Unit 10: Verb phrases

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In this unit we will learn how to turn verbs into nouns using nominalizers and how to use nominal clauses. We will also learn how to attach two verbs together using secondary verbs. By the end of this unit you will know all the basic grammar of Standard Tibetan.

Unit 10 Sections:

1. 1. Nominalizers
   1. 1.1. The bound nominalizer ཡ་
   2. 1.2. The bound nominalizer མཁན་
   3. 1.3. The bound nominalizer {པ་}
   4. 1.4. The bound nominalizer ས་
   5. 1.5. Other bound nominalizers
   6. 1.6. Free nominalizers
2. 2. Secondary verbs
   1. 2.1. Simple secondary verbs
   2. 2.2. Complex secondary verbs
3. 3. Nominal clauses
   1. 3.1. Declarative nominal clauses
   2. 3.2. Interrogative nominal clauses
   3. 3.3. Finite nominal clauses
   4. 3.4. Nominal clauses with other endings
4. 4. Other notes on verb phrases
   1. 4.1. More on auxiliaries
   2. 4.2. More on clipping
5. 5. Summary of verb phrases
   1. 5.1. Verb phrase components
   2. 5.2. Verbs without auxiliaries
   3. 5.3. Verbs with auxiliaries
6. 6. Other notes on Tibetan grammar
   1. 6.1. Rhetorical questions
   2. 6.2. Common phrases
   3. 6.3. Where to go from here
7. 7. Terminology
   1. 7.1. Vocabulary
   2. 7.2. Jargon

1. Nominalizers

Nominalizers are word-endings that turn verbs into nouns. They can be divided into bound nominalizers and free nominalizers. Bound nominalizers only occur in combination with a verb, whereas free nominalizers can also exist as independent nouns. Bound nominalizers are usually pronounced in the same chunk as the verb, as if they were the second syllable of the verb.

Nominalized verbs can either stand on their own, or they can occur as part of a relative clause. Relative clauses are nominalized verb phrases that modify a noun. Relative clauses include a nominalized verb and all but one of its arguments. The unincluded argument is the noun that’s being modified by the relative clause. We learned how to nominalize {ཡིན་} and {ཡོད་} in Unit 7, and now we will learn how to nominalize true verbs. As seen in Unit 7, nominalized verbs (or the noun they modify, if they are modifying a noun) are typically followed by དེ་.

1.1. The bound nominalizer ཡ་

In the spoken language, the bound nominalizer ཡ་ (also spelled ཡག་) is added to a verb to mean “to” or “-ing”. It can be called the default ending of the verb, the verb’s citation form, or the verb’s dictionary form. For example:

• ཁ་ལག་བཟོ་ཡ་སྐྱིད་པོ་ཡོད་རེད། Cooking is fun.
• མོ་ཊ་བཏང་ཡ་ལ་དགའ་པོ་ཡོད། I like driving.

In the spoken language, it is often written ཡས་ and pronounced “yä”. In the written language, the nominalizer རྒྱུ་ is used instead.

ཡ་ is also used to form future patients, as in:

• འཁྲུ་ཡ་ that which is to be washed
• འཐུང་ཡ་ that which is to be drunk (i.e. a drink)

Verbs nominalized with ཡ་ can act as following or preceding modifiers:

• དུག་སློག་འཁྲུ་ཡ་ clothes which are to be washed
• སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱེད་ཡ་གི་སློབ་ཚན་ the lesson which is to be studied

1.2. The bound nominalizer མཁན་

The bound nominalizer མཁན་ is used to form an agent:

• ཇ་འཐུང་མཁན་ the tea-drinker
• རྒྱ་གར་ལ་འགྲོ་མཁན་ the one(s) going to Tibet

In the spoken language, this མཁན་ is often pronounced like ཉན་. In the written language, the nominalizer {པ་} is used instead.

མཁན་ is sometimes used to form patients which are the subject of a verb:

• ཞིང་པ་ཡིན་མཁན་ the one(s) who is/are farmers
• རྒྱ་གར་ལ་འགྲོ་མཁན་ the one(s) going to Tibet
• ཤི་མཁན་ the one(s) who die(s)

Verbs nominalized with མཁན་ can act as following or preceding modifiers:

• ཕྲུ་གུ་བོད་སྐད་སྦྱང་མཁན་ children who learn spoken Tibetan
• བོད་སྐད་སྦྱང་མཁན་གྱི་ཕྲུ་གུ་ children who learn spoken Tibetan

1.3. The bound nominalizer {པ་}

In the written language, {པ་} is the default ending of the verb, just like ཡ་ in the spoken language:

• འགྲོ་བ་ to go
• ལབ་པ་ to speak

{པ་} is also used in the written language as an agentive nominalizer, instead of {མཁན་}.

In both the written and spoken language, {པ་} is used to form past patients, as in:

• ཁྱེད་རང་གིས་གསུངས་པ་དེ་ that which you said / what you said
• ངས་བྲིས་པ་དེ་ that which I wrote / what I wrote
• མ་ཤེས་པ་ཡོད་པས། Is there anything you didn’t understand?
• ཧ་མ་གོ་བ་འདུག་གས། Is there anything you didn’t understand?
• ངོ་ཤེས་པ་ an acquaintance (lit. “one whose face is known”)

This use of {པ་} is extremely common.

