Tibetan Grammar - Formation of the Tibetan Word

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

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. Template:Tibetan

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

མིག་ཆུ་ eye water tears

ཆུ་མིག་ water eye well

སྙིང་རུས་

heart bone

courage, endeavour

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

རྡོ་རིང་ stone long stone pillar, obelisk, monument

རྡོ་རྗེ་ stone lord vajra;..."

རྡོ་ཞོ་ stone yogurt, curd lime (quick and slaked)

མཆོད་རྟེན་ offering support stupa

མོ་གཤམ་ woman inferior, below barren woman, barren

གན་རྒྱ་ near seal written contract

Translation compounds used for translations into Tibetan

སྒྲོལ་དཀར་, White Tara; སྒྲོལ་མ་, Tara, དཀར་མོ་ white གྲུབ་མཐའ་, siddhanta, siddhyanta, philosophical tenets; མཐའ་, limit, end, border, གྲུབ་པ་, accomplishment, existence, established

to be accomplished existent, proven v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ གྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Nominalizer and formatives

Note: Nominalization generally refers to change a verb, an adjective, or an adverb into a noun. In Tibetan nominalizers can also be used to change nouns into different (new) nouns.

ཅན་

ཅན་ comes after a word or phrase showing the idea of possession of this word or phrase, or changes it into a new noun-phrase from the idea of "possession, being endowed, to have" (similar to a བདག་སྒྲ་). It can be used with animated and inanimate things.

Noun phrase

སེམས་ཅན་ mind sentient being, mind having one

ཀ་བ་ཅན་ pillar house (with pillars)

ཟུག་རྔུ་ཅན་ pain ill person

རི་བོང་ཅན་ rabbit rabbit bearer, the moon (poet.)

Possession, adjectival phrase

ནོར་ཅན་ wealth rich, wealthy

རྒྱུ་ཅན་ cause having a cause

ཚེར་མ་ཅན་ thorn thorny, having thorns

The same phrase can have both meanings:

ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་

qualities

1. having good qualities, 2. learned, talented or holy, virtuous person

ལས་ཅན་

action, karma

1. karmically fortunate one, 2. fortunate, having merit

བསམ་གཏན་གཉིས་པ་སྐྱོན་ཅན་དང་གསུམ་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་དུ་ཡིད་བྱེད་དྲུག་གིས་

dhyana         second  fault          third    good qualities  mental attention six

through the six mental attentions [apprehending] the second dhyana as faulty and the third as possessing good qualities...

and from the same text:

ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་ལ་བསྔགས་པ་བརྗོད་པས་མི་བསྔགས་པ་

virtuous person   praise   to express   not praise

not to praise—through expressing praise—the virtuous person, good qualities having one. (Here "expressing praise" is the means one is not using and so one doesn’t praise)

Note on other usages: Rather different from the former two ཅན་ also shows "in the presence of, near to, side, in front of, before...", ཁོའི་ཅན་དུ་འགྲོ་བ།, "went to him", ང་ཅན་དུ་མ་ཡོང།, "will not come to me" (ཡོང་བ་ could have different meanings as all tenses have the same form.)

to come v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཡོང་བ  ཡོང་བ།  ཡོང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

མཁན་

• མཁན་ comes after a word or phrase showing the "the doer, agent".

ཤིང་མཁན་ wood carpenter

ལམ་མཁན་ way guide

ཤེས་མཁན་ to know the knower"

རི་མོ་འབྲི་མཁན་ painting, to draw painter

to write, to paint v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བྲིས་པ  འབྲི་བ།  བྲི་བ།  བྲིས past pres. fut. imp.

བདག་

བདག་པོ་, owner, ruler, sovereign, master བདག་, I, me, self, ego བདག་པ་, to be owned, belong to, being controlled, governed

to be owned being controlled v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བདག་པ།  བདག་པ།  བདག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ཞིང་བདག་ land, field landlord

ཁང་བདག་ house house-owner, landlord, ཁང་པའི་བདག་པོ།

ཀུན་བདག་ all ruler of the world

མངའ་བདག་ to possess lord, ruler, king

ཡོན་བདག་ offering, gift, payment benefactor; boss

སྦྱིན་བདག་ giving, generosity patron, benefactor, sponsor

ལྡན་

• ལྡན་པ་ is a abbreviation of དང་ལྡན་པ་ and is in its full form treated in the verb section, (although it is not considerated to be a verb in Tibetan grammar). The meaning of ལྡན་པ་ is that of possession, associated with and concordant with.

