a Feature

ཐོས་པར་སྙན་པ་

to hear  pleasant

pleasant to hear

་་་འདུལ་བར་སླ་བ་ལ་སེམས་ལྟ་བུ་གཞན་མ་གཟིགས།

tame         easier   mind   like other not seen

....in regard to being easy to tame [I] have not seen anything like the mind

"In this world, if tamed and brought onto the path) there is nothing other (that will obey and) is as easy to be tamed like the mind."

ཕྲད་པར་ཤིན་ཏུ་དཀའ།

to meet extremely difficult

extremely difficult to meet

སངས་རྒྱས་ཉག་གཅིག་མ་གཏོགས་གཞན་དག་གིས་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་སྟེ།

Buddha       only       except        other       extremely understand difficult

Apart from for the Buddha, for all others [this] is extremely difficult to understand

Qualifier of an Intransitive Verb

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

Ability

see: Note on classifications for verbs with la don

སྨྲ་བར་ནུས་པ་

speak   able

able to speak

ཆོས་བྱེད་དུ་མི་ཁོམ།

Dharma do not to have time

to not have time to practice the Dharma

Place, time, purpose, etc.

གཅིག་པུར་དགྲ་རྒོལ་དུ་སོང་ནས་

alone     enemy  to fight  went

after he went alone to fight the enemy...

Identity

Same as Qualifier of identity / equivalence

see: Note on ambiguities

སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུ་མེད་པ་ལ་ཡོད་པར་སྣང་བ་

illusion like not existing existing appear

like [an] illusion, not existing appears as existing

Verbal Clause as the Theme of a Verb

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

The theme of the verb can be a verb or a whole clause itself which is nominalized and marked by the la don. Verbs which have their theme (intransitive subject, transitive object) normally in མིང་ཙམ་ have in this case their object marked by the la don ར་.

In some of the following examples the usage of the la don can be interpreted in different ways. Yet in most examples the interpretation of a verbal clause as the theme looks less constructed then its alternative; see: Note on ambiguities.
With verbs of "perception and mental activity“

ལེན་པར་ཤེས་པ་

to take    to know

knowing to take; (he) knows to take

གང་ན་གདུལ་བྱ་ ཡོད་པ་དེའི་གནས་སུ་འགྲོ་བར་ཤེས་པ་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ ཡུལ་ མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ།

where one to be tamed exist that    place   go     know miraculous display place super knowledge

knowing to go to the place where ever those to be tamed are is the super knowledge [of knowing] the places for miraculous displays

བདེ་སྐྱིད་འཐོབ་པར་སེམས་པ།

happiness obtain     think

to think about obtaining happiness

Verbs like སེམས་པ་ "to think" can also have their object marked with the la don ལ་, giving it the meaning " to think about, to meditate on"; see: Patient (object) of a transitive verb and Verbs which change their meaning with different syntaxes.

ཟངས་མདོག་དཔལ་གྱི་རི་བོ་པདྨ་འོད་ཀྱི་ཕོ་བྲང་རྟེན་དང་བརྟེན་པར་བཅས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་དངོས་སུ་བྱོན་ཏེ་

copper-coloured mountain lotus light palace support and supported together    all    actually came

རང་གིས་བསྐྱེད་པའི་དམ་ཚིག་པ་ལ་ཆུ་ལ་ཆུ་བཞག་པ་ལྟར་གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པར་ཐིམ་པར་བསམ།

oneself   generated  samaya-sattva water water put    like    two    not   merge/dissolve  meditate/think

To visualize that the Copper-coloured Mountain, the Palace of Lotus Light, together with all the support and all the supported, actually came and merged indivisibly with the samaya-sattva generated by oneself, like water poured into water.

མཉན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་གྲུ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རང་དང་གྲུར་ཞུགས་པའི་མི་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཉམ་དུ་

ferry-man  called  boatmen     oneself and boat entered  people and so on    all      together

ཆུའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་འགྲོ་བར་འདོད་པ་ལྟར་

river other side   go      want     like

[in regard to generating Bodhicitta] that which is called 'ferry-man' is like boatmen wanting themselves together with all the people etc. on the boat to go to the other side of the river

Verbs of "communication"

སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བསྒོམས་པས་སྡིག་པ་བྱང་བར་གསུངས།

shunyata  meditated  negativity  cleaned  taught

[The Buddha] taught that by meditating on shunyata, negativities are purified.

