by Stefan J. Eckel
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.
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
- 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
- ཅོག་ཙེ་, table; སོག་ལེ་, saw (the carpenters tool); སྟ་རེ་, axe; སྟོན་ཀ་, autumn
Compound nouns with པ་ and བ་
- 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
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| to turn
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ
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| འཁོར་བ།
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འཁོར་བ།
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འཁོར་བ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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Compound nouns
Nouns, adjectives and verbs forming compound nouns
Noun and noun
| ཀོ་གྲུ་
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| leather boat
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leather-boat, a boat made from animal hide; (ཀོ་བ་, hide, leather)
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སྦྲ་ཐག་, rope of a yaks' hairs, སྦྲ་, thick material woven from long, coarse yak hairs ཐག་པ་, rope, string
| ཚོང་ཁང་
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| business house
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shop
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Noun and adjective
| ཉེ་རིགས་
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| near lineage
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relatives, kinsman
ཉེ་བ་, near; རིགས་, lineage, family line, caste, blood-line, class, type
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| གླང་ཆེན
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| ox big
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elephant; ཆེན་པོ་, big, great
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| བྱ་རྒོད་
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| bird wild
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vulture
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Adjective and adjective
| Two adjectives with opposite meaning forming an abstract noun
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- 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་
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| stone long
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stone pillar, obelisk, monument
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| རྡོ་རྗེ་
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| stone lord
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vajra;..."
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| རྡོ་ཞོ་
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| stone yogurt, curd
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lime (quick and slaked)
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| མཆོད་རྟེན་
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| offering support
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stupa
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| མོ་གཤམ་
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| woman inferior, below
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barren woman, barren
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| གན་རྒྱ་
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| near seal
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written contract
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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
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to be accomplished
existent, proven
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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| གྲུབ་པ།
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འགྲུབ་པ།
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འགྲུབ་པ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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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.[1]
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་
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| mind
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sentient being,
mind having one
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| ཀ་བ་ཅན་
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| pillar
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house (with pillars)
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| ཟུག་རྔུ་ཅན་
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| pain
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ill person
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| རི་བོང་ཅན་
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| rabbit
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rabbit bearer, the moon (poet.)
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Possession, adjectival phrase
| ནོར་ཅན་
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| wealth
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rich, wealthy
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| རྒྱུ་ཅན་
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| cause
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having a cause
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| ཚེར་མ་ཅན་
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| thorn
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thorny, having thorns
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The same phrase can have both meanings:
| ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་
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| qualities
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1. having good qualities,
2. learned, talented or holy, virtuous person
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| ལས་ཅན་
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| action, karma
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1. karmically fortunate one,
2. fortunate, having merit
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| བསམ་གཏན་གཉིས་པ་སྐྱོན་ཅན་དང་གསུམ་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་དུ་ཡིད་བྱེད་དྲུག་གིས་
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| dhyana second fault third good qualities mental attention six
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through the six mental attentions [apprehending] the second dhyana as faulty and the third as possessing good qualities...
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and from the same text:
| ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་ལ་བསྔགས་པ་བརྗོད་པས་མི་བསྔགས་པ་
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| virtuous person praise to express not praise
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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)
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| 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.)
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| to come
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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| ཡོང་བ
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ཡོང་བ།
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ཡོང་བ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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མཁན་
- མཁན་ comes after a word or phrase showing the "the doer, agent".
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| ཤེས་མཁན་
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| to know
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the knower"
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| རི་མོ་འབྲི་མཁན་
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| painting, to draw
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painter
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| to write, to paint
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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| བྲིས་པ
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འབྲི་བ།
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བྲི་བ།
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བྲིས
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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བདག་
བདག་པོ་, owner, ruler, sovereign, master
བདག་, I, me, self, ego
བདག་པ་, to be owned, belong to, being controlled, governed
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to be owned
being controlled
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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| བདག་པ།
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བདག་པ།
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བདག་པ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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| ཞིང་བདག་
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| land, field
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landlord
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| ཁང་བདག་
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| house
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house-owner, landlord, ཁང་པའི་བདག་པོ།
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| ཀུན་བདག་
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| all
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ruler of the world
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| མངའ་བདག་
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| to possess
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lord, ruler, king
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| ཡོན་བདག་
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| offering, gift, payment
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benefactor; boss
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| སྦྱིན་བདག་
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| giving, generosity
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patron, benefactor, sponsor
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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་
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| mind
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person, possessing mind
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| བལ་ལྡན་
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| wool
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sheep, having wool
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| སྒྲོ་ལྡན་
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| feather
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bird, arrow, having feathers
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| སྐྱེ་ལྡན་
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| birth, production
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sentient beings, the universe
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Adjectival phrase
| དོན་ལྡན་
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| meaning
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meaningful
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| རིག་ལྡན་
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| intelligence, knowledge
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learned, intelligent
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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་
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| to be empty
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shunyata, emptiness
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| ལུས་ཡང་བ་ཉིད་
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| body light
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the light-body-ness
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| གཏིང་དཔག་དཀའ་བ་ཉིད་
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| difficult to fathom
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the "difficult to fathom-ness"
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| མང་བ་ཉིད་
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| many
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"many-ness"
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| རྟག་ཏུ་སེམས་གྱ་གྱུ་མི་མངའ་བ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་
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| always mind deceit not have through
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always through a mind-without-deceit-ness
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- 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་
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| light
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greater (degree of) light
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| གླང་པོ་ཆེ་
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| ox, bull
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elephant
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| རིན་པོ་ཆེ་
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| the value, worth
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precious, jewel, ratna, Rinpoche, precious one
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བུ་, འུ་
- བུ་ and འུ་ form diminutives of nouns.
