Nouns are not usually marked for grammatical gender or number. Natural gender may be conveyed through the lexicon, e.g. གཡག་ "yak," འབྲི་ <'bri> "yak-cow." In human or animate nouns, gender may be indicated through suffixes. These suffixes are generally པ་ or པོ་ "male," and མ་ or མོ་ "female." Number is never marked in inanimate nouns or animals. Even human nouns can only take the plural marker ཚོ་ if they are specified or definite, e.g. ཨ་མ་ "mother" → ཨ་མ་ཚོ་ tsho> " mothers." Tibetan does not mark definiteness, and such a meaning would be left to be deduced from the context. Tibetan nouns are marked for six cases: absolutive, agentive, genitive, ablative, associative and oblique. Particles are attached to entire noun phrases, not to individual nouns. Case suffixes are attached to the noun phrase as a whole, while the actual noun remains unchanged. The form taken by the suffix depends on the final sound of the noun to which the suffix is attached.
The genitive case marks possession and is often translated as "of." The form of the genitive suffix depends on the last sound of the noun:
if the last sound is a vowel or འ་ <'a> then the suffix is འི་ <'i>
if the last sound is ག་ <-g> or ང་ <-ng> then the suffix is གི་
if the last sound is ད་ <-d>, བ་ <-b>, ས་ <-s> or one of the secondary sound suffixes then the genitive suffix is ཀྱི་
if the last sound is ན་ <-n>, མ་ <-m>, ར་ <-r> or ལ་ <-l> then the suffix is གྱི་ .
The genitive is also used to form relative clauses. Here, the genitive suffix is attached to the verb and is translated as "that" or "who."
Agentive case
Formally the agentive case is built upon the genitive by adding ས་ <-s> to the latter; consequently:
if the last sound is a vowel or འ་ <'a> then the suffix is ས་ <-s>
if the last sound is ག་ <-g> or ང་ <-ng> then the suffix is གིས་
if the last sound is ད་ <-d>, བ་ <-b>, ས་ <-s> or one of the secondary sound suffixes then the genitive suffix is ཀྱིས་
if the last sound is ན་ <-n>, མ་ <-m>, ར་ <-r> or ལ་ <-l> then the suffix is གྱིས་ .
The agentive is used for ergative and instrumental functions. The ergative function occurs with the subject, agent or causer of transitive verbs, the agent of "mental" and "verbal" actions and the perceiver of a sensation.
Ablative case
The ablative case is always suffixed with ནས་ . It marks direction away from the noun. Like the agentive case, the ablative can also take the ergative role marking the agent of an action.
Associative case
The associative case is marked by the suffix དང་ , which may be translated as "and" but also as "with," "against" or have no translation at all. When speaking, after the associative suffix is used, a pause is inserted, for example: The associative suffix cannot combine with other case or plural markers on the same noun or noun phrase:
Oblique case
The oblique suffix fulfills the functions of both the dative and locative cases. The dative case marks the indirect object of an action and can be translated as "to." The locative case marks place, with or without movement, or time, and can be translated as "on," "in," "at" or "to." There are two varieties of the suffix, one of which is dependent on the final sound of the noun and one that is not. The form –ར་ <-r> is found only after vowels and འ་ <'a> whereas –ལ་ <-la> can be found after all sounds including vowels and <'a>. The <-r> form is rarely used to mark the dative with monosyllabic words except the personal pronouns and demonstrative and interrogative adjectives.
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
s have between one and three registers and three numbers: singular, dual and plural.
Singular
Dual
Plural
First Person
ང་
ང་གཉིས་
ང་ཚོ་
Second Person
Ordinary
རང་
རང་གཉིས་
རང་ཚོ་
Honorific
ཁྱེད་རང་
ཁྱེད་རང་གཉིས་
ཁྱེད་རང་ཚོ་
Pejorative
ཁྱོད་
ཁྱོད་གཉིས་
ཁྱོད་ཚོ་
Third person
Ordinary
ཁོང་
ཁོང་གཉིས་
ཁོང་ཚོ་
Familiar
ཁོ་
ཁོ་གཉིས་
ཁོ་ཚོ་
Familiar
མོ་
མོ་གཉིས་
མོ་ཚོ་
Demonstrative pronouns
Tibetan has proximal, medial and distal demonstrative pronouns: proximal འདི་ <'di> "this," medial དེ་ "that," and distal ཕ་གི་ "that over there." འདི་ <'di> and དེ་ also have temporal meanings where འདི་ <'di> is connected with present and དེ་ is connected with the past or the future: ཕ་གི་ , on the other hand, can only express spatial distance. From these demonstrative pronouns the following adverbs are derived: འདིར་ <'dir> "here," དེར་ "there," and ཕ་གིར་ "over there." The demonstratives can be used as both pronouns and adjectives. As pronouns they act much in the same way as the third person pronouns do, but may also refer to previous clauses or events. As adjectives they appear after the noun and act as any other adjective would. Both adjectival and pronominal demonstratives are capable of receiving both case and number suffixes.