ཞེས་པའི་འགྲེལ་པར། ་་་་་་་་བྱང་སྒྲ་མི་སྙན་ན་ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་ཆེན་བརྩེགས་དང༌། ཁམས་གསུམ་བདེ་རྒྱས་

commentary          north Unpleasant Sound qualities precious piled up and   realms three bliss expands

སྒྲོན་མེའི་མཆོད་རྟེན་གཉིས་བཞུགས་པར་བཤད་དོ།།

torch        stupa     two   to remain    explained

In the commentary on [the quote]....... [it is] explained [that] ...... in the northern continent "Unpleasant Sound" there are the two stupas "piled up [with] precious qualities" and "torch [that] expands the bliss [in] the three realms".

With verbs of "command, request and supplication" showing the purpose

ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་བསྟན་བཅོས་འདི་བསྟན་དུ་གསོལ།

you          shastra      this  teach  to request, supplicate

(I) supplicate you to teach this shastra.

རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་པར་ཞུས།

monastic vows requested

[They] requested monastic vows.

Adverbial / Simultaneity (of Verb-Verb)

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

This usage occurs between two verbs. It can also coordinate a clause within a larger clause or one clause with an other clause (see Adverbial / simultaneity).

ཆོས་མ་གསུངས་པར་བཞུགས་

Dharma  not taught    stayed

(He) stayed, (in the manner of / while) not teaching the Dharma.

བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ལུས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རྒྱད་ལ་ཁྱབ་པར་བཞུགས་ཀྱང༌།

Sugatagarbha        beings      all         continuum   pervade  reside  even

even though the Sugatagarbha pervadingly resides in the continuum of all beings ...

གཞན་ཐམས་ཅད་ནི་ཐེག་དམན་ཉན་ཐོས་པ་ཁོ་ན་ཆེར་དར་  ཞིང་ད་ལྟའང་ མ་ནུབ་པར་བཞུགས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།།

other   all            Hinayana  Shravaka  only great spread and  now even  not sink       remain

regarding all the other [places] the Hinayana alone spread widely and even now remains without declining (sinking)

With omission of the la don

(from the same text as the previous example)

ཐེག་དམན་ཆེར་དར་ད་ལྟའང་མ་ནུབ་བཞུགས།

Hinayana  great spread now  not sink  remain

[there] the Hinayana spread widely and even now remains without declining (sinking)

Coordination

Adverbial / Simultaneity

This is similar to Adverbial / simultaneity (of verb-verb), but here the clause is not directly before the second verb. The meaning is again that of "simultaneity" or "adverbial".

In most cases the first statement is a negative statement (has a negated verb).

First clause with negated verb

ཡོན་ཏན་དང་ལྡན་ན་སྐྱེ་བོ་ཀུན།     མ་བསྡུས་པར་ཡང་རང་ཉིད་འདུ།

good qualities possess person all     not gathered         one self gather

If (a person) possess good qualities everybody will gather (around them) of their own accord without being gathered (by someone).

མར་མེ་གཅིག་ལས་གཅིག་སྦར་ན་སྔ་མ་ལ་མ་ལྟོས་པར་ཕྱི་མ་མེད་

butter lamp one    one   lit   if  former not  rely    latter not exist

if [one] lights one butter lamp from an another, without relying on the former the latter [does] not exist.

ཇི་ལྟར་ན་ལེགས་པར་གསུངས་པ་ཡིན་ཞེ་ན།  ་་་་༌།  རེས་འགའ་བ་མ་ཡིན་པར་རྒྱུན་དུ་གསུངས་པའི་ཕྱིར་དང༌།

how    well/excellent  taught      is               occasionally   not is     continuously taught   because and

If one were to asked in what way is [it] well taught. ...because [it] is not [just] occasionally but continuously taught, and ...

གཅིག་གིས་གཅིག་ལ་ཞེ་སྡང་མི་བསྐྱེད་པར་རང་གི་སྔོན་བྱས་ཀྱི་ལས་ངན་སྨིན་པ་ཤེས་པར་བྱས་ནས་བཟོད་བསྲན་བསྐྱེད་དགོས་ཏེ་

one           one  aggression not generate  self   earlier done   action bad mature know           forbearance  generate need

[They should] not generate aggression for one another but knowing that it is the maturation of their own past negative actions they should generate forbearance.

Example with a positive first clause

རིགས་པ་དང་ལུང་གིས་རབ་ཏུ་བསྟན་པར་རང་གི་འདོད་པ་གྲུབ་

logic         scripture  fully demonstrate  ones  assertion  established

[With] fully demonstrating through logic and scriptures one's assertion is established.