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| སྒྲོམ་བུ་
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| box
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casket, small box
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| ཁང་བུ་
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| house
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small house, hut
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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་
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| son
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young ones of humans, child, offspring
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| བྱ་ཕྲུག་
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| bird
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fledglings, birdling, nestling
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also:
| སློབ་ཕྲུག་
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| study
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student, pupil
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| སློབ་དཔོན་
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| study chief, master
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master, acharya
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| དགེ་ཕྲུག་
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| virtuous
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disciple, student, pupil
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| དགེ་རྒན་
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| virtuous elder
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teacher
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བྱ་
| ཤེས་བྱ་
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| to know
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that which can be known, knowable objects
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| སྤང་བྱ་
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| to abandon, discard
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discards, what is to be abandoned
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| འདུལ་བྱ་
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| to tame, subdue
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the one(s) to be tamed, disciple, student
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| བླང་བྱ་
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| to adopt
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what should be adopted, accepted
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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
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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| བསྡད་པ།
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སྡོད་པ།
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བསྡད་པ།
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སྡོད།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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- 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
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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| སྐྱེས་པ།
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སྐྱེ་བ།
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སྐྱེ་བ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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- 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
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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| རེ་བ།
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རེ་བ།
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རེ་བ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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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
Possession, having the feature
- (see also ཅན་ and བདག་ )
| རྐང་གཉིས་པ་
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| foot two
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biped, human
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| གཅེར་བུ་པ་
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| naked
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naked ones, Nirgrantha
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| ལས་དང་པོ་པ་
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| work first
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beginner
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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
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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| བྱིན་པ།
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སྦྱིན་པ།
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སྦྱིན་པ།
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སྦྱིན།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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- སྦྱིན་པ་མོ་, female giver, bestower
པ་, བ་ nominalizing verbs
- པ་ and བ་ are used to nominalize 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་
Verbal adjectives as qualifier:
| འགྲོ་བའི་མི་འདི་
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| to go person this
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this walking person
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As a noun:
འགྲོ་བ་, the goer, the going one, migrators, for "sentient beings"
Verbal adjectives as qualifier:
| མཐོང་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་འདི་
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| to see king this
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this seeing king, this king who sees, or: "this king who is seen"
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As a noun:
མཐོང་བ་, what is seen, sight
པ་, བ་ nouns with the same root as a verb
- འཁོར་བ་, v. to rotate, spin, to cycle through, to go around
| to rotate
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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| འཁོར་བ།
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འཁོར་བ།
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འཁོར་བ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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- རིག་པ་, v. to know, understand; to see
| to know
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v.t.(!)
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!)
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| རིག་པ།
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རིག་པ།
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རིག་པ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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| to be liberated
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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| ཐར་པ།
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ཐར་པ།
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ཐར་པ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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- འགྲེལ་བ་, v. to elucidate, comment on, explain
| to comment
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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| བཀྲལ་བ།
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འགྲེལ་བ།
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དགྲོལ་བ།
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ཁྲོལ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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- 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
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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| བགད་པ།
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དགོད་པ།
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བགད་པ།
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དགོད།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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- 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་
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| limit, ending
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limitless
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| དཔག་ཡས་
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| to assess
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unfathomable
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| གཞལ་ཡས་
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| to measure
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measureless
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| བགྲང་ཡས་པ་
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| to count
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countless
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| འབྱམས་ཀླས་
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| field, vast range
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infinite, limitless
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| མཐའ་ཀླས་པ་
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| limit, ending
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limitless
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Verbs
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་
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
Endnotes
Source
RigpaWiki:Tibetan Grammar - Formation of the Tibetan Word