Verbs nominalized with {པ་} can act as following or preceding modifiers:

• ཡི་གེ་བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་བྲིས་པ་དེ་ the letter written by Tendzin
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་བྲིས་པའི་ཡི་གེ་དེ་ the letter written by Tendzin

1.4. The bound nominalizer ས་

The bound nominalizer ས་ is most often used to mark a location. For example:

• ང་སྐྱེ་ས་ where I was born
• ཁྱེད་རང་བཞུགས་སའི་གྲོང་འཁྱེར་དེ་ the city where you live

ས་ is also used to mark an instrument, whether that be a concrete tool for doing something, or an abstract way to do something. This sometimes results in ambiguous words that could be read either as locative or instrumental nominals. For example:

• ཇ་འཐུང་ས་ the place for drinking tea or the thing you drink tea with (e.g. a cup)
• ཁ་ལག་བཟོ་ས་ the place for making food or the thing you make food with (e.g. utensils)
• ཁོང་ལ་སྐད་ཆ་བཤད་ས་མི་འདུག There’s no way to speak to him (i.e. it’s impossible to get through to him)

Verbs nominalized with ས་ can be used as preceding modifiers, but not following modifiers:

• ང་ལ་ཞེད་སའི་མི་མེད། There are no people I’m scared of.

1.5. Other bound nominalizers

There are many other common bound nominalizers.

The nominalizer སྟངས་ is used to mean “way of” or “manner of”:

• བྱེད་སྟངས་ way of doing (i.e. behaviour)
• སྐད་ཆ་བཤད་སྟངས་ way of speaking

The nominalizer སྲོལ་ is used to mean་”custom of” or “tradition of”:

• མོག་མོག་བཟོ་སྲོལ་ a custom of making momos (a Tibetan custom)
• ལུག་གི་མགོ་ཟ་སྲོལ་ a custom of eating sheep’s head (an ancient Tibetan custom)
• རིའི་འགོ་ལ་འགྲོ་སྲོལ་ a custom of going to the summit of a mountain (a Tibetan custom)
• རྟའི་འོ་མ་འཐུང་སྲོལ་ a custom of drinking horse milk (a Mongolian custom)

The nominalizer ལོང་ is used to mean “free time to” or “a chance to”:

• བོད་སྐད་སྦྱངས་ལོང་ free time to study spoken Tibetan
• དུག་སློག་འཁྲུ་ལོང་ free time to do laundry (lit. “free time to wash clothes”)

There are also a couple bound endings that create adjectives, which I have termed “adjectivizers”.

The adjectivizers རན་ and ལོད་ are used to mean “worth”:

• ཨ་རི་ལ་འགྲོ་རན་ཡོད་མ་རེད། It’s not worth going to America.
• ཨ་རི་ལ་འགྲོ་ལོད་ཡོད་མ་རེད། It’s not worth going to America.
• ཀུ་ཤུ་དེ་ཟ་རན་མི་འདུག That apple is not worth eating.
• ཀུ་ཤུ་དེ་ཟ་ལོད་མི་འདུག That apple is not worth eating.

1.6. Free nominalizers

Free nominalizers are full-fledged nouns that can also act as nominalizers.

Some free nominalizers such as དགོས་དོན་ (“purpose”) are added directly after the verb root:

• སྐད་ཡིག་སྦྱང་དགོས་དོན་ག་རེ་རེད། What’s the purpose of learning languages?

In this sentence, the phrase སྐད་ཡིག་སྦྱང་ (“learning languages”) is modifying the noun དགོས་དོན་ (“purpose”).

Some free nominalizers such as ཐེངས་(མ་) (“time”) are added after the verb root plus {པ་}:

• འདི་ཁྱེད་རང་རྒྱ་གར་ལ་ཡོང་བ་ཐེངས་དང་པོ་ཡིན་པས། Is this your first time coming to India?

In this sentence, the phrase ཁྱེད་རང་རྒྱ་གར་ལ་ཡོང་བ་ (“you coming to India”) is modifying the noun phrase ཐེངས་དང་པོ་ (“the first time”).

2. Secondary verbs

The main verb of a sentence can be followed by another verb called a secondary verb. In this context, the main verb is called a primary verb to contrast it from the secondary verb. The secondary verb is added directly after the primary verb’s verb root, and tense auxiliaries (if used) are then added to the secondary verb.

Secondary verbs may be either simple or complex. Many secondary verbs are non-volitional, meaning that they mainly take impersonal auxiliaries. We have already seen some secondary verbs used to form the present tense (e.g. བསྡད་), the past tense (e.g. ཚར་), and the future tense (e.g. དགོས་).

