Tibetan Grammar - verbs

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Articles on Tibetan Grammar

1. Introduction

2. Formation of the Tibetan Syllable

3. Formation of the Tibetan Word

4. First case: ming tsam

5. agentive particle

6. Connective Particle

7. La don particles

8. La don particles—Notes

9. Originative case

10. Verbs

11. Verbs—Notes

12. Syntactic particles

by Stefan J. E.

Verbs

This section contains Tibetan script. Without proper Tibetan rendering support configured, you may see other symbols instead of Tibetan script.

བྱ་ཚིག་ "action word" is translated as "verb", even though in English a verb is a word that describes an action or state of being. In Tibetan words describing a mere state of being or existence are not seen as verbs (by Tibetan grammarians).

Transitive and intransitive verbs

All important example sentences are taken from either བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, བུདྡྷ་པཱ་ལི་ཏ་མཱུ་ལ་མ་དྷྱ་མ་ཀ་བྲྀཏྟི་, མཁན་པོ་གཞན་དགའི་སྤྱོད་འཇུག་གི་མཆད་འགྲེལ་, དྭགས་པོའི་ཐར་རྒྱན་, འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་གྱི་ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་མཛོད་, མཁན་པོ་ཀུན་དཔལ་གྱི་སྤྱོད་འཇུག་གི་ཚིག་འགྲེལ་, or འཇམ་མགོན་མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་མཁས་འཇུག་.

Introduction to transitive and intransitive verbs

English language

• Intransitive: Not passing over to an object; expressing an action or state that is limited to the agent or subject.
• Transitive: Passing over to an object; expressing an action which is not limited to the agent or subject.

English
Intransitive verbs:	No direct object, might have qualifier, no passive voice: e.g. I go.; I go to the market.; The bird died.
Transitive verbs:	Can have a direct object, can form passive voice: e.g. I buy bread.; The bird was killed by the cat.

There are verbs which can have two objects called ditransitive verbs. In "Douglas gave a vase to him." "vase" is the direct object and "him" is the indirect object.

In English there are verbs that can function as both transitive and intransitive verbs, e.g. "I broke the vase." and "The vase broke." In the second example "broke" can not have an object.

Note: With the help of a prepositional phrase intransitive verbs can also be used in the passive voice, e.g. "The houses were lived in by hundreds of people."

Tibetan language

In general their grammar is:

Tibetan
Intransitive verbs:	patient / subject: ming tsam (no particle)	qualifier: la don
Transitive verbs:	agent / subject: agentive particle	patient / object: ming tsam or la don

Patient is used here as a convenient term for subject (intransitive verb) and object (transitive verb)—both are mostly in ming tsam (having no particle). It will be stretched beyonds its definition from thematic relations as far as is necessary; (e.g. it will also include theme—undergoes the action but does not change its state, and experiencer—the entity that receives sensory or emotional input). Patient will be used with static verbs as well. See: "5 Note, patient / subject-object / valency : advantages and problems".

Intransitive verbs

བྱིའུ་ཤི། small bird died The small bird died.

to die v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཤི་བ།  འཆི་བ།  འཆི་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ཉི་མ་ཤར། sun    arose The sun arose.

to arise v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

མེ་ཏོག་འཆར། flower   blossom The flower blossoms.

to blossom v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Transitive verbs

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན། Buddha        Dharma taught The Buddha taught the Dharma.

to teach v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན། past pres. fut. imp.

ནད་ཀྱིས་ལུས་ལ་གནོད། illness   body   to harm The illness harmed the body.

to harm v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Verbs with related intransitive and transitive form

འཁོར་ལོ་འཁོར། wheel   turn/spin The wheel turns.

to turn v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འཁོར་བ།  འཁོར་བ།  འཁོར་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

བདག་གིས་འཁོར་ལོ་སྐོར། I              wheel    turn I turn the wheel.

to turn v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར་བ།  བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར། past pres. fut. imp.

གངས་ཞུ། snow   melt The snow melts.

to melt v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཞུ་བ།  ཞུ་བ།  ཞུ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ཁོས་གངས་བཞུ། he     snow   melt He melts the snow.

to melt v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བཞུས་པ།  བཞུ་བ།  བཞུ་བ།  བཞུས། past pres. fut. imp.