There is an important division of verbs into two main classes: volitional and non-volitional. The former concerns controllable actions, and the latter non-controllable actions. This difference is comparable to that in English between look and see, and between listen and hear: listen and look are volitional because one can choose to do them or not, while see and hear are non-volitional because they do not denote deliberate actions. These two classes are important when conjugating any Tibetan verb because each class can only use a particular set of suffixes. This means that volitional verbs cannot use the same suffixes as non-volitional verbs and vice versa. For example, the verb form མཐོང་པ་ཡིན་ would be incorrect as is a non-volitional verb and is a volitional suffix. The correct form would be མཐོང་པ་རེད་ or "I saw."
Transitive and intransitive verbs
Both the volitional and non-volitional classes contain transitive as well as intransitive verbs. The forms of transitive and intransitive verbs remain the same if the two verbs share the same root. The difference between transitive and intransitive is only evident in the way each verb is used: if the verb takes an object then it is transitive, if it does not then it is intransitive. This distinction determines which case the nouns will take.
Verb inflection
Verbs in modern spoken Tibetan have between one and three stems. These are the present-future stem, the past stem and the imperative stem. Many verbs, however, only have one stem when spoken, remaining distinct only in writing, meaning that inflection is based mainly on the use of verbal auxiliaries. The verb is inflected by means of attaching suffixes to the verb stem in a similar way to nouns and pronouns.
Copulae
Tibetan has several verbs that can be translated as "to be" or "to have" which appear in two classes. Copulas in the first class are essential, meaning that they denote an essential quality of the noun. Copulas in the second class are existential, meaning that they express the existence of a phenomenon or a characteristic and suggests an evaluation by the speaker. The difference between essential and existential copulas is similar to that of the verbs estar and ser in the Spanish language.
Essential copulae
There are three essential copulas: assertive རེད་ , revelatory རེད་བཞག་ , and egophoric ཡིན་
Essential-assertive copula
རེད་ is the "assertive" essential copula. It translates as "to be" and represents an objective assertion or affirmation regarding the subject of the sentence. The negative of རེད་ is མ་རེད་ . The attribute may be an adjective, giving an attributive meaning, or a substantive, giving an equative meaning. The attributive immediately precedes the verb. This copula, in rare cases, may also express possession of a quality:
Essential-revelatory copula
རེད་བཞག་ is the "revelatory" copula, meaning that the speaker has only recently become aware of what they are stating. It may be translated as "to be" with the statement preceded by an exclamation such as "Hey!" or "Why!" Its negative form is རེད་མི་འདུག་ .
Essential-egophoric copula
ཡིན་ is the "egophoric" essential copula. It is usually translated as "I am" because of its main use with the first person. Like རེད་ , it can be used with adjectives or substantives. Its negative form is མིན་ . ཡིན་ may, on rare occasions, express an intention or an insistence on the part of the speaker:
Existential copulas
There are three existential copulas: assertive ཡོད་རེད་ , testimonial འདུག་ <'dug> and egophoric ཡོད་ .
Existential-assertive copula
ཡོད་རེད་ is the "assertive" copula. This copula is used with the second and third person pronouns and implies a definite assertion by the speaker. It can usually be translated three ways according to context; "there is/are," giving an existential sense, "to be at," giving a certain location or by the verb "to have," giving a possessive sense. Its negative form is ཡོད་མ་རེད་ . It can also be preceded by a qualifying adjective to form the attributive sense in which it can be translated as "to be."
Existential-testimonial copula
འདུག་ <'dug> is the "testimonial" copula. It is translated in the same way as ཡོད་རེད་ in all cases but it differs in a subtle way. It implies that the speaker was a witness to what is being stated. Its negative form is མི་འདུག་ . It can also, like ཡོད་རེད be preceded by a qualifying adjective to form the attributive sense in which it can be translated as "to be."
Existential-egophoric copula
ཡོད is the "egophoric" copula. Like ཡིན་ it is associated with the first person but it instead marks possession and location. It may also be used to express the speaker's opinion of something or an acquaintance with something. Its negative form is མེད་ .