2.1. Simple secondary verbs

Six simple secondary verbs are important for beginners to know:

• ཐུབ་ (“to be capable of”)
• སྲིད་ (“to be possible to”)
• ཆོག་ (“to be allowed to”)
• དགོས་ (“to want/need to”; “let’s”)
• ཤེས་ (“to know (how to)”)
• བཅུག་ (“to make”)

The first three could all be translated as “can” in English, but in Tibetan they have more precise meanings as outlined above. For example:

• ཁ་ལག་མང་ལོད་བཟོ་ཐུབ་ཀྱི་ཡོད། How much food can you make?
• དེ་རིང་དངུལ་བཏང་སྲིད་ཀྱི་མ་རེད། It won’t be possible to send the money today.
• ལྷམ་གོག་གྱོན་ཆོག་གི་རེད་པས། Is it permitted to wear shoes?

The secondary verb དགོས་ can mean both “want to” and “need to”. It can be used without an auxiliary in first-person statements, and when used to mean “let’s”. Recall that it’s also used in a future tense construction.

• ད་ང་འགྲོ་དགོས། I need to go now.
• ཁ་ལག་ཉོ་དགོས་ཀྱི་འདུག་གས། Do we need to buy food?

དགོས་ can also be used as a primary verb meaning “want” or “need”:

• ཁྱེད་རང་ལ་ག་རེ་དགོས། What do you want?

The secondary verb ཤེས་ (hon. མཁྱེན་) means “to know (how to)”, as in:

• མོ་ཊ་བཏང་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཡོད་པས། Do you know how to drive a car?

As a primary verb, ཤེས་ (hon. མཁྱེན་) just means “to know”, as we learned in Unit 8.

The secondary verb བཅུག་ means “to let” or “to make”, in the sense of “to cause someone to do something”:

• ཁྱེད་རང་གིས་ཁོ་ངུ་བཅུག་བཞག You made him cry!
• ངས་བསྟན་འཛིན་ལགས་ཀྱིས་མཚོ་མོ་ལགས་ལ་ཡི་གེ་ཅིག་བཏང་བཅུག་པ་ཡིན། I had Tendzin send a letter to Tsomo.

There are various other secondary verbs, but those are some of the more common ones.

As noted in Unit 3 Section 5.3, the secondary verb རན་ (“time to”) can be distinguished from the adjectivizer རན་ (“worth”) on the basis of their pronunciation:

• ཁ་ལག་འདི་ཟ་རན་འདུག k^halak di sarän du (“this food is worth eating”)
• ཁ་ལག་འདི་ཟ་རན་འདུག k^halak di sa rändu (“it’s time to eat this food”)

In general, nominalizers are pronounced in the same chunk as the verb, whereas simple secondary verbs are pronounced in a new chunk.

2.2. Complex secondary verbs

Complex secondary verbs consist of a noun component and a verb component. For example:

• སྙིང་ “heart” (n.) + བྲོ་ “to taste” (v.) = སྙིང་བྲོ་ “to feel like” (v.)
• ཐབས་ཤེས་ “approach” (n.) + བྱེད་ “to do” (v.) = ཐབས་ཤེས་བྱེད་ “to try” (v.)

If a complex secondary verb’s noun component is one syllable long, then it is pronounced in the same chunk as the primary verb’s verb component. For example:

• རྩེད་མོ་རྩེ་སྙིང་བྲོ་གི་འདུག tsemo tsenying tr^hokidu (“I feel like playing (games)”)
  • Complex primary verb: རྩེད་མོ་ “games” (n.) + རྩེ་ “play” (v.) = རྩེད་མོ་རྩེ་ “to play (games)” (v.)
  • Complex secondary verb: སྙིང་ “heart” (n.) + བྲོ་ “to taste” (v.) = སྙིང་བྲོ་ “to feel like” (v.)
• ངས་སྤོ་ལོ་འཇུ་ཐབས་ཤེས་བྱས་པ་ཡིན། ngä polo ju t^hapshe(n) ch^häpayin (“I tried to catch the ball”)
  • Simple primary verb: འཇུ་ “to catch” (v.)
  • Complex secondary verb: ཐབས་ཤེས་ “approach” (n.) + བྱེད་ “to do” (v.) = ཐབས་ཤེས་བྱེད་ “to try” (v.)

The syllables རྩེ་ and སྙིང་ in the example above are pronounced in a single chunk, as if they were a single word. In fact, they are part of two separate verbs.

Many complex verbs have near-synonyms. For example, the complex verb སྙིང་འདོད་ also means “feel like”, and the complex verb རྩིས་བྱེད་ also means “try”.

There are many other common complex secondary verbs. I will annotate complex verbs below with a plus sign to separate the noun component from the verb component.

The complex secondary verb ཐག་+གཅོད་ means “decide”:

• ག་རེ་བྱས་ནས་རྒྱ་གར་ལ་འགྲོ་ཐག་བཅད་པ་ཡིན། Why did you decide to go to India?
  • བཅད་ is the past tense of གཅོད་

The complex secondary verb འདོད་+ལངས་ means “a desire arises”:

• མཚོ་མོས་ཇ་འཐུང་འདོད་ལངས་པ་རེད། Tsomo felt a desire to drink tea.