ཤིང་ལོ་སེར་པོར་འགྱུར། leaves yellow change/turn The leaves turned yellow.

to change v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འགྱུར་བ།  འགྱུར་བ།  འགྱུར་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

མིང་གཞན་དུ་བསྒྱུར་ name   other   change ...changed [the name] into an other name.

to change v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྒྱུར་བ།  སྒྱུར་བ།  བསྒྱུར་བ།  སྒྱུར། past pres. fut. imp.

Classification of ཐ་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ in relation to transitive and intransitive

• བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ "verb were the action and the doer of the action are different"
• བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ "verb were the action and the doer of the action are not different"

In dictionaries

The བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ is the most important Tibetan-Tibetan dictionary. It’s classification of verbs into ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ and ཐ་དད་པ་ has been directly copied into more than one Tibetan-English dictionary, using the Latin-derived categories of intransitive and transitive verbs. Yet it should be noted that some of the verbs which are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in the བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ correspond in terms of grammar to transitive verbs and not to intransitive verbs. Even among the Tibetan grammar treatises there is disagreement about the classification into ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ and ཐ་དད་པ་, for example the unintentional verbs of perception are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in the བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, but in other Tibetan-grammar treatises considered to be ཐ་དད་པ་ (Note: they do have the grammar of transitive verbs).

The point is that it could be at times puzzling seeing a verb with transitive grammar being labeled as intransitive verb or classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་.

Tibetan classification of ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་

From the Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary, བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་:

• བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་དད་: རྟགས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པའི་དགོངས་དོན་ལྟར་དངོས་པོ་གང་ཞིག་ལ་ལས་ཀ་གང་ཞིག་བྱེད་པ་པོ་གཞན་གྱིས་དངོས་སུ་སྒྲུབ་པར་བྱེད་པ།

"'Action and doer different' is, like the intended meaning in the thak jug pa, the doing of whatever work / action in regard to whatever thing by a different (lit. other) doer."

• བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་: རྟགས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པའི་དགོངས་དོན་ལྟར་དངོས་པོ་གང་ཞིག་ལ་ལས་ཀ་གང་ཞིག་བྱེད་པ་པོ་གཞན་དངོས་སུ་མེད་པར་རང་གི་ངང་གིས་འགྲུབ་པ།

"'Action and doer not different' is, like the intended meaning in the thak jug pa, the naturally coming about of whatever work / action in regard to whatever thing without a different (lit. other) doer."

In short ཐ་དད་པ་ "the action to a thing by a different doer" and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ is the "naturally coming about of the action without a different doer".

ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ are also described through the relation of བདག་ "self" and བཞན་ "other". From the "Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary" བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, revering to ཐ་དད་པ་ verbs:

• རྟག་འཇུག་སྐབས་ཀྱི་བྱེད་པ་པོ་དང་བྱ་བའི་ཡུལ་ཡིན་ལ་དེ་ཡང་བྱེད་པོ་གཙོ་ཕལ་དང་བྱེད་པའི་ལས་བཅས་དངོས་པོ་བདག་གི་ཁོངས་སུ་འདུ་བ་དང༌། བྱ་ཡུལ་བྱ་ལས་དང་བཅས་པ་དངོས་པོ་བཞན་གྱི་ཁོངས་སུ་འདུ།

"In the context of the thak jug: when there is a 'doer' and the 'object of the action to be performed', then the 'principal' (agent) and 'complement' (instrument) which are connected with the བྱེད་པའི་ལས་ 'verb function done by an agent' are included within the category དངོས་པོ་བདག་ 'self thing'. The 'object of the action to be performed' which is connected with བྱ་ལས་ 'action done to the object' is included within the category དངོས་པོ་བཞན་ 'other thing'."

This means, a ཐ་དད་པ་ verb is a verb where there is an agent which is different from the patient / object of the action and with that there is བདག་ (self) and བཞན་ (other) and a connection between the two. Viewed from the agent side there is བྱེད་པའི་ལས་ the action that happens at the time when a transitive agent does something to its patient / (object of the verb), viewed from the patient (object) side there is བྱ་ལས་ the action that will happen to the patient (object)—བྱ་ཡུལ་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་བྱ་བ་ "the deed that is connected with the object".

