Tibetan Verbalizers

Tibetan Colloquial Disclaimer

CAUTION

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!

Online Colloquial Course
The Heart of Tibetan Language

Link to original

བྱེད་པ། རྒྱག་པ། བཟོ་བ། གཏོང་བ། ཤོར་བ། … are used to construct verbs.

The modifiers go between the word and the verbalizer: རང་སྦྱོང་མང་པོ་བྱེད་པ་.

In imperative negation sits in-between too: འཁྲུག་པ་མ་རྒྱག་པ་

བྱེད་པ།

○ + བྱེད་པ་ (honorific: གནང་བ།):

• ལྷོད་ལྷོད (to relax)
• རང་སྦྱོང་ (to do homework)
• སྦྱོང་བརྟར་ (to practice)
• དད་པ་ (to have faith)
• ཡིད་ཆེས་ (to believe in)
• འགྲུལ་བཞུད་ (to travel)
• རོག་པ་ (to help)
• གཟབ་གཟབ་ (to be careful)
• ལྟ་རྟོག་ (to take care)
• ཐག་ཆོད་ (to decide)
• སེམས་ཁྲལ་ (to worry)
• ལས་ཀ་ (to make work)
• བེད་སྤྱོད་ (to use)
• བློ་བདེ་པོ་ (to relax)
• ལྟ་གིན་ལྟ་གིན་ (to play by ear)

རྒྱག་པ།

○ + བརྒྱབས་པ་ (རྒག་པ་¹) (honorific: སྐྱོན་པ་):

• པར་ (to take pictures)
• ལེན་ (to answer)
• སྐོར་ར་ (to circumambulate)
• སྒོ་ (to close the door)
• ངལ་གསོ་ (to take rest)
• འཁྲུག་པ་ (to fight)
• སྨོན་ལམ་ (make prayers)
• སྒོམ་ (to meditate)
• འགྲེལ་བཤད་ (to explain)
• སྐད་ (to shout)
• བོད་སྐད་ (to speak Tibetan)
• གདོང་ཐུག་ (to bump into)
• ཉོ་ཆ་ (to do shopping)
• ཚོང་ (to make business)
• ངལ་གསོ་ (to take rest)
• དཀའ་ལས་ (to make an effort)
• བརྗེ་པོ་ (to exchange)
• རྐུ་མ་ (to steal)
• གོམ་པ་ (to walk)
• སྒོ་ (to close the door)
• ཁང་པ་ (to build a house)
• Some non-volitional ones too!
  • གློ་ (to cough)
  • ཟུག་ (to hurt, ache)
  • ཆམ་ (to have a cold)

བཟོ་བ།

○ + བཟོ་པ་:

• ཁ་ལག་ (to cook)
• རྙོག་དྲ་ (to cause problems)
• (ཅ་)སུན་པོ་ (to give a hard time)
• རོགས་པ་གསར་པ་ (to make new friends)
• འཆར་བཞི་ (to make plans)

གཏོང་བ།

○ + བཏང་བ་ (གཏོང་¹):

• འགུལ་བསྐྱོད་ (to move)
• ཡིག་ཚད་ (to take exam)
• འདྲི་བ་ (to ask a question)
• གཤེ་གཤེ་ (to scold)
• བསམ་བློ་ (to think, ponder, contemplate)
• ཁ་པར་ (to call)
• གཞས་ (to sing)
• བློས་ (to let go)
• སྐད་ (to invite)
• གཅིན་པ་ (to pee)
• སྐྱིད་པོ་ (to have fun)
• སྦག་སྦག་ (to drive motorbike)
• ཆར་པ་ (to rain)
• གངས་ (to snow)
• ཐུགས་སྤྲོ་ (to throw a party)
• གླིང་ག་ (to have picnic)
• འཕྲོ་བརླག་ (to waste)
• གཤེ་གཤེ་ (to scold)
• གུང་སེང་ (to go on / to take holidays)
• དཀྲུག་དཀྲུག་ (to stir)
• མེ་ (to put the fire/stove on)

ཤོར་བ།

○ + ཤོར་, builds non-volitional verbs:

• སེམས་པ་ (to fall in love)
• ནོར་འཁྲུལ་ (to make mistakes)
• གད་མོ་ཤོར་ (to laugh)
• འཁྲུག་པ་ (to end up in a fight)
• སྐད་ (to cry out, scream)
• རྐུ་མ་ (to get stolen)
• གཅིན་པ་ (to pee oneself²)

Observations

To reply to questions, repeat the verbalizer alone:

• Q: བཞས་མང་པོ་བཏང་པ་ཡིན་པས།
• A: མང་པོ་བཏང་མེད།

Careful

Not because of the fact the verbalizer བཟོ་ or བརྒབས་ are volitional means the resulting verb will also be.

The ཟ་ in ཏོགས་པ་ཟ་སོང་། (to have some doubts) or འཚིག་པ་ཟ་སོང་། (to have anger) doesn’t mean “to eat” but “to get into a certain mental state”.

Some nouns can use multiple verbalizers, and their meanings therefore are differents.

Footnotes

1. In spoken, the past form is often used for all tenses. ↩ ↩²

2. Does not mean it already happens but that it was very hard to control. ↩