Language/Tibetan/Grammar/Plurals

Tibetan Grammar - Plurals

Hi Tibetan learners! 😊
In this lesson, we will talk about plurals in Tibetan! Learning about plurals is important in any language, especially for communication. Imagine talking to a group of people and you don't know how to make a word plural, it could lead to confusion! So, let's dive into the Tibetan language and learn how to make plurals. Don't forget to take notes and practice! 😎

Don't miss the chance to check out these pages as you wrap up this lesson: Conditional Mood, Pronouns, Questions & Adjectives.

Plurals in Tibetan

Tibetan nouns can be singular or plural. Singular nouns refer to one person, place, or thing, while plural nouns refer to more than one person, place, or thing.

To form plurals in Tibetan, you need to add an ending to the noun. Here are some examples:

Tibetan	Pronunciation	English
གསེར་བ་	serba	cow
གསེར་བ་ཚོ་	serbazho	cows
ཕུ་རོའི་གླང་	phuro'i lang	horse
ཕུ་རོའི་གླངས་	phuro'i langs	horses
སྐད་ཅིག་	kechik	language
སྐད་ཅིག་ཚོ་	kechikzho	languages

As you can see from the examples above, adding "ཚོ་" (zho) to the noun makes it plural. However, not all nouns follow this rule. Some nouns will have other endings based on the final consonant of the noun.

For example, if the noun ends with "ས་" (sa), "ཆུ་" (chu), "དྲག་" (drag), or "བཟོ་" (zho), then you add "དོ་" (do) to make it plural.

Let's see some examples:

Tibetan	Pronunciation	English
སྣ་ཚོ་	natswo	path
སྣ་ཚོ་དོ་	natswodo	paths
མགུ་དང་	mgudang	hair
མགུ་དང་དོ་	mgudangdo	hairs

Just like in English, some nouns don't change in their plural form. Here are some examples:

Tibetan	Pronunciation	English
ནང་	nang	sky
ནང་	nang	skies
བོད་	Bod	Tibet
བོད་	Bod	Tibets

Some nouns may change completely in their plural form, so it's best to memorize the plurals whenever you learn a new word.

Plural markers

In Tibetan, there are a few markers that can indicate the plural form of a noun.

1. ཚིག་ཡི་ (zhikyi) - This marker is used after a number to indicate plurality. For example:

• བཞི་བརྗོད་པའི་ཚོགས་དུ་གསེར་བ་ཚུ་གི་ཕུ་རོ་ལ་ཚོགས་སོ། (zhyi'barjo pa'i zhogdu serba zhu gi phuro la zhogso) - I saw two cows in the horse's field yesterday. In this sentence, "ཚོགས་" (zhogs) means "field" and "ཚུ་" (zhu) is the plural marker.

2. གོ་མོ་ (gomu) - This marker is used to indicate plurality for kinship terms. For example:

• ཨ་མིག་དགའ་བོ་ཡོད། (amik gabo yo) - Where are my uncles? In this sentence, "དགའ་བོ་" (gabo) means "uncles" and "གོ་མོ་" (gomu) is the plural marker.

3. ཡོད་པའི་ (yo pa'i) - This marker is used to indicate plurality for certain nouns. For example:

• ཁྲིམས་པའི་ཆོས་བརྗོད་པར་བྱེད་པར་མི་ཚེ་པོ། (trimpa'i chosbarjo par jepa mi tsep) - The animals that live in the hills are very cute. In this sentence, "ཆོས་བརྗོད་" (chosbarjo) means "animals" and "ཡོད་པའི་" (yo pa'i) is the plural marker.

Examples in context

Let's explore plurals in context through a dialogue!

• Person 1: མི་ཚེ་བསྒྲིག་ཡི་ག་ལ་རྫོགས་པ་ར་བསྐྲུན་ལས་བཞུག་གི་སྟོང་བ་དང་ཡོད་པའི་ཆོས་བརྗོད་པར་དེ་མི་འགྲོ་བའི་གཙོ་བོ་གསོལ་བ་ཡི་རང་བཞིའི་ཏིག་ཚོགས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་གཏོང་ཚོགས་སོ། (Mi tse bsgrig yi ga la rdzogs pa ra bkrun las bzhug gi stong ba dang yo pa'i chos bar do de mi 'gro ba'i gtso bo gsol ba yi rang bzhii'i tig zhogso kyi gtong zhogso so?) - Do you know the names of the birds that are singing in the tree and the animals that live in the hill?

• Person 2: གསེར་བ་ཚུ་གི་དོན་ཚན་ཡོད་པའི་བྱ་ཙམ་པ་ཡི་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སྲིད་པར་དང་གི་འཛིན་པ་མ་འགྲོ་བ་ཚུགས་པ་དག་གི་སྲིད་པར་མི་གཟུགས། (Serba zhu gi don tsen yo pa'i bya tsham pa yi khyed kyi srid par dang gi 'dzin pa ma 'gro ba'i srid par mi gzug gsug pa dag gi srid par mi zugs) - The cows have a lot of milk and the birds that sing on those trees are very beautiful.

• Person 1: ཡང་དག་པར་མཛད་པས་སྐད་ཅིག་གྱུར་མེད་ག་དུགས་ནས་དང་སྐད་ཆུང་ཚོགས་པར་དང་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སྲིད་པར་མི་གཟུགས་སོ། (Yang dag par mdzad pas kechik gyur med gdu gsungs nas dang kechik chu zhogso par dang khyed kyi srid par mi gsug so?) - Have you learned grammar and how to make plurals?

• Person 2: དགེ་དག་མཛད་ཡོད་པའི་སྐད་ཅིག་ཐུབ་རྐྱང་ཡི་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སྲིད་པར་མི་གཟུགས། (Dge dag mdzad yo pa'i kechik thub rkyang yi khyed kyi srid par mi gsug) - Yes, I have learned grammar and how to make plurals.

Practice and improve your Tibetan

Now that you have learned about plurals in Tibetan, it's time to practice! Try to make sentences using plural nouns and practice with a native speaker. To improve your Tibetan Grammar, you can also use the Polyglot Club website. Find native speakers and ask them any questions!

Sources

• Classical Tibetan - Wikipedia
• Modern Lhasa Tibetan grammar - Wikipedia

Other Lessons

• Conditional Mood
• Gender
• How to Use Be
• How to Use Have
• Give your Opinion
• Adjectives
• Pronouns
• Questions