The complex secondary verb རོགས་པ་+བྱེད་ means “help”:

• ངས་བསྟན་འཛིན་ནང་སྦྱོང་བྱེད་རོགས་པ་བྱེད་པ་ཡིན། I helped Tendzin do his homework.

3. Nominal clauses

Nominal clauses are when entire sentences are turned into the subject or object of a verb. For example:

• Original sentence: Tendzin bought a car.
• Nominal clause: I didn’t know Tendzin bought a car.

In the example above, the entire sentence “Tendzin bought a car” is turned into the object of the verb “know”.

Nominal clauses can be split into declarative and interrogative nominal clauses. Declarative nominal clauses are simple statements that may be preceded by the word “that” in English, whereas interrogative nominal clauses use question words like “who”, “what”, or “how” instead. For example:

• Declarative nominal clauses:
  • I didn’t know Tendzin bought a car.
  • I didn’t know that Tendzin bought a car.
• Interrogative nominal clauses:
  • I don’t know whether Tendzin bought a car.
  • I don’t know when Tendzin bought a car.
  • I don’t know where Tendzin bought a car.
  • I don’t know why Tendzin bought a car.
  • I don’t know how Tendzin bought a car.
  • I don’t know which car Tendzin bought.
  • I don’t know how many cars Tendzin bought.
  • I don’t know who bought a car.
  • I don’t know what Tendzin bought.
  • (…and so on)

Notice that there are two verbs in these sentences. The verb inside the nominal clause (e.g. “bought”) can be called the subordinate verb, and the verb outside the nominal clause (e.g. “know”) can be called the main verb.

Nominal clauses in Standard Tibetan have the format:

nominal clause (+ subject of main verb) + main verb

Certain main verbs are commonly used with nominal clauses in many different languages. For example:

• (ངས་)ཧ་གོ་མ་སོང་། I knew/ I know
• (ངས་)ཤེས་སོང་། I knew / I know
• (ཁྱེད་རང་གིས་)མཁྱེན་སོང་ངས། Did you know…?

We will see some examples of Tibetan nominal clauses below.

3.1. Declarative nominal clauses

Declarative nominal clauses consist of simple statements that may be preceded by the word “that” in English. In Standard Tibetan, they are usually formed by adding {པ་} to the end of the subordinate verb, and they require the use the personal form for all sentences.

With be-verbs

Nominal clauses based around {ཡིན་} and {ཡོད་} are the easiest to learn:

• མཚོ་མོ་དགེ་རྒན་ཡིན་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tsomo is a teacher.
• ཟླ་བ་ལ་གློག་ཀླད་མེད་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Dawa doesn’t have a computer.

Declarative nominal clauses based around true verbs can occur either with or without auxiliaries.

With auxiliaries

Declarative nominal clauses often use auxiliaries, and require the use of personal auxiliaries for all sentences. Here are some examples of declarative nominal clauses that use the auxiliaries for the past tense, the perfect, the present tense, and the future tense respectively:

• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་པ་ཡིན་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin bought a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་ཡོད་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin’s bought a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོ་གི་ཡོད་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin is buying a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོ་གི་ཡིན་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin will buy a car.

These sentences can be negated by negating the auxiliary:

• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་པ་མིན་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin didn’t buy a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་མེད་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin hasn’t bought a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོ་གི་མེད་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin isn’t buying a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོ་གི་མིན་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin isn’t going to buy a car.

It sounds better not to use the past tense auxiliary here, but it’s not ungrammatical. As with ordinary clauses, the negative perfect is the preferred auxiliary for negative past tense sentences.

Without auxiliaries

Declarative nominal clauses can also be formed without auxiliaries. If the verb root sounds different for different tenses, then you can use that to make a rudimentary tense distinction, although it sounds a bit artificial. For example, the verb ཉོ་ uses the form ཉོས་ in the past tense, and ཉོ་ in the present and future tense, allowing us to make the following distinction:

• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin bought a car. (past tense)
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོ་བ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin’s buying a car. (present or future tense)

More often, however, the main form of the verb root can be used without an auxiliary for all tenses, particularly the past and future:

• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོ་བ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin bought / is buying / will buy a car.

Declarative nominal clauses that lack an auxiliary can be negated by adding མ་ before the verb root:

• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་མ་ཉོས་པ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin didn’t buy a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་མ་ཉོ་བ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin didn’t buy / isn’t buying / won’t buy a car.

The particle ལེ་

In the spoken language of Lhasa, {པ་} can be replaced with ལེ་ in all of the structures above, for example:

• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་ལེ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin bought a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་པ་ཡིན་ལེ་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I didn’t know that Tendzin bought a car.

3.2. Interrogative nominal clauses

Interrogative nominal clauses can be split into yes/no questions, and those that use question words like “who”, “what”, or “how”.

