ManjuTib Tibetan Lessons

✍️Grammar

-ING forms

Changing verbs to "-ing" forms is the key I discovered for unlocking the easy transition between English and Tibetan.

I made the breakthrough after starting the channel and having puzzled with many strategies for making reliable interlinear translations that would allow for interpreting quicker and easier.

The example to explain the "-ing" strategy that I often give to people is that the early systems for teaching foreigners often only gave ཡིན་ yin as "am".

But then you get sentences like “Here am a cup” instead of “Here is a cup (that I am handing to you personally, or that I prepared for you myself, adding a personal evidence connotation)”.

So changing “am” to “being” and seeing it as “Here being a cup”, and knowing that “being” can either be personal or impersonal (yin or red), makes it so much easier to remember the correct context and make sentences that convey the correct evidentiary connotation.

And the same for ཡོད་ yod and འདུག ‘dug.

“Me-at, restaurant existing” and “Me, restaurant-at existing” is a much more stable transitional point for “I have a restaurant” (possession) and “I am at the restaurant” (location).

You can then also associate "existing" to "having", since it is most often translated that way in English.

And I just find that in general, when I think of the verbs in the -ing forms, divorced from tense, it is so much easier to flow to a correct interpretation in English than by trying to overlay a tense and struggling to get the words right.

Being

All four words mean “being” in a more general sense.

ཡིན་ is the essential-personal form,
རེད་ is the essential-impersonal form.
ཡོད་ is the existential-personal form,
འདུག་ is the existential-impersonal form.

The personal form suggests close personal association or evidence coming from a personal perspective.

Essential and existential forms of “being” are used in different contexts. For example, essential is used to express identity, and existential is used to express existing in a location.

The same four “being”-words are also used as tense-markers when following other verbs and paired with the linking-particles གི and པ་ as follows:

པ་ཡིན། པ་རེད། past tense

གི་ཡོད། གི་འདུག present tense

གི་ཡིན། གི་རེད། future tense

You will find more notes on Being in my videos and on the Sentence Structure page, as well as in the grammar notes on the translation practice page.

There is a very helpful video explaining the evidentiary copulas (yin, yod, red, duk) of Standard Tibetan that I just discovered in 2024, though it was made three years earlier.

I will be watching it a few more times to absorb the parts that are new for me... https://youtu.be/xiRHaDKKyNc?si=ppX9mVMkYV8GfJ5j

Genitive and Agentive Particles (གི་ "of", གིས་ "by")

The genitive case particle, “of” or “ ’s”, can have different spellings according to the ending of the word that precedes it.

གི་ is used after suffixed words ending in ག་ or ང་ . It is also used in colloquial language for suffixed words ending in འ་ or after suffixless words.
ཀྱི་ is used after suffixed words ending in ད་ བ་ or ས་ (I sometimes think of this order as d-b-s, like the word “debase”, as a mnemonic reminder);
གྱི་ is used after suffixed words ending with ན་མ་ར་ལ་ (I sometimes think of this order as n-r-m-l, like the word “normal”, as a mnemonic reminder);
འི་ or ཡི་ are used after suffixed words ending in འ་ or after suffixless words.

These same rules apply for the agentive (“by”) case, but with -ས་ added. གིས་ ཀྱིས་ གྱིས་ -ས་ ཡིས་

Evidentiary perspectives

Use འདུག་ when your evidence is recent, such as having seen them there yourself when you went.

Use ཡོད་རེད་ when your evidence is known from before, such as having read it in the encyclopedia, or it is generally known.

The negative forms of these are མི་འདུག་ and ཡོད་མ་རེད་

Adjectives

The final adjective-making syllable “པོ་” is removed to accommodate the “ལོས་” question, which replaces it.

Questions

For questions containing words like “what” ག་རེ་ “which” ག་གི་ or “how much” ལོས་ there is no question-mark particle such as པས་ or གས་ at the end of a sentence. It is implied in the question-word itself.