Simple and complex adjectives

There are two kinds of adjectives in Tibetan:

• simple adjectives (e.g. ཆེན་པོ་ “big”)
• complex adjectives (e.g. གཟུགས་པོ་རིང་པོ་ “tall”)

Simple adjectives have little internal structure. They are usually composed of two parts: 1) a root that carries the meaning of the adjective, and 2) a generic ending (usually one of the six: པ་པོ་བ་བོ་མ་མོ་) which has no meaning in and of itself.

Complex adjectives consist of a noun (e.g. གཟུགས་པོ་) plus a simple adjective (e.g. རིང་པོ་). An analogue of this in English would be the adjective “high-speed”, which consists of the adjective “high” plus the noun “speed”.

Both kinds of adjective can be used both predicatively and attributively:

• ཁྱི་དེ་ཆེན་པོ་རེད། (“That dog is big“)
• ང་ཁྱི་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་དགའ་པོ་མེད། (“I don’t like big dogs“)
• ཁོ་གཟུགས་པོ་རིང་པོ་འདུག (“He is tall“)
• མི་གཟུགས་པོ་རིང་པོ་ལ་ཞེ་ཡི་འདུག (“I’m scared of tall people“)