Yes/no interrogative nominal clauses

Yes/no interrogative nominal clauses are formed like declarative ones, but with the ending མིན་ (or མེད་ when the auxiliary or main verb is {ཡོད་}) instead of {པ་}:

• མི་དེ་དགེ་རྒན་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know whether or not that person is a teacher.
• ཁོ་ལ་མོ་ཊ་ཡོད་མེད་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know whether or not he has a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་པ་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know whether or not Tendzin bought a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know whether or not Tendzin bought a car.

Interrogative nominal clauses with question words

Interrogatives nominal clauses with question words are formed like yes/no ones, but with the addition of a question word:

• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ག་དུས་ཉོས་པ་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know when Tendzin bought a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ག་དུས་ཉོས་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know when Tendzin bought a car.

This format is used for all kinds of question words:

• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ག་པར་ཉོས་པ་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know where Tendzin bought a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་ག་རེ་བྱས་ནས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་པ་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know why Tendzin bought a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་གང་འདྲས་སེ་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་པ་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know how Tendzin bought a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་ག་གི་ཉོས་པ་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know which car Tendzin bought.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མོ་ཊ་མང་ལོད་ཉོས་པ་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know how many cars Tendzin bought.
• སུས་མོ་ཊ་ཉོས་པ་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know who bought a car.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་ག་རེ་ཉོས་པ་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་ཤེས་མ་སོང་། I don’t know what Tendzin bought.
• (…and so on)

In the written language language, interrogative nominal clauses tend to use nominalizers instead of མིན་. For example:

• ཇི་ལྟར་མོག་མོག་བཟོ་སྟངས་ how to make momos

3.3. Finite nominal clauses

The nominal clauses we’ve learned above use the personal verb forms in all contexts. However, when the main verb is a verb of speech or thought, the subordinate verb takes its full range of evidential forms. For example:

• བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མཚོ་མོ་བོད་པ་རེད་ལབ་སོང་། Tendzin said, “Tsomo is Tibetan.”
• ཟླ་བ་སླེབས་མ་སོང་བསམས་སོང་། I thought, “Dawa hasn’t arrived.”

In these examples, we see forms like རེད་ and སོང་ instead of just ཡིན་པ་ and ཡོད་པ་. Nominal clauses that take the full range of evidentials can be called “finite nominal clauses”.

This occurs with verbs of speech, such as ལབ་ (“to say”), ཟེར་ (“to say”), and གསུངས་ (h. “to say”); and also with verbs of thought, such as བསམ་ (“to think”) and དགོངས་ (h. “to think”). Nominal clauses formed with these main verbs have a few other interesting features that we will talk about below.

Verbs of speech

In verbs of speech, pronouns and respectful forms are given from your point of view, but evidentials are given from their point of view. The nominal clause is also followed by a quotation particle, ཟེ་, which is pronounced as a simple “s” sound. For example:

• ཁོང་ཕེབས་ཀྱི་ཡིན་ཟེ་ལབ་སོང་། He said, “I’ll go.”

When you are making statements about someone else, you would use third person pronouns (e.g. “he” rather than “I”) and you would generally use respectful forms, so this sentence uses the respectful third-person pronoun ཁོང་ and the respectful verb ཕེབས་.

However, when they are making a statement about a volitional action that they’ll do, they would use a personal auxiliary, so this sentence uses the personal auxiliary ཀྱི་ཡིན་.

Verbs of thought

In verbs of thought, pronouns and respectful forms and evidentials are all given from your point of view, and the quotation marker ཟེ་ is optional:

• ཁོང་སྙུང་བཞག་ཟེ་བསམས་སོང་། “He’s sick,” I thought.
• ཁོང་སྙུང་བཞག་བསམས་སོང་། “He’s sick,” I thought.

The features of these nominal clauses are summed up in the chart below:

	Verbs of speech	Verbs of thought
Pronouns and respectful forms are given from whose point of view?	yours	yours
Evidentials are given from whose point of view?	theirs	yours
Uses the quotation marker ཟེར་ (-s)	yes	optional

3.4. Nominal clauses with other endings

Nominal clauses can also be followed by a variety of other endings, such as:

• Particles:
  • ལས་ X, but not Y
    • དེང་སང་ཕྱི་དངོས་པོའི་ཤེས་ཡོན་བསླབ་པ་ལས་སེམས་པ་བཟང་པོའི་སྐོར་ལ་སློབ་ཀྱི་ཡོད་མ་རེད། Nowadays they teach a materialistic education, but do not teach about kindness. (source)
• Postpositions:
  • {གི་}ཆེད་དུ་ in order to
    • e.g. སྐད་ཡིག་སྦྱང་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་་་ In order to learn a language…
  • {གི་}སྐབས་(ལ་) when
    • e.g. ཁ་ལག་བཟོ་བའི་སྐབས་་་ When making food…

4. Other notes on verb phrases

4.1. More on auxiliaries

Irregular auxiliaries

The secondary verbs དགོས་ (“to need, to want”) and འདོད་ (“to want, to desire”) are irregular because their evidential endings can be fused directly to the verb root, without any intervening particle. This is summarized in the chart below:

Evidential form	དགོས་ “to need, to want”	འདོད་ “to want, to desire”
Personal	དགོས་(ཡོད་)	འདོད་(ཡོད་)
Factual	དགོས་རེད་	འདོད་རེད་
Experiential	དགོས་འདུག་	འདོད་འདུག་

The ending ཡོད་ is optional for the personal forms. In fact, the ending ཡོད་ can make these verbs sound possessive and needy. It’s common to depersonalize them by using the experiential forms for first-person statements.