Noun phrase

ཡིད་ལྡན་ mind person, possessing mind

བལ་ལྡན་ wool sheep, having wool

སྒྲོ་ལྡན་ feather bird, arrow, having feathers

སྐྱེ་ལྡན་ birth, production sentient beings, the universe

Adjectival phrase

དོན་ལྡན་ meaning meaningful

རིག་ལྡན་ intelligence, knowledge learned, intelligent

ཉིད་

• ཉིད་ when placed after other terms it is used to produce abstract nouns, like in English "-ness". It’s used for the translation of the Sanskrit "ta" at the end of a noun. e.g. the ta in shunyata.

སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ to be empty shunyata, emptiness

ལུས་ཡང་བ་ཉིད་ body light the light-body-ness

གཏིང་དཔག་དཀའ་བ་ཉིད་ difficult to fathom the "difficult to fathom-ness"

མང་བ་ཉིད་ many "many-ness"

རྟག་ཏུ་སེམས་གྱ་གྱུ་མི་མངའ་བ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ always mind deceit not have through always through a mind-without-deceit-ness

• ཉིད་ has different meanings, one very common is "this one, that very, itself"

པོ་ཆེ་

• Joined པོ་ཆེ་ expresses "big, bigger, great, greater".

འོད་པོ་ཆེ་ light greater (degree of) light

གླང་པོ་ཆེ་ ox, bull elephant

རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ the value, worth precious, jewel, ratna, Rinpoche, precious one

བུ་, འུ་

• བུ་ and འུ་ form diminutives of nouns.

ཤིང་བུ་ wood a stick

ནོར་བུ་ wealth jewel"

སྒྲོམ་བུ་ box casket, small box

ཁང་བུ་ house small house, hut

མིའུ་ human dwarf

རྗེའུ་ lord small lord

གྲིའུ་ knife small knife

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་ mean "spike, little nail", (taking off and using the ར་)
• ལུག་, sheep; both ལུག་གུ་ and ལུ་གུ་ mean "lamb", (taking off and using the ག་)

A change of the noun’s vowel can also occur:

• རྟ་, horse; རྟེའུ་, foal; སྟ་རེ་, axe; སྟེའུ་, small axe; བྱ་, bird; བྱིའུ་, little bird; མཚོ་, lake; མཚེའུ་, pond, small lake; རྡོ་, stone; རྡེའུ་, pebbles, small stone; ཁྱོ་, ཁྱོ་བོ་, ཁྱོ་ག་, husband; ཁྱེའུ་, child

ཕྲུག་

• ཕྲུག་ from ཕྲུ་གུ་ indicates the young ones of a species.

བུ་ཕྲུག་, མིའི་ཕྲུ་གུ་ son young ones of humans, child, offspring

ཁྱི་ཕྲུག་ dog puppy

བྱ་ཕྲུག་ bird fledglings, birdling, nestling

ཕག་ཕྲུག་ swine piggy

also:

སློབ་ཕྲུག་ study student, pupil

སློབ་དཔོན་ study chief, master master, acharya

དགེ་ཕྲུག་ virtuous disciple, student, pupil

དགེ་རྒན་ virtuous elder teacher

བྱ་

ཤེས་བྱ་ to know that which can be known, knowable objects

སྤང་བྱ་ to abandon, discard discards, what is to be abandoned

འདུལ་བྱ་ to tame, subdue the one(s) to be tamed, disciple, student

བླང་བྱ་ to adopt what should be adopted, accepted

ས་

• ས་ itself means "place, earth, ground, land, soil, base, territory; the element earth; stage, state, level, ground", related to that ས་ forms noun with the meaning "the place where":

to stay, to live v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད་པ།  བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད། past pres. fut. imp.