And a ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ verb is a verb where there is no agent with a different patient (object) of the action, so བདག་གཞན་དང་དངོས་སུ་འབྲེལ་བ་མིན།, "there is not an actual connection between བདག་ and བཞན་."

Peter Schwieger points out that except for the verbs of motion, existence and living the categories of ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ matches with the differentiation into voluntary and involuntary verbs and that the difference between ཐ་དད་པ་instant involuntary verbs of perception and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ is made upon the existence or missing of an agens and not the existence or missing of an object.

This comes with the side effect that, for instance, involuntary verbs of perception and mental activity are categorized as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ yet they have their agent (subject) marked with agentive case and their patient (object) in ming tsam (no particle) which is the same for ཐ་དད་པ་ verbs.

Introduction to classifications of verbs according to their grammar

Note: This is not at all exhaustive. It is a short overview about the kind of verbs that can be encountered in Tibetan.

Linking verb

Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: ming tsam, strict "first patient, then qualifier" word order

དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན།

red           colour   is

Red is [a] colour.

Intransitive verbs བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་—ཐ་མི་དད་པ་

Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: la don

ཉི་མ་ཤར། sun   arose The sun arose.

to arise v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Verbs of motion: འགྲོ་བ་, to go, མཆོང་བ་, to jump.

ཁོ་ལྷ་སར་ཕྱིན། he Lhasa   went He went to Lhasa.

to go v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཕྱིན་པ་, སོང་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  སོང། past pres. fut. imp.

Unintentional verbs: འཆི་བ་, to die, ལྷུང་བ་, to fall.

Unintentional verbs of feeling: བཀྲེས་པ་, to be hungry, ངལ་བ་, to be tired.

Verbs of emotion, attitude verbs

Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier, that which the attitude is towards: la don.

དཔའ་བོ་ལ་གུས་པ་ hero        respect respect towards the hero

to respect v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Transitive verbs—ཐ་དད་པ་, and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar

Transitive verbs: agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): ming tsam.

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན། Buddha         Dharma taught The Buddha taught the Dharma.

to teach v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན། past pres. fut. imp.

Transitive verbs with patient marked by la don

Agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): la don.

See: Verbs—Notes, particularly: How the categories of 'transitive' and 'intransitive' are used here, Conclusion: advantages vs. problems and 'verbs and their cases', considerations and conclusion

ཁོས་མོ་ལ་བལྟས། he     she   looked He looked at her.

to look v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས། past pres. fut. imp.

ནད་ཀྱིས་ལུས་ལ་གནོད། illness   body   to harm The illness harmed the body.

to harm v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Ditransitive verbs

• If the patient (object) of a transitive verb is marked by a la don particle, then it is usually with verbs where the object is only affected by the action expressed, but is not produced or the direct meaning of the action.
  

Agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): ming tsam, recipient (indirect object): la don.

• Typical ditransitive verbs are "to give", "to sell", "to bring", "to tell" and generally any verb expressing any transfer of goods, information or action producing something. E.g.: "She gave him ten silver.", "I read the books to him.", "She is baking a cake for him.".

སྨན་པས་ནད་པ་ལ་སྨན་སྟེར། doctor  the ill   medicine give The doctor gives medicine to the ill.

to give v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར། past pres. fut. imp.

ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar

Unintentional verbs of perception

• to see, མཐོང་བ་; to hear, ཐོས་པ་.

These verbs have an unintentional meaning to them, and have an intentional counterpart. E.g. unintentional "to see", མཐོང་བ་ and intentional "to look", ལྟ་བ་.

མདུན་ལམ་གསལ་པོར་མཐོང་བ། front   way clearly        see to see clearly the way in front

to see v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

The agent (subject) is omitted, the patient (object) མདུན་ལམ་ is in ming tsam.

Verbs of "understanding"

• to understand, ཧ་གོ་བ་; to know, to cognize, ཤེས་པ་; to know, to understand རྟོགས་པ་

ཁོས་ཧ་མ་གོ he   not understand He doesn’t understand.

to understand v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) གོ་བ།  གོ་བ།  གོ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ཧ་གོ་བ་ derived from གོ་བ་.

