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Connecting “there was … then”

Imagine you have a sentence མོ་ཊ་ཞིག་བརྡབ་སྐྱོན་ཡོད་རེད “There was an car accident.” And then you want to to connect it “and” say མི་སྔ་ཤི་བཞག “Five people died.”. We can use བྱུང་, “arise”, “occur”, “happened”.

མོ་ཏ་ཞིག་བརྡབ་སྐྱོན་བྱུང་ནས་མི་ལྔ་ཤི་བཞག

I’m trying to use this more in my conversations. Perhaps something like “There was a thief then I felt scared” which now since I’m going to Europe I can say this more 😂

ཀུ་མ་ཞིག་བྱུང་ནས་ཞེད་སྣང་འདུག needs-teacher

Abusing ་་་ཡག་གི་རྗེས་ལ་

When they were asking when would I leave the monastery I would reply

ག་ལག་ཟ་ཡག་གི་རྗེས་ལ་མཐོན་ཀྱི་ཡིན།

Khenpo Kunga Dhöndrup corrected me:

ག་ལག་ཟ་ནས་མཐོན་ཀྱི་ཡིན།

So much direct, so much simpler. I wonder if I could better say ཟ་ཚར་ནས་ needs-teacher but I will try to use more ནས་ to convey “after”, I always see it as an abstract connector, instead of seeing it as a sequencer that can offer the same meaning of “after”.

To be free, released

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Two verbs are similar in meaning and I would like to have a sentence that helps me discriminate the usage of both. I believe འཐོན་ is more general whereas གྲོལ་ is more specific to the fact that there was a gathering with obligation to stay and then it gets dissembled?

VerbMeaningExample
འཐོན་པ་to come out, to go out, to leave, to depart, to emigrateང་ཚོ་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཆེན་མོ་ཐོན་མེད།
གྲོལ་བ་release; liberation; freedom; released;འཛིན་གྲྭ་ཆུ་ཚོད་ག་ཚོད་ལ་གྲོལ་གྱི་རེད།

Praising Friends’ Tibetan Level

I keep saying My friend speaks very good Tibetan, and to say ཡག་པོ་ is too boring, I am directing my mind to use those instead:

WordMeaning
བོད་སྐད་གཙང་མ་Pure Tibetan
བོད་སྐད་ཆུ་རྒྱུག་རྒྱུག་Fluent Tibetan

Skilled

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མཁས་པ་ vs མཁས་པོ་

I was corrected to say མཁས་པ་ instead of མཁས་པོ་ when talking about how skilled someone was. Can we interchange them? Why do they laugh when I say ཨོ་ཁོང་མཁས་པོ་ཞེ་དྲག་འདུག?

Day

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ཉི་མ་ vs ཉིན་མོ་ vs ཉིན་མ་

Can they be used interchangeably?

Every

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རྟག་པར་ vs ལྟར་ vs རེ་རེ་

Any differences between ཉི་མ་རྟག་པར་, ཉིན་ལྟར་, ཉི་མ་?

Going Down

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མར་བབས་ vs ཉུང་རུ་འགྲོ་བ་

Can we use མར་བབས་ and ཉུང་རུ་འགྲོ་བ་ interchangeably? I guess the latter is more physical but in the 1000 words deck from Small Steps Tibetan it says “To go down, to decline” and Ives Waldo “decline, deteriorate, degenerate”.

ངའི་ལུང་པ་ལ་མི་ལས་མེད་=ཉུང་རུ་འགྲོ་གི་ཡོད་རེད།
འདི་ནས་མར་ཏོག་ཙམ་བབས་ན། གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་ལ་སླེབས་ཀྱི་རེད།

“ten” Same Sound Different Spellings

“ten” Same Sound Different Spellings

I always trip on the spelling of ten:

WordMeaningWordsMnemonic
རྟེན་support; dependརྟན་འབྲེལ་
བསྟན་teach; indicate; show; demonstrateHas a ས་མགོ་ (head letter) that ས་ reminds me of སང་རྒྱས་ or ས་ཀྱ་མུ་ནི་, which is clearly the བསྟན་པ་ (teacher), therefore this is how the ས་ match
བརྟན་stable; firm; steadfastThe ར་ མགོ་ཅན་ is in fact holding the ཏ་, if you you cut it it falls, so it wouldn’t be stable without it (with ས་མགོ་ it would fall).
བསྟེན་rely onའཕྲོད་བསྟེན་
གཏན་ever-lasting, permanentགཏན་འཁེལ
Link to original

Similar Words for Problem

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Both རྙོག་གྲ་ and དཀའ་ངལ་ can mean “trouble”, we know them in their use རྙོག་གྲ་ཚ་པོ་ “troublesome, with complications” and དཀའ་ངལ་སྤྲད་པ་ “to face difficulties”.

Can we use དཀའ་ངལ་ with the non-verb to have? What about རྙོག་གྲ་? “There weren’t any problems” is what I want to say.

About When

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This question is related to དུས་.

Saying ང་ལ་དངུལ་མེད་དུས་ཟ་ཁང་ལ་འགྲོ་གི་མེད། could be any of those and therefore we would need to pay attention to the context?

  • When I didn’t have money I didn’t (frequently) go to the restaurant
  • When I don’t have money I don’t go (frequently) go the restaurant
  • When I will not have money I will not be going (frequently) to the restaurant

I guess ང་ལ་དངུལ་མེད་དུས་ཟ་ཁང་ལ་ཕྱིན་མེད། is more explicit in specificity instead of connoting habitual action.

Confusion

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Stable

In Anki I keep tripping on the spelling of tenpo. I interchange them many times:

  • བརྟན་པོ་ stable, firm (brtan = solid, firm, constant, stable, steady, stead fast, firm position, everlasting, self-confidence, to stabilize)
  • འཕྲོད་བསྟེན་ health (‘phrad = to fit, agree with; bsten = cultivation, honoring, to attend, serve, follow, study with, take, get, associate with, rely upon, on, enjoy, resort to, adhere to, keep, to follow [a teacher])

Thin

It seems the སྲབ་སྲབ་ in deck First 1000 Words of Small Steps Tibetan is not recognized every time I use it Pema Tsal, they instead recognize ཀྲབ་ཀྲབ better.

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