དགོས་ and འདོད་ can be used either with their irregular auxiliaries, or with the standard ones:

• ཁ་ལག་མང་པོ་བཟོ་དགོས་རེད། It’s necessary to make a lot of food.
• ཁྱེད་རང་ལ་ག་རེ་དགོས། What do you want?
• ངས་ཁ་ལག་བཟོ་དགོས་འདུག I need to make food.
• འདོད་ཀྱི་མི་འདུག I don’t want it.

Undescribed auxiliaries

Many Tibetan auxiliaries have received little attention in English-language textbooks, and may be described in only one or two textbooks, if at all. I have not discussed these kinds of auxiliaries in this course, both because they are relatively uncommon, and because I’m waiting for further scholarship to flesh out their use and function. This includes auxiliaries such as the present tense auxiliary མུས་བསྡད་{ཡོད་} and the be-verb auxiliary ཡིན་པ་རེད་.

Some auxiliaries are also described in different ways, especially the auxiliaries of probability and of the perfect. For example, the auxiliary of probability {གི་}རེད་ is described differently in Colloquial Tibetan (2002) versus Manual of Standard Tibetan (2003): the former says that it expresses uncertainty, and implies that you have no evidence for your statement (p. 70, 137); whereas the latter says that it expresses a high degree of probability, and implies that you are making an inference based on logic or fact (p. 176). These auxiliaries are important, so I have included them in this course, but their description should be taken with a grain of salt for now.

4.2. More on clipping

We first learned about clipping in Unit 5 Section 6, but postponed our discussion of object clipping until after we’d discussed verbs.

Object clipping

Object clipping is when the object of a sentence is dropped, while the subject and the verb are still expressed. It’s often used to emphasize the subject when the object is already known. For example:

• ཁ་ག་འདི་སུས་བཟོས་པ་རེད། Who made this food?
  • ངས་བཟོས་པ་ཡིན། I made it.

Subject clipping

The subject can be clipped when its exact identity is irrelevant or unimportant, for example:

• ཁྱེད་རང་ལ་རོགས་པ་བྱེད་དགོས་འདུག་གས། Do you need any help?

This is similar to the passive voice of European languages, but the grammar is much simpler in the Tibetan.

Verb clipping

Verbs can also be clipped in certain contexts. Adjectives sometimes act like verbs, clipping the usual be-verb. For example:

• ང་ཆུང་ཆུང་དུས་་་ When I [was] small…
• སྐད་མང་དྲགས་ཙང་གོ་ཐུབ་ཀྱི་མི་འདུག [There are] too many voices, so I can’t hear.

5. Summary of verb phrases

Verbs describe states, relationships, or actions involving one or more noun phrases. The noun phrases involved in a verb are called its arguments, and different verbs can take different kinds of argument structures. The role of an argument in a verb (e.g. agent, patient, location, etc.) is marked by a particle to the right of the argument.

Tibetan verbs can be divided into be-verbs and true verbs. True verbs are in turn divided into simple verbs and complex verbs. These categories are shown in the following list:

• be-verbs: {ཡིན་} and {ཡོད་}
• true verbs: every verb other than {ཡིན་} and {ཡོད་}
  • simple verbs: consist of a single verb
    • e.g. བསྡད་ “to live/stay” (v.)
  • complex verbs: consist of a noun or adjective + a verb
    • e.g. སློབ་སྦྱོང་ “studying” (n.) + བྱེད་ “to do” (v.) = སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱེད་ “to study” (v.)

All Tibetan verbs go at the end of the sentence. For example:

• བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་གར་ལ་ཡོད་རེད། Tendzin is in India
• བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་གར་ལ་བསྡད་ཀྱི་ཡོད་རེད། Tendzin lives in India
• བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་གར་ལ་སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཡོད་རེད། Tendzin studies in India

When used in a sentence, verbs usually include a verb root (e.g. བསྡད་ or བྱེད་), and they may or may not be followed by a construction called an auxiliary (e.g. ཀྱི་ཡོད་རེད།). Auxiliaries are used to show things like the tense and frequency of a verb, or its evidentiality.

Verbs can combine with other basic components, such particles and secondary verbs, to make longer verb phrases. Auxiliaries are made up of these smaller components.

5.1. Verb phrase components

Verb phrases have five basic components:

• the verb root (required)
• particles
• nominalizers
• secondary verbs
• adverbs

These components can be chained together and combined in different ways.

Particles include end-of-sentence particles, mid-sentence particles, and restricted particles. End-of-sentence particles include question markers, emphasis markers, and imperative markers. They specify the basic tone of a sentence. For example:

• འདི་ཁ་པར་རེད་པས། Is this a phone?
• སྐར་མ་གཅིག་སྒུགས་ཨ། Please wait one minute.