• The agent (subject) ཁོ་ is marked by the agentive particle.

Some "passive / fruitional" verbs

• to benefit, help, ཕན་པ་; to attain, to obtain, འཐོབ་པ་; to find, get, discover, gain, རྙེད་པ་.

Note: The difficulty with ཕན་པ་ is to find an example with a stated agent. In most cases there is only an instrument, source or reason given. The instrument is in the agentive case which effects the action (the benefiting), the action is not done by the patient (the benefited), so ཕན་པ་ has the characteristics of a transitive verb.

བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་གིས་རྙེད། nectar   like  Dharma a/one   I        found I have found this nectar like Dharma.

to find v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

• The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle.

ཀུན་དགའ་བོས་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཉིད་ཐོབ་བོ།། Ananda           arhat             attained Ananda attained [the state of an] arhat.

to attain v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) ཐོབ་པ།  འཐོབ་པ།  འཐོབ་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

བདག་གིས་གཞན་ལ་ཕན་པར་བྱ། I             other       benefit  will (auxiliary verb)' I will benefit others.

to benefit v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

• The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle the patient (which "experiences" the benefit) marked by ལ་.

སྨན་གྱིས་ནད་ལ་ཕན།

medicine  illness  benefit

The medicine helps against the illness.

Verbs with noticeable grammar

Verbs of necessity

Qualifier, that which needs: la don, patient, that what is needed: ming tsam

མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས། sprouts water need Sprouts need water.

to need v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Note: In Tibetan, the patient (subject) of the verb དགོས་པ་ "to need" is that what is needed, it "performs" the action "to be needed", (the "water" in the example). What or whom 'needs' is the qualifier (the "sprouts"). This is different in English where the patient (subject) of the verb "to need" is the one who needs something. E.g. In "He needs water", "he" is the patient (subject).

Verbs of absence and "presence"

That which is absent, "present": agentive case, that which is absent of something: ming tsam

ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ། land    water  empty The land is empty of water.

empty v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ སྟོངས་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Verbs which change their meaning with different syntaxes

• ཆོག་པ་ either "allowed, permitted" or "to be sufficient"

See: "verbs of evaluation / assertion II", la don, "3.1 Note on classifications for 1.10 verbs with la don", "verbs 'expressing an evaluative status'".

When meaning "allowed, permitted" ཆོག་ comes right after the verb it makes the statement about.

བསམ་འཆར་བཤད་ཆོག

opinion     express  allowed

allowed to express [ones] opinion

When meaning "to be sufficient" then it's patient, it comes after that what is "sufficient" (marked by the agentive particle).

ཇི་སྐད་བཤད་པ་ཁོ་ན་ཉམས་སུ་བླངས་པས་ཆོག་སྟེ།

how  explained  only   practiced         sufficient

to have practiced only as it has been explained is sufficient

Classification of verbs according to their grammar

Transitive verbs

Agent: agentive	patient: ming tsam / la don	recipient: la don	qualifier: la don
subject	object	indirect object	qualifier

"Simple" transitive verbs

Agent: agentive	patient: ming tsam
subject	object

to teach, show v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན། past pres. fut. imp.

to kill v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསད་པ།  གསོད་པ།  གསད་པ།  སོད། past pres. fut. imp.

to drink v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བཏུངས་པ།  འཐུང་བ།  བཏུང་བ།  འཐུངས། past pres. fut. imp.

ཁོས་ཇ་འཐུང༌།

he    tea  drink

He drinks tea.

Ditransitive verbs

Agent: agentive	patient: ming tsam	recipient: la don
subject	object	indirect object

to give		v.t.	ཐ་དད་པ་
བྱིན་པ།	སྦྱིན་པ།	སྦྱིན་པ།	སྦྱིན།
past	pres.	fut.	imp.

མི་གཞན་ཞིག་གིས་རང་ལ་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཀྱི་འཚོ་བ་སྦྱིན་མི་ཡོང༌།

person other a     self    well-being sustenance give not come

We can not be given the sustenance of well-being by another person.