The Temporal and Conditional ན་ After a Clause

Note: This is the most used function of ན་ vastly outnumbering all it's others usages.

ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་མདོ་སྡེ་མཐོང་ན་ཉན་ཐོས་ལ་དད་དེ།

Shravaka    sutra    see     Shravaka  faith

if / when [they] see the Shravaka-sutras, [they] will have faith in the Shravakas

The Coordinating ལ་ After a Clause

ངོ་བོ་སྟོང་ལ་རང་བཞིན་གསལ།

essence empty  nature    luminous

[its] essence is empty and / while [its] nature is luminous

ཚིག་འཛིན་ལ་དོན་མི་འཛིན་པ།

word retain   meaning retain

to remember the words, [but] not to remember the meaning

་་་དགེ་འདུན་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་མོས་ཤིང་གུས་ལ་སེམས་དང་བའོ། །

sangha       jewel       devotion respect   mind  clear / delighted, sincere

....[having] towards the Jewel of the Sangha devotion, respect and great faith

གལ་ཏེ་གཅིག་གམ་སྙམ་ན།   མ་ཡིན་ཏེ།   མཚན་ཉིད་མི་མཐུན་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཏེ།   ཕུང་པོ་ནི་མི་རྟག་པ་དང་

in case   one   ?      wonder    not  is  characteristic not in accord because      skandhas impermanent and

དུ་མ་སྤུངས་པ་དང་གཞན་དབང་ཅན་ཡིན་ལ།   བདག་ནི་རྟག་པ་དང་གཅིག་པུ་དང་རང་དབང་ཅན་དུ་འཛིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།   །

many gathered and  other-controlled  are la don  self  permanent and singular self-controlled     grasped because

If [one] were to wonder, [are the self and the skandhas] one? - [they] are not, because the [their] characteristics are not in accordance - while the skandhas are impermanent, a gathering of many and other-controlled, the self is grasped at as permanent, singular and self-controlled.

The same type of coordination occurs with adjectives.

གསལ་ལ་ཟླུམ་པའི་ཟླ་བ།

clear     round     moon

the clear and round moon

ཐག་པ་སྲ་ལ་    གྲིམ་པ་ཞིག

rope   solid / hard  tight / firm

a solid and firm rope

Postpositions

local

ནང་དུ་ in inside, into

ཁྱིམ་གྱི་ནང་དུ་ house    inside inside the house, into the house

ནང་ན་   inside

བར་དུ་   བར་ན་   in between

purpose

ཆེད་དུ་    དོན་དུ་    ཕྱིར་དུ་    སླད་དུ་

all four express: "for the purpose of, , in order to, for the sake of"

Second Pleonastic Particle ན་

from πλεονασμóς / pleonasmos "excess"

When ན་ stands as second particle after another particle (mostly agentive - reason), it doesn’t add any meaning (beside making it easier to spot that the agentive case is marking a reason).

རྒྱུ་དེས་ན་

cause that

because of / through that cause

ན་ for ཞེ་ན་

ན་ stands for ཞེ་ན་ after a clause where the clause is a question with an interrogative pronoun.

ཞེ་ན་ / ཅེ་ན་ / ཤེ་ན་ translated as "If one asks..." is short for ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ་ན་ "if one says ..." J.Rockwell Jr., pg. 145, 12.3

དུས་ནམ་ནས་འཁྲུལ་ན།

time     when  confused

If one were to ask: "Since when have [they] been confused?"

Dependent on Verb Type

For the usage of the la don with verbs that can have a verbal clause as the theme, see: Verbal clause as the theme of a verb.

Agentive Directed Verb

Commonly ལ་ (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ only as substitute for ལ་ .)

See the verb section for agentive directed verbs.

With intentional verbs of perception

ཁོས་མོ་ལ་བལྟས། he   she     looked He looked at her.

ཁོ་ལ་མོས་བལྟས། he  she      looked She looked at him.

Verbs of benefit / harm

གཟུགས་པོར་ནད་ཀྱིས་འདེབས་པ།

body     illness      hit, strike

The body is struck by a disease.

Source: བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ།

With verbs expressing mental activity

Verbs like སེམས་པ་ "to think" and སྒོམ་པ་ "to meditate, to cultivate" can have their theme (object) marked with the la don ལ་. If the theme (object) is a whole clause, the la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are used. (See Verbal clause as the theme of a verb.)