• སྡོད་ས་, place to stay or live, residence, dwelling
• སྡོད་པ་, to stay, live, reside, remain, to sit
• སྐྱེ་ས་, birthplace, homeland, one's native land

to be born, to arise v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ སྐྱེས་པ།  སྐྱེ་བ།  སྐྱེ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

• སྐྱེ་བ་, to be born; to arise, to be produced; to develop, grow; to happen
• སྐམ་ས་, shore, dry land" སྐམ་ "be dry
• རེ་ས་, place of hope" རེ་བ་ "hope; to hope, want

to hope, want v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ རེ་བ།  རེ་བ།  རེ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ངད་

• ངད་, expressing the "power, potency, strength" of the noun. (ངད་ also means "smell, scent, odor")
• སྨན་, medicine, སྨན་ངད་, potency of the medicine
• དྲོ་པོ་, heat, warmth; to be warm, དྲོ་ངད་, strength of the warmth
• དྲོ་ངད་ཡལ་བ།, the strength of the warmth disappears, ཡལ་བ་, to disappear, fade away, vanish

Usage of པ་, བ་, མ་, པོ་, བོ་, མོ་

པ་ / བ་ change

Euphonic changes of པ་ and པོ་ to བ་ and བོ་ do not occur in all usages.

• པ་ after ག་, ད་, ན་, བ་, མ་, ས་, ད་དྲག་
• བ་ after ང་, འ་, ར་, ལ་, མཐའ་མེད་

པ་ / བ་ as part of a noun

Here པ་ / བ་ were used to form a noun and are now part of the noun as second syllable without adding any extra meaning.

ཀོ་བ་, hide, leather; ཁང་པ་, house; བུམ་པ་, vase; ཐོ་བ་, hammer; ཟླ་བ་, moon; རྐང་པ་, foot; ལག་པ་, hand.

པ་ forming nouns—"having to do with"

Showing the owner, agent, user with an "active" connection

Note: There are different opinions which usage/example falls into which subcategory. For པ་ forming nouns see also 1.2

• 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་, yogi

Showing connection

• བོད་, Tibet, བོད་པ་, Tibetan; སངས་རྒྱས་, Buddha, སངས་རྒྱས་པ་, follower of Buddha

Possession, having the feature

(see also ཅན་ and བདག་ )

རྐང་གཉིས་པ་ foot two biped, human

གཅེར་བུ་པ་ naked naked ones, Nirgrantha

ལས་དང་པོ་པ་ work first beginner

པོ་ (/ མོ་ ) "doer" of the verb

• The "doer" of the verb (nomina agentis) is only formed from present tense form of the verb.

• བྱེད་པ་, to do, བྱེད་པ་པོ་, the doer (also short བྱེད་པོ་)
• ཉན་པ་, to listen, ཉན་པ་པོ་, the listener
• རྩོམ་པ་, to compose, རྩོམ་པ་པོ་, the composer, author
• ཞོན་པ་, to ride, ཞོན་པ་པོ་, the rider
• སྟོན་པ་, to teach, show, explain
• སྟོན་པ་པོ་, the teacher, demonstrator, explainer
• ས་བོན་འདེབས་པ་, to plant seeds
• ས་བོན་འདེབས་པ་པོ་, the one who plants the seed/seeds
• ས་བོན་, seed, འདེབས་པ་, to sow, to plant, to establish, start; to strike, hit; to stamp (with a seal)

In some cases the specific female form is formed by using མོ་

to give, donate to bestow v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན། past pres. fut. imp.

• སྦྱིན་པ་མོ་, female giver, bestower

པ་, བ་ nominalizing verbs

• པ་ and བ་ are used to nominalize verbs (see verbs), which then can be used in different ways.

པ་, བ་ verbal adjective

• One usage of nominalized verbs is as verbal adjectives which can function as qualifier (see connective case), or can be used as a noun.

• འགྲོ་བ་ to go, (verbal root འགྲོ་ (see verbs))

Verbal adjectives as qualifier:

འགྲོ་བའི་མི་འདི་

to go  person this

this walking person

As a noun:

འགྲོ་བ་, the goer, the going one, migrators, for "sentient beings"

• མཐོང་བ་ to see (verbal root མཐོང་)

Verbal adjectives as qualifier:

མཐོང་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་འདི་

to see     king   this

this seeing king, this king who sees, or: "this king who is seen"

As a noun:

མཐོང་བ་, what is seen, sight

• Note: In some cases the verbal adjective can become the nomina agentis. རྒྱལ་བ་, to be victorious, becomes nomina agentis to translate the Sanskrit jina, conqueror, victorious one, an epithet for the Buddha and used in reference to high lamas.