Transitive verbs with la don for the patient—intentional verbs of perception, of benefit or harm, of expressing mental activity, with qualifier of identity, equivalence

Agent: agentive	patient: la don
subject	object

See: Verbs—Notes, particularly: How the categories of 'transitive' and 'intransitive' are used here, Conclusion: advantages vs. problems and 'verbs and their cases', considerations and conclusion

Intentional verbs of perception

Note: Their grammar can be irregular.

to look v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས། past pres. fut. imp.

to smell, hold v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྣམས་པ།  སྣོམ་པ།  བསྣམ་པ།  སྣོམས། past pres. fut. imp.

to touch v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ རེག་པ།  རེག་པ།  རེག་པ།  རེག past pres. fut. imp.

ཁོས་མོ་ལ་བལྟས།

he    she   looked

He looked at her.

ཇ་ཞིམ་པོའི་དྲི་ལ་སྣོམས།

tea fragrant  scent  smell!

Smell the scent of fragrant / delicious tea!

In this case, the patient is marked by the la don: དྲི་ལ་.

In the next two cases the patient is not marked by the la don but in ming tsam and in the second sentence the "nose", the "place of smelling" སྣར་ is marked by the la don.

དྲི་མ་སྣོམ།

scent smell

to smell the scent

སྤོས་ཀྱི་དྲི་ཞིམ་སྣར་བསྣམས།

fragrance scent nice nose smelled

[He] smelled / sniffed the nice scent of the fragrance in his nose.

ཆགས་སེམས་ཀྱིས་བུད་མེད་ཀྱི་ཤ་རྗེན་པ་ལ་རེག

attachment mind   women  flesh naked     touch

to touch a naked women with desire

ལག་པས་རེག་ནས་འཇམ་རྩུབ་ཚོར།

hand      touched     soft  rough  felt

The hand touched and the texture (soft-rough) was felt.

In these sentences that which is touching is marked by the agentive particle: ལག་པས་.

In the next sentences that which is touching is not marked by the agentive particle, ཤིང་གི་ཡལ་ག་ and རྐང་པ་ are both in ming tsam. The patient / place of touching is marked by the la don as seen before in chapter "changes in grammar between voluntary and involuntary usage of the same verb".

ཤིང་གི་ཡལ་ག་མགོ་བོར་རེག

tree      branch     head      touched

The tree branch touched the head.

རྐང་པ་སར་མ་རེག

feet   ground not touched

The feet did not touch the ground.

Verbs of benefit / harm

Agent (subject), doing the harm or benefit: agentive case, patient (object) - the harmed or benefited: la don ལ་

to harm, damage v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

to stop, refute v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བཀག་པ།  འགོག་པ།  དགག་པ།  ཁོག past pres. fut. imp.

to benefit v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Note: for ཕན་པ, to benefit, a ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ verb with transitive grammar, see above: transitive verbs (ཐ་དད་པ་) and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar", "some 'passive / fruitional' verbs.

ནད་ཀྱིས་ལུས་ལ་གནོད།

illness    body    to harm

The illness harmed the body.

གྲུབ་མཐའ་ལ་བཀག

tenet        refuted

The philosophical tenet was refuted.

སྨན་གྱིས་ནད་ལ་ཕན།

medicine illness  to benefit

The medicine helps against the illness. The medicine helped [to treat] the illness.

Verbs expressing mental activity

Verbs expressing mental activity like སེམས་པ་ "to think" and སྒོམ་པ་ "to meditate, to cultivate" can have their patient (object) market with the la don ལ་. If the patient (object) again is a whole clause then the la dons སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are used. See: "la don, 1.10.3".

to think v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསམས་པ།  སེམས་པ།  བསམ་པ།  སོམས། past pres. fut. imp.

to analyse v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད་པ།  དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད། past pres. fut. imp.

གསུམ་པ་རྙེད་དཀའི་དཔེ་ལ་བསམ་པ་ནི་

third    find difficult example contemplate

the third: to contemplate about the example of the difficulty to find [a precious human birth]

རྒྱུ་ལ་དཔྱོད་པ་

cause examine

to examine the cause

Verbs with qualifier of identity / equivalence

When transitive verbs come with a qualifier of identity, the patient (object) is often marked with the la don ལ་ and the qualifier is marked with the la dons སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་.

to apprehend;...		v.t.	ཐ་དད་པ
བཟུང་བ།	འཛིན་པ།	གཟུང་བ།	ཟུང་།
past	pres.	fut.	imp.

