Tibetan Colloquial Disclaimer
Link to originalCAUTION
Those are my personal summarized notes on the great work done by Franziska Oertle and the SINI Sarnath International Nyingma Institute. They are not revised by teachers and I might have understood the material incorrectly. Also you will miss on the examples to illustrate the grammar points. Therefore they are not intended to be read on its own since it might confuse you. Some notes might not even be officially part of the material but reflections from our meetings!
- Standard Nominalizer
- Alternative Interpretation of ཡག
- Infinitive With ཡག Not Always
- Should Not Do X
- Nominalizer མཁན།
- Negation
- The Ones Who Have / Don’t Have
- Nominalizer ས།
- Nominalizer པ།
Standard Nominalizer
Nominalizing with ཡག་ is the standard way.
ཆུ་རྐྱལ་རྒྱག་ཡག་ལ་དགའ་པོ་ཡོད།
With verbs of motion གར་ is used.
ཆུ་རྐྱལ་རྒྱག་གར་འགྲོ་གི་ཡོད།
Alternative Interpretation of ཡག
Another use is when it connotes something that is to be done: to be X, to X.
ང་ལ་དེབ་སྙན་པོ་ཅིག་ཀློག་ཡག་ཡོད། I have an interesting book to read.
Infinitive With ཡག Not Always
With the modal verbs, nor ཆོག (to be allowed) ཡག isn’t used: ངས་ཆུ་རྐྱལ་རྒྱག་ཡག་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཡོད།
Some students remember verbs that use it as an exception though:
- ཐབས་ཤེས་བྱེད་པ། to try
- འགོ་ཚུགས་པ། to start
- དྲན་པ། to remember
- དྲན་པ་བརྗེད་པ། to forget
ཁོང་བོད་ཡིག་གི་ཐོག་ནས་ཡི་གེ་འབྲི་ཡག་ཐབས་ཤེས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཡོད་རེད། He tries to write in literary Tibetan.
Should Not Do X
ཡག་ also can be used in the place of རྒྱུ་
ངས་བྱས་ན་གཟའ་ཉི་མ་ལ་སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱེད་ རྒྱུ་/ཡག་ ཡོད་མ་རེད།
Nominalizer མཁན།
མཁན། turns the verb into a doer of the verb.
[verb in present tense] + མཁན་
When translating don’t stay too literal momo eaters, chang non-drinkers…
ང་ཡང་གསུང་ཆོས་ལ་འགྲོ་མཁན་ཡིན། I am also a Dharma teaching goer going to the Dharma teaching
Negation
For example ཤ་མ་ཟ་མཁན། But it gets more complex with modal verbs where sometimes the auxiliary is negated.
གནས་མཇལ་ལ་འགྲོ་འདོད་མེད་མཁན་ཡོད་ས་མ་རེད། There is probably nobody who does not want to go on pilgrimage.
In the case of ཐུབ་ you could instead negate it directly, not the conjugation:
རི་འཛེག་མ་ཐུབ་མཁན་ཁ་ཤས་ཐུག་སོང་། I met a few (people) who were unable to climb the mountain
The Ones Who Have / Don’t Have
ཡོད་མཁན་ / མེད་མཁན་
མོ་ཊ་མེད་མཁན་སུ་སུ་རེད། Who doesn’t have a car?
Nominalizer ས།
Refers to the place where the action happens.
ངའི་ཁང་པའི་ནང་ལ་དཔེ་ཆ་དང་སྐུ་པར་བཞག་ས་ཡག་པོ་ཅིག་ཡོད། In my room, I have a good place to put my pechas and pictures.
འབྲི་ས་མི་འདུག I can’t write (because there’s no place to write it to)
Nominalizer པ།
Has many functions but we focus on one: that or the fact that.
Sounds a bit literary or formal.
The verb is in the past form, negated or not.
ཁྱེད་རང་དེ་རིང་འདིར་ཕེབས་པ་དེ་དཔེ་ཡག་པོ་འདུག It’s great that you came here today! (H) or Your coming here today is great!