Tibetan/Verbs

Bya tshig

The sentence structure is:

Subject+object+verb

Copula

Essential egophoric

ང་བོད་པ་ཡིན།

• Nga bod pa yin
  • I am Tibetan.

The negative form is with the word Min.

ང་དབིན་ཇི་པ་མིན།

• Nga bin ji pa min
  • I am not an Englisman.

Existencial testimonial

ཁྱེད་རང་དགེ་རྒན་རེད།

• Khyed rang ge gan red
  • You are a teacher.

The negative form is with the word Ma red.

ཁ་པར་སེར་པོ་མ་རེག།

• Kha par ser po ma red
  • The phone don't is yellow.

Asking questions

Yes/no question are formed by adding the question mark པས (pa) to the end of the verb. Examples:

• ཁོང་བོད་པ་རེད་པས།
  • Khong bod pa red pa
    • Is he Tibetan?
• འདི་ཁ་པར་རེད་པས།
  • Di kha par red pa
    • Is this a phone?

Negative questions

• འདི་ཁ་པར་མ་རེད་པས།
  • Di kha par ma red pa
    • Isn't this a phone?
• ཁྱེད་རང་མཚོ་མོ་མིན་པས།
  • Khyed rang Tchomo min pa
    • Aren't you Tsomo?

Infinitive

In general the suffixes for to create infinitives is pa or wa

Root		Infinitive
Read	Lok	To read	Lok pa
Go	Do	To go	Do wa
Hear	Nyen	To hear	Nyen pa
Eat	Sa	To eat	Sa wa

Present

Da ta ba

• Nga di la kha po med
  • I don't like it

Past

'da pa

There are several ways of expressing the past tense, the most common is with the suffixes chung, tong, and chin.

• Nga na ning lor nyi hong la yül kor chin pa yin.
  • I traveled to Japón last year.

Future

Ma ong pa

• Nga zla ba ze mar phar bre yod
  • I will pay you back next week

Imperative

The imperative is generally formed replacing the verb root with the central vowel change into an O

Infinitive		Imperative
To do	Dze 'pa	Do it!	Dzo
To let go	Tang wa	Let go!	Tong
To get up	Yar lang wa	Get up!	Yar long
To eat	To sa wa	Eat!	To so

However, there are cases in which tang or dhang must be annexing to the verbal root. Others words take the prefix shok to create the imperative.

Infinitive		Imperative
To see	Ta wa	See!	To dhang
To lead	Ti wa	Lead!	Ti shok