་

ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན།

household grave only apprehend

to apprehend a household only as a grave

For some more transitive verbs "with la don" see below: 4. verbs with multiple meanings (occurring with different syntax).

Intransitive verbs with transitive grammar—verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage"

What the effort is towards: la don

to strive v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབོད། past pres. fut. imp.

to persevere v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས། past pres. fut. imp.

to endeavour v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ་བ།  བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ། past pres. fut. imp.

One note at the beginning: It is easy, "what the effort is towards: la don", that's it. The following short discussion about the categorization will hardly ever (which means 'never') be of concern when reading Tibetan.

Verbs like "to strive" are intransitive verbs in English with a qualifier stating what one is striving for, and S.V. Beyer places རྩོལ་ and བརྩོན་ with intransitive verbs. In A Tibetan Verb Lexicon འབད་ and རྩོལ་ are classified as transitive. The example given is སྙིང་ནས་གྲོལ་བ་དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བའི་གང་ཟག་གིས། བདག་མེད་པའི་ལྟ་བ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་ཁོང་དུ་ཆུད་པའི་ཐབས་ལ་འབད་དགོས། "Persons who from the depths of their hearts seek liberation must work at the means of understanding the correct view of selflessness." As it is rather difficult to find a sufficient number of examples with a stated agent (subject) (in a reasonable time frame) that example has to do for now.

Considering these verbs as transitive would come with the problem that it would make "what the effort is towards" the patient, while it is merely a qualifier.

If it can be demonstrated that verbs like རྩོལ་བ་ frequently have their subject marked with the agentive case, which is quite possible due to the existence of an agent, and at the same time do not fall into the categories of verbs of motion and living, then what we are left with is an intransitive verb where the agent substitutes the patient (or the patient is marked by the agentive case). Please see: "5 Note, patient / subject-object / valency : advantages and problems" for an attempt on this phenomena.

But as stated above "what the effort is towards: la don". That will do the job.

སློབ་སྦྱོང་ལ་འབོད་ཅིག

study    make effort imperative particle

Make effort in your studies!

སྒོ་གསུམ་གྱིས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འགྲུས་པར་མཛད།

door three    bodhisattva conduct   persevere  to make

(One) will persevere in the bodhisattva conduct through body, speech and mind.

Note: བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་ is short for བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་

ལས་དོན་ལ་རྩོལ་བ།

undertaking  to endeavor

to endeavor in the undertaking

བྱེད་སྟངས་ནོར་ན་ལས་ལ་བརྩལ་ཀྱང་མི་འགྲུབ།

doing way of mistaken if work effort even not accomplished

If the way of doing is mistaken, then even though making effort in the work, it will not be accomplished.

Linking verb, གཏན་འཁེལ་བའི་ཚིག་ "word of certainty"

Patient: ming tsam	qualifier: ming tsam	strict patient—qualifier word order.
subject	complement

Note: The patient of a static verb is often called theme; its qualifier is also called complement.

ཡིན་པ་	མ་ཡིན་པ་=མིན་པ་	ལགས་
is / are	is not	is / are

བུམ་པ་འདི་དམར་པོ་ཡིན།

vase     this  red       is

This vase is red.

དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན།

red          colour  is

Red is [a] colour.

རྒྱུ་ནི་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡིན།   རྐྱེན་ནི་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་ཡིན།

cause  bliss gone   essence is      condition   virtuous  friend      is

The cause is the sugathagarbha, the condition is the virtuous friend.

དགྲ་བོ་དེ་ཉིད་བཟོད་པ་དེ་ཡི་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ན།

enemy that "very" patience that  cause is if

If that enemy is the cause of that very patience...

Intransitive verbs—verbs of possession, existence, living, motion, dependence, emotion, attitude, necessity

Note: Some of the following verbs are not classified as 'verbs' in Tibetan.

Patient: ming tsam	qualifier: la don
subject	qualifier

The qualifier of space and time are not actual particularities of "verbs of existence, living, motion" but part of the la don "1.1 location in space", "1.2 location in time", and originative case "1.4.2. beginning of a confined sequence or extent of space, time and enumerations" and occur with other verbs as well.