Mid-sentence particles have meanings like “and”, “if”, or “because”, and their function is to specify a connection between two different sentences. For example:

• སློབ་སྦྱོང་མ་བྱས་ན་ཧ་གོ་གི་མ་རེད། If you don’t study, you won’t understand.
• ཁ་ལག་བཟས་པ་ཡིན་ཙང་གྲོད་ཁོག་ལྟོགས་ཀྱི་མི་འདུག Because I ate food, I’m not hungry.

There is also a very small class of particles that occur before the verb, such as the negative particle {མ་}.

Restricted particles have special functions that only occur certain constructions. An example of a restricted particle would be the word བཞིན་ in the present tense auxiliary བཞིན་{ཡོད་}, because this word is otherwise not commonly used to connect two verbs together. By contrast, the particle ནས་ in the present tense auxiliary ནས་བསྡད་{ཡོད་} is not restricted, because it is commonly used to connect two verbs together in other contexts.

Nominalizers turn verbs into nouns, which allows verbs and verb phrases to be used as arguments in other verbs. For example:

• མོ་ཊ་བཏང་ཡ་ལ་དགའ་པོ་ཡོད། I like driving cars.
• མོ་ཊ་བཞག་ས་དེ་སྟོང་པ་འདུག That parking spot is empty.

Secondary verbs are verbs that are added onto another verb. For example:

• བརྙན་འཕྲིན་ལྟ་སྙིང་འདོད་ཀྱི་འདུག I feel like watching TV.
• ལྷམ་གོག་གྱོན་ཆོག་གི་ཡོད་མ་རེད། You’re not permitted to wear shoes.

More complicated constructions like verb auxiliaries and postpositions are built using these basic components. Auxiliaries combine particles, nominalizers, and secondary verbs with {ཡིན་} or {ཡོད་}, while postpositions use nominalizers followed by verbal particles and/or nouns. For example:

• བསྟན་འཛིན་ཁ་ལག་བཟོ་གིན་འདུག Tendzin is making food.
• བསྟན་འཛིན་ཁ་ལག་བཟོ་བའི་སྒང་ལ་་་ While Tendzin was making food…

Finally, verbs can be modified by adverbs such as སྐྱིད་པོ་བྱས་ནས་ (“happily”) or མུ་མཐུད་ནས་ (“continuously”).

5.2. Verbs without auxiliaries

Verb roots can occur without auxiliaries in the following contexts:

• with {ཡིན་} and {ཡོད་}:
  • anywhere in both the written and spoken language except when finding out new information
• with true verbs:
  • anywhere in the written language (as far as I can tell), because the tense can usually be shown by the spelling of the verb root
  • in the spoken language:
    • in direct imperatives
    • before verbal particles
    • in personal statements with certain secondary verbs (e.g. དགོས་)

5.3. Verbs with auxiliaries

The verbal auxiliaries taught in this course include:

• for {ཡིན་} and {ཡོད་}:
  • when discovering new information:
    • in the written language: +འདུག་
    • in the spoken language: +བཞག་/ཤག་
  • for tense:
    • {ཡིན་} can be replaced by ཆགས་ in the past or future tense to mean “become”, with accompanying tense auxiliaries
    • {ཡོད་} can be replaced by བྱུང་ in the past tense or ཡོང་ in the future tense to mean “get” or “occur”, with accompanying tense auxiliaries
  • auxiliaries of probability:
    • +ས་རེད་
    • +པ་འདྲ་
    • +{གི་}རེད་
• for true verbs:
  • for the present tense:
    • +{གི་}{ཡོད་}
    • +{གིན་}{ཡོད་}
    • +བཞིན་{ཡོད་}
    • +(ནས་)བསྡད་{ཡོད་}
    • +(བྱས་)བསྡད་{ཡོད་}
    • +{པ}འི་སྒང་(ལ་){ཡིན་}
    • +བཞིན་པའི་སྒང་{ཡིན་}
  • for the past tense:
    • +{པ་}{ཡིན་} (for the personal and factual)
    • +ཡིན་ (for the personal)
    • +སོང་ (for the experiential)
    • +པ་ (with question words)
    • +པས་ (for yes/no questions)
    • +མྱོང་{ཡོད་}
    • +ཚར་{པ་}{ཡིན་} (for the personal and factual)
    • +ཚར་ཡིན་ (for the personal)
    • +ཚར་སོང་ (for the experiential)
    • +བྱུང་ (for personal recipients)
  • for the future tense:
    • +{གི་}{ཡིན་}
    • +ག་ (with question words)
    • +གས་ (for yes/no questions)
    • +ཡ་{ཡིན་}
    • +རྒྱུ་{ཡིན་}
    • +རྩིས་{ཡོད་}
    • དགོས་ (for personal statements with a 2nd person beneficiary)
  • for the perfect:
    • +{ཡོད་}
  • for imperatives:
    • +ཨ་
    • དང་
    • རོགས་
    • རོགས་གནང་
    • གནང་དང་
    • རོགས་གནང་དང་
    • ཤོག་
    • {ཅིག་}
  • for auxiliaries of probability:
    • ས་རེད་
    • པ་འདྲ་

This list of auxiliaries includes all the ones covered in this course. These are common auxiliaries that are useful to know as a beginner. You will encounter other auxiliaries and constructions as you continue your study of Tibetan.