པ་, བ་ nouns with the same root as a verb

• འཁོར་བ་, v. to rotate, spin, to cycle through, to go around

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

• འཁོར་བ་, n. samsara, cyclic existence
  

• རིག་པ་, v. to know, understand; to see

to know v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) རིག་པ།  རིག་པ།  རིག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

• རིག་པ་, n. rigpa; knowledge; intelligence; science
  

• ཐར་བ་, v. to be liberated, freed, to escape

to be liberated v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཐར་པ།  ཐར་པ།  ཐར་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

• ཐར་པ་, n. mokṣa, liberation, emancipation, freedom
  

• འགྲེལ་བ་, v. to elucidate, comment on, explain

to comment v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བཀྲལ་བ།  འགྲེལ་བ།  དགྲོལ་བ།  ཁྲོལ། past pres. fut. imp.

• འགྲེལ་པ་, n. commentary, explanation
  

• འཁྲུལ་བ་, v. to confuse, mistake; be bewildered, deluded, confused
• འཁྲུལ་པ་, n. confusion
  

Note: In the last three examples པ་ instead of བ་ follows ར་ and ལ་, which shows that it is not just a nominalized verb used as noun.

པོ་, བོ་, མ་, མོ་ as genus-indicator for nouns

• མ་, མོ་ are used to form the feminine form, either for nouns which do have a masculine form, or those without. Often only the feminine form is expressed.
• 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
• གྲོགས་མོ་, a female friend
• དགྲ་, enemy, foe, དགྲ་བོ་, opponent, enemy, དགྲ་མོ་, a female enemy, opponent
• རྒྱལ་པོ་, the king, རྒྱལ་མོ་, the queen, (from རྒྱལ་བ་, to be victorious, to win)
• རྒན་པ་, the older, senior; elders, རྒན་པོ་, old man, རྒན་མོ་, old woman
• དཔའ་, courageous, brave, fearless, དཔའ་བོ་, the hero; daka, དཔའ་མོ་, heroine, female warrior
• སྟག་, tiger, སྟག་མོ་, tigress, ལྷ་, god, deva, ལྷ་མོ་, goddess, devi
• སྲས་, son (h.) སྲས་མོ་, daughter (h.)
• ཆང་ཚོང་མ་, barmaid, female tavern worker/owner, ཆང་, barley beer, ཚོང་པ་, a shop-keeper, merchant, འཚོང་བ་, to trade, sell
• རེས་, vāra, sometimes; [mutually taking] turn[s], times" རེས་མ་, vārā, courtesan; prostitute

པོ་, མོ་ genus specific adjectives

• With པོ་ and མོ་ genus specific adjectives can be formed. (See Adjectives.)

བོ་, མ་, མོ་ genus-neutral nouns

• བོ་, མ་, མོ་ can be part of a noun without indicating a genus.

• གད་མོ་, laughter, བགད་པ་, to laugh

to laugh v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བགད་པ།  དགོད་པ།  བགད་པ།  དགོད། past pres. fut. imp.

• རྩེ་མོ་, peak, pinnacle, tip; the finger-nail, རྩེ་, point, tip, peak
• བླ་མ་, lama, བླ་, superior, higher, that which above
• གོང་མ་, the superior, higher (one); previous, earlier (one), གོང་, above, on top; higher, superior
• ངོ་བོ་, essence

Using པ་ for ordinal numbers

• པ་ is used to create ordinal numbers. The one exception is for "first".

• གཅིག་, one, but དང་པོ་, the first
• གཉིས་, two, གཉིས་པ་, the second, བཅོ་ལྔ་, fifteen, བཅོ་ལྔ་པ་, the fifteenth

Stubs

• Note: these stubs contain unfinished articles

Adjectives

ཡས་པ་, ཀླས་པ་

• 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་ limit, ending limitless

དཔག་ཡས་ to assess unfathomable

གཞལ་ཡས་ to measure measureless

བགྲང་ཡས་པ་ to count countless

འབྱམས་ཀླས་ field, vast range infinite, limitless

མཐའ་ཀླས་པ་ limit, ending limitless

Onomatopoeia

• ཁྲུམ་ཁྲུམ་, the peculiarity of the sound of chewing dry food

From the Great Dictionary, བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: ཟས་སྐམ་པོ་སྡད་པའི་སྒྲའི་ཁྱད་པར་

• ཁྲོལ་ཁྲོལ་, one of the sounds of a damaru etc.
• ཆེམ་ཆེམ་, sound of cymbals; tremble, shake

Interjection

• ཨ་ཆུ་ཆུ་, the sounds uttered because of cold
• ཨ་ཚ་ཚ་, the cry out because of pain from heat
• ཨ་ལེ་, expression of surprise
• ཀྱེ་, O!, Hey! for calling someone higher than oneself