Verbs of possession I

Patient—what is owned: ming tsam, qualifier—possessor: la don

• ཡོད་པ་, to have; མེད་པ་, not to have. Note: The negation of ཡོད་པ་ is always མེད་པ་ and never མ་ཡོད་པ་.
  

to possess v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ མངའ་བ།  མངའ་བ།  མངའ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

to be controlled v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བདག་པ།  བདག་པ།  བདག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

བདག་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།

I  bos grunniens have

I have yaks.

སྐུ་ལ་བསྙུང་གཞི་མི་མངའ།

body    illness    snot have

not ill

རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་བདག་དབང་མི་དམངས་ལ་བདག་པ།

country        control       people          belong

The power of the country belongs to (is hold by) the people.

Verbs of existence

Patient: ming tsam, Qualifier—place of existence: la don

• ཡོད་པ་, to exist; མེད་པ་, not to exist. Note: The negation of ཡོད་པ་ is always མེད་པ་ and never མ་ཡོད་པ་.
• གདའ་, to exist, to be there; མཆིས་པ་, to exist.
  

to exist		v.i.	ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
གྲུབ་པ།	འགྲུབ་པ།	འགྲུབ་པ།
past	pres.	fut.	imp.

བོད་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།

Tibet  bos grunniens exist

There are yaks in Tibet.

མོ་གཤམ་གྱི་བུ་མེད།

barren women son not exist

The barren women’s son does not exist.

བོད་ལ་རིལ་མ་ཡོད།

Tibet   dung     exist

There is dung in Tibet.

འགག་པ་མེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི་འདི་ལ་འགག་པ་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན་པའོ།

obstructed not exist  called   this    obstruct   exist  not is

[This] what is called unobstructed is: [It] is not the existence of [an] obstruction for this.

རི་བོང་གི་རྭ་ལ་སོགས་པ་མེད་པ་དག་

rabbit   horn and so on  not exist (plural)'

non-existing [things like] rabbit’s horn and so on

སྣམ་བུ་གྲུབ་ཅིང་ཡོད་པའི་རྐྱེན་རྒྱུ་སྤུན་དག་ཡིན་ནོ།།

woolen cloth  came into  and exists  condition threads (plural) is

The condition for woolen cloth to have come into existence and to exist are threads.

བདེན་པར་ཡོད་པ་

truly     existent

truly existent

རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པ

naturally / inherently existent

inherently existent

Verbs of living

Patient: ming tsam, Qualifier—qualifier of space and time: la don

to abide v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ གནས་པ།  གནས་པ།  གནས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.	to stay v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འདུག་པ།  འདུག་པ།  འདུག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.
to live v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད་པ།  བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད། past pres. fut. imp.	to live (hon.) v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས། past pres. fut. imp.

གནས་ངེས་ཅན་ཞིག་ལ་སྡོད་དགོས།

place   certain   a     stay   need

[One] needs to stay at a certain place.

ཁོ་ཚོ་གདན་ལ་འདུག་སྟེ་གཏམ་ཤོད་པ།

they   seat     stay    talk   speak, talk

They talk while sitting on a seat.

ཁོ་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་གནས་བདེ་བར་དགའ་སྐྱིད་དུ་གནས་སོ། །

he time long place  comfort   joy   happy   stay

He happily stayed for a long time at a comfortable place.

ད་ལྟའི་བར་གནས་པ།

today          remain

remaining until today

Verbs of motion

Patient: ming tsam, Qualifier—destination, qualifier of space and time: la don

to go v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཕྱིན་པ་, སོང་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  སོང། past pres. fut. imp.

to enter v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཞུགས་པ།  འཇུག་པ།  འཇུག་པ།  ཞུགས། past pres. fut. imp.

ཁོ་ལྷ་སར་འགྲོ།

he Lhasa   go

He goes to Lhasa.

གྲོངས་ཁྱེར་འདིར་མགྲོན་ཁང་ཞིག་ལ་འགྲོ་དགོས་སོ། །

city          this    guest house  a        go   need

In this city [you] need to go to a guest house.

ལམ་དུ་འཇུག་

path       enter

setting out on the path, to embark upon the path

Verbs