6. Other notes on Tibetan grammar

6.1. Rhetorical questions

Rhetorical questions are extremely common in Tibetan, far more so than in English. They usually have the same basic format:

question with question word + ཟེར་ན། + answer

For example:

• ཁོ་ཚོས་ཡི་གེ་ག་རེ་བེད་སྤྱོད་བཏང་གི་ཡོད་རེད་ཟེར་ན། བོད་ཡིག་བེད་སྤྱོད་བཏང་གི་ཡོད་རེད། If you ask, “What script do they use?”, they use the Tibetan script.
• བོད་ཀྱི་གྲོང་འཁྱེར་ཆེ་ཤོས་དེ་ག་རེ་རེད་ཟེར་ན། ལྷ་ས་རེད། If you ask, “What is Tibet’s biggest city?”, it is Lhasa.

A very common rhetorical question is ག་རེ་རེད་ཟེར་ན།, which literally means “If you ask, ‘What is it?’…” This phrase is a kind of rhetorical “Why?” question that’s used to explain your reasoning. Its function is similar to the English word “because”. For example:

• ཁོ་ཡག་པོ་མ་རེད། ག་རེ་རེད་ཟེར་ན། མི་ཚང་མ་ལོག་ལ་རོགས་པ་བྱེད་གི་ཡོད་རེད། He’s a good person. Why? He helps everyone..

Another common rhetorical question is འདི་ག་རེ་རེད་ཟེར་ན།, which means “Why is this?”. These phrases are often translated as “because” and “because of this” respectively, but grammatically they are a kind of rhetorical question.

6.2. Common phrases

Here are a few common words and phrases that are important for beginners to learn:

• ཨ་ནི་
  • This is a filler word, similar to “uh” in English. It’s also sometimes used to mean “and” when placed at the beginning of a sentence.
• དངོས་གནས་
  • This means “really” or “actually”. You can also say དངོས་གནས་རེད་པས། to mean “Really?”.
• ངས་བྱས་ན་་་
  • This means “In my opinion…”
• ངའི་ཉམས་མྱོང་ལ་་་
  • This means “In my experience…”
• དྲང་པོ(ར)་བཤད་ན་་་
  • This means “honestly” or “to be honest”.
• ད་ག་ནང་བཞིན་
  • This means “likewise” or “similarly”
• དེའི་གཞུ་གུ་དེ་ལ་ཡ(ང)་་་
  • This means “after that” or “next”. It literally means “and on the tail of that…”
• དེ་འདྲ་ཡིན་ཙང་་་
  • This means “therefore” or “for that reason”.
• དེ་འདྲ་སོང་ཙང་་་
  • This means “therefore” or “for that reason”.
• ཡིན་ཕྱེད་མིན་ཕྱེད།
  • When used as an adverb, this is a strong emphatic word meaning something like “absolutely”. When used as a noun, it means roughly “something that you can’t live without”.

There are a lot of fixed phrases like this that are very common and also very easy to learn.

6.3. Where to go from here

At this point we’ve studied all the basic grammar of Standard Tibetan. There are still a million new words to learn and new constructions to master, but they’ll always be some combination or variation of the basic grammatical components presented in this course.

It’s up to you where you go from here. I have a few suggestions to help you get started:

1. Find a community. It’s so much easier to learn when you have a community of people that can answer each other’s questions, study together, and share notes and resources. There are online forums for Tibetan on Reddit, Discord, Telegram, and DharmaWheel, and you could also do research to see if there’s a Tibetan community in your area.
2. Keep learning. You could study another course or textbook on the Language Resources page, or get a teacher from Esukhia’s curated list of Tibetan language teachers. You could look for Tibetan language classes at a university or Tibetan centre near you, or travel through Tibetan communities in South Asia. Be creative!
3. Use the right tools for the job. If you’re having trouble understanding a Tibetan word, you could look for it in online dictionaries like the one on Christian Steinert’s website. If you want to network with more Tibetan people, you could download WhatsApp. If you want to type digital text in Tibetan script, you could use the guides on DigitalTibetan’s website.
4. Have fun! Do what inspires you. If you don’t like a teacher or a course, then try a different one. Learning Tibetan should be fun and engaging 🙂

There’s lots more I could say, but I’ll leave it there.

Now that you’ve finished this course, you may want to try going through the Practice section of the website to work on your listening and reading skills. I particularly recommend trying the following pages:

• MST audio (listening practice)
• Samuels dialogues (listening practice)
• Söntsa level 1 (reading practice)

There will be a lot of new vocabulary to learn, but the basic grammar and sentence structure should be familiar from what we’ve covered in this course.

Best wishes and have fun!

7. Terminology

7.1. Vocabulary

Nouns:

Verbs:

7.2. Jargon