གསུམ་པ་རྙེད་དཀའི་དཔེ་ལ་བསམ་པ་ནི་

third    find difficult example contemplate

the third: to contemplate about the example of the difficulty of finding [a precious human birth]

རྒྱུ་ལ་དཔྱོད་པ་

cause examine

to examine the cause

Recipient (Indirect Object) of a Ditransitive Verb

A ditransitive verb is a verb that has both a theme (direct object) and a recipient (indirect object).

Mostly ལ་, sometimes སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

Note: In Tibetan grammar (following the Sanskrit model) the recipient (indirect object) of a ditransitive verb, where the action brings no direct nor indirect benefit to it, and the recipient to which the action does bring direct or indirect benefit are considered to be in different cases ( both are marked by the la don). The former would be in the objective case ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་, the latter the purposive case དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་.

སྔོན་གཤེགས་དཔའ་བོའི་སྐུ་གདུང་ལ་མེ་ཏོག་གི་ཕྲེང་བ་འབུལ་བ།

former gone  heroes  tomb, reliquary  flower  garland   offer

Offering flower garlands to the tombs of the heroes of former times.

སྨན་པས་ནད་པ་ལ་སྨན་སྟེར།

doctor  the ill   medicine give

The doctor gives medicine to the ill. (direct benefit)

ཚོགས་རྫོགས་པའི་ཕྱིར་དུ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་མཆོད་པ་འབུལ།

accumulation complete order to jewel offerings offer

To offer offerings to the (three) jewels, in order to complete the accumulations. (indirect benefit)

Verbs of Motion: Destination

Objective case, Tib. ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་

གྲོང་ཁྱེར་འདིར་འགྲོ་

city     this     go

to go to this city

ལམ་དུ་འཇུག་

path       enter

setting out on the path

Qualifier / Complement of an Intransitive Verb

This is covered above by the usage of the la don particles for location in space and time, adverbial and so on.

For other usage together with verbs see Direct verb-verb relation and Qualifier of an intransitive verb.

ཚ་གྲང་གཉིས་ལྷན་ཅིག་ཏུ་མི་གནས།

hot cold two   together    not stay

The two, hot and cold, don’t remain together.

Verb of Dependence: qualifier—what it is Depended Upon la don

The la don ལ་ is being used most commonly.

འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་དང་རྐྱེན་ལ་བརྟེན།

result  cause and  conditions depend

Results depend on causes and conditions.

ཚུལ་འདིར་བརྟེན་ནས་

approach this adhere

adhering to this approach...

Attitude Verbs

That what the attitude is towards is marked by la don ལ་

In the བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, those are ཐ་མི་དད་པ་-classified verbs.

དཔའ་བོ་ལ་གུས་པ་

hero        respect

respect towards the hero

དཀའ་ཚེགས་གང་ལའང་མི་སྐྲག

hardship    what ever    not  afraid

not afraid of whatever hardship

Verbs of Necessity

• qualifier—that what needs: la don, theme—that what is needed: ming tsam (no particle)

མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས།

sprouts water need

Sprouts need water.

ལུག་ལ་རྩྭ་དགོས།

sheep  grass need

Sheep need grass.

Verbs of Living: Place of Living

locative case

ཁོ་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་ལྷ་སར་བསྡད།

he time long  Lhasa   stayed

He stayed in Lhasa for a long time.

Verbs of Existence: Place of Existence

locative case

བོད་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།

Tibet bos grunniens exist

There are yaks in Tibet.

Inclusion

བོད་མི་ལ་མཁས་པ་མང་པོ་ཡོད།

Tibetan    learned   many   are

There are many learned-ones among Tibetans.

Verb of Possession

locative case

• Possessor: la don, what is owned: ming tsam (no particle)

བདག་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།

I    bos grunniens have

I have yaks.

Verbs of Avoidance

• That which is avoided:voriginative or la don or ming tsam

གཞུང་ལམ་ལ་གཡོལ་ནས་ལམ་ལོག་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།

main road     keep away  worn away path  went

Avoiding the main road, he went on the derelict path.

Verbs Expressing "to Make Effort, to Engage"

• What is the effort towards: la don

ལས་དོན་ལ་རྩོལ་བ།

undertaking  to endeavor

to endeavor in the undertaking

la don as substitute for དང་ with verbs using དང་

སྙིང་རྗེར་ལྡན་པ་

compassion possess

to have compassion

ཞེན་པ་ལ་བྲལ་བ་

clinging   to be freed from

to be freed from clinging

Endnotes

Source

RigpaWiki:Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles