Language/Tibetan/Grammar/Adjectives
Hi Tibetan learners! 😊
In this lesson, we will be exploring adjectives in Tibetan grammar. Adjectives are words that describe or modify a noun or pronoun. They give additional information about the noun or pronoun by indicating its size, color, shape, or other qualities.
After mastering this lesson, these related pages might interest you: Conditional Mood, Pronouns, How to Use Be & Plurals.
Basic Adjectives[edit | edit source]
Adjectives in Tibetan are similar to those in English in that they come before the noun they modify. Basic adjectives in Tibetan do not change their form whether they are used to describe a singular or plural noun. In addition, adjectives in Tibetan can have attributes such as sound, color, and shape. Here are a few examples:
| Tibetan | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| སྒྲ་བ་ | gra-ba | small |
| རྩིས་པ་ | rtsis-pa | big |
| དུས་ཕྱུག་ | dus-phyug | round |
| ཁྲི་ཕྱུག་ | khri-phyug | square |
Here is a dialogue to illustrate the use of basic adjectives:
- Person 1: ཚེ་འདི་ རྩིས་པ་ བཟུང་པོ་བྱེད་པ་ བྱ་ཤོད་པའོ།. (Tshe-'di rtsis-pa bzungs-po byed-pa bya-shod-po.) (This elephant is big, strong and intelligent.)
- Person 2: ནས་རང་གི་ ལུས་པའི་པུམ་སྟོན་གང་མངའ་པོས་བྱས་པ་ ཡིན་ནས་ ཀརྨ་མི་རོ་སྤྱོད་ལུ་ཕྱུག་པའི་གཞི་སེལ་མཛད་པའི་སྒྲ་བ་ མི་འདྲེན་པོ་ དང་མདུན་མཁན་པའི་ཕྱི་སྒྲ་ བྱ་རླབས་པ་ ཨ་ནི་ འདྲེམ་པ་? (Nas-rang-gi lus-pa'i pum-ston gang-mnag-pos byas-pa yin-nas karma-mi-ro chod-lu phyug-pa'i gzhis-se-lam-dzad-pi sgra-ba mi-'dren-po dang m-dun-mkhan-pa'i phyi-sgra bya-rlabs-pa a-ni 'drem-pa?) (In the forest, there is a small and round bird with colorful feathers, and a temple with a big square red flag. Do you know where it is?)
Comparative and Superlative Forms[edit | edit source]
The comparative form of adjectives is used to compare two things, while the superlative form is used to compare three or more things. In Tibetan, the comparative and superlative forms are created by adding suffixes to the basic adjective. The suffixes used for comparative and superlative forms vary depending on the ending sound of the adjective. Here are some examples:
| Tibetan | Pronunciation | English | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| བཟའ་བ་ | bzang-ba | good | བཟའ་བར་ | bzang-bar |
| མོག་པོ་ | smog-po | hot | མོག་པར་ | smog-par |
| རྩ་གཅིག་ | rtsa-gcig | unique | རྩ་གཅིགར་ | rtsa-gcig-r |
Here is a dialogue to illustrate the use of comparative and superlative forms:
- Person 1: ཁྱོད་རའི་ དུས་ཟླ་བ་ མྱང་བྱེད་ལས་ མགོ་འདྲེན་འབད་ཡོད། ཁྱོད་རའི་དུས་ཟླ་བས་ མཁན་པོ་གཟིགས་པའི་གང་རེ་ལོག་ལེན་པ་ བྱོས་སོ་ཐབས་ཀྱིས་དུས་དགོན་པའི་མཁན་པོ་གང་གིས་ ཏོང་སྤྱོད་འདི་རེ་རེ་བཞིན་པར་བྱེད་པ། (Khyod-ra'i dus-zla-ba myang-byed-las mgo-'dren-'bad-yod. Khyod-ra'i dus-zla-ba gsing-po-gzig-pi gang-re-log-len-pa byos-so thabs-kyi dus-dgon-pi mkhan-po-gang-gis tong-spyod 'di-re-re-zhin-par byed-pa?) (Yesterday was hotter than today. The temple here is the most uniquely shaped building you can see in the whole town, can you identify it?)
Possessive Adjectives[edit | edit source]
In Tibetan, possessive adjectives are words that indicate possession or ownership of a noun. They answer the question "whose?" Possessive adjectives are formed by adding the suffixes གྱུར་ (gyur) or དགོས་ (dgos) to the pronoun. Here are some examples:
| Tibetan | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ང་ | nga | my |
| ཁྱེད་ | khyed | your (singular) |
| ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ | khyed-kyi | his/her/its |
| མཁན་པོ་ཀྱི་ | mkhan-po-kyi | our |
Here is an example to illustrate the use of possessive adjectives:
- Person 1: ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ ཁྱོ་མོ་ ང་ ཡི་དྭགས་ཚད་གསར་བ་ བྱས་པ། (Khyed-kyi khyo-mo nga yi-dag-tshad-gsar-ba byas-pa?) (Is the coat hanging behind your chair mine?)
- Person 2: མཁན་པོ་ཀྱི་ ཁྱོད་རའི་ ཁྲི་གདུག་དེ་ཡོདཔ་དགོས་པའི་ནང་དོན་དེ་ང་ མཐོན་པའི་རེད་ཀྱིས་འདི་ ངས་རོགས་པའི་རེ་རེ་བཞིན་པར་བྱེད་པ། (Mkhan-po-kyi khyo-ra'i khri-gdug-de yod-pa-dgos-pi nang-don-de 'di ngs-rog-pa'i re-re-zhin-par byed-pa?) (Is the red square rug in your room ours or yours?)
Conclusion[edit | edit source]
In conclusion, adjectives in Tibetan are an important part of speech that help provide more information about nouns and pronouns. To improve your understanding of Tibetan adjectives, try to incorporate them into your daily speech or read more in the Tibetan language. To improve your Tibetan Grammar, you can also use the Polyglot Club website. Find native speakers and ask them any questions!
➡ If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments section below.
➡ Feel free to edit this wiki page if you think it can be improved. 😎
Now that you've completed this lesson, don't stop learning! Check out these related topics: Give your Opinion, Gender, How to Use Have & Questions.
Videos[edit | edit source]
Learn Tibetan Language Beginner (2) - Adjective - YouTube[edit | edit source]
25 examples of forming verbs from adjectives in Tibetan by adding ...[edit | edit source]
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
Sources[edit | edit source]