Language/Tibetan/Grammar/Adjectives

Tibetan Grammar - Adjectives

Hi Tibetan learners! 😊
In today's lesson, we will be discussing adjectives in the Tibetan language. Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns and pronouns. They can be used to express a variety of meanings, such as size, shape, color, emotion, and more.

Formation of Adjectives

Adjectives in Tibetan are formed by adding suffixes to nouns. The suffixes used depend on the gender and number of the noun being modified.

Masculine Singular

For masculine singular nouns, the suffix -ར་ is added. For example, the word for "big" is ཆོས་ (chos), so the adjective for "big" would be ཆོས་ར་ (chos-ra).

Feminine Singular

For feminine singular nouns, the suffix -འི་ is added. For example, the word for "beautiful" is ཆུང་ (chung), so the adjective for "beautiful" would be ཆུང་འི་ (chung-i).

Masculine Plural

For masculine plural nouns, the suffix -ན་ is added. For example, the word for "tall" is བོད་ (bod), so the adjective for "tall" would be བོད་ན་ (bod-na).

Feminine Plural

For feminine plural nouns, the suffix -གི་ is added. For example, the word for "happy" is སྤྱི་ (spyi), so the adjective for "happy" would be སྤྱི་གི་ (spyi-gi).

Adjective Agreement

When using adjectives in Tibetan, it is important to make sure that the adjective agrees with the noun it is modifying in terms of gender and number. For example, if you are talking about a group of tall people, you would use the masculine plural form of the adjective (བོད་ན་ - bod-na).

Adjective Order

When using multiple adjectives to describe a noun, the order in which they are placed is important. Generally, adjectives are placed in the following order: size, shape, age, color, origin, material, purpose. For example, if you were describing a red square table, you would say ཆེ་ལེགས་པ་དཀར་ཆེ་ (ce-legs-pa-dkar-ce).

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