- The main verb always comes at the end of a sentence. This means the typical sentence is structured as: Subject + Object + Verb.
- A nominalized or infinitive verb ends w/ པ་ or བ་ (depending on the spelling).
- We could also more casually call that the “full form” of the verb.
- Although there are diff tenses of the verbs in Tibetan, we’ll focus on the most commonly used verb tenses and then gradually work w/ diff tenses as they come up.
- It’s important to note the use of honorifics, which are especially prevalent in Dharmic language where the speaker generally wishes to show reverence to teachers and enlightened beings in particular. Thus, you’ll see many verbs in their honorific forms which are crucial to identify as they are distinct from their non-honorific counterparts. Let’s learn to feel the strength of reverence and devotion when we encounter honorifics!
- We’ll be emphasizing the presence and distinct usage of volitional and non-volitional verbs, which will be explained later. For now, know that volitional means you have control/agency/effort to make the action happen, whereas non-volitional means actions that occur w/o our control/agency/effort.
- Ex:
- སྐོར་ to turn volitionally
- འཁོར་ to turn non-volitionally
- We can sometimes refer to these verbs as transitive/intransitive or causative/resultative respectively, although these labels don’t always precisely match.
← Tibetan Grammar