Tibetan/Nouns

མིང་ཚིག Ming tshig

Honorific forms

Many nouns and verbs have honorific forms called she sa.

Noun	Common		Honorific
Phone	ཁ་པར	Kha par	ཞེལ་པར	She par
Teacher	དགེ་རྒན	Ge gan	རྒན་ལགས	Gan lag
Book	དེབ	Deb	ཕྱག་དབ	phyag deb

Declensions

Here we have the declension of the noun house (Nang)

Cases	Singular	Plural
Nominative	Nang	Nang tsh'o
Genitive	Nang gi	Nang tsho i
Dative	Nang la	Nang tsho i
Accusative	Nang	Nang tsh'o
Locative	Nang la	Nang tsho i
Agentive	Nang gi	Nang tsho i
Ablative	Nang ne	Nang tsho ne

Genitive Case

The last sound of the noun determines the genitive suffix. The following rules determine the appropiate suffixes:

Last sound	Suffix
-'a	-'i
-g or -ng	-gi
-n, -m, -r or -l	-gyi
-d, -b or -s	-kyi

Agentive Case

The rules for which suffix to use are as follows;

Last sound	Suffix
-'a	-s
-g or -ng	-gis
-n, -m, -r or -l	-gyis or -kyis

Ablative

• བོད་ནས།
  • Bod na
    • From Tibet.
• རྒྱ་གར་ནས།
  • Gya gar na
    • From India.
• ཡུ་རོབ་ནས།
  • Yu rob na
    • From Europe.

In sentences:

• ཁོང་ཡུ་རོབ་ནས་རེད།
  • Khong yu rob na red
    • She is from Europe.
• ཁྱེད་རང་རྒྱ་གར་ནས་ཡིན་པས།
  • Khyed rang gya gar na yin pa
    • Are you from India?
• ང་བོད་ནས་མ་རེད་པས།
  • Nga bod na ma red pa
    • Am not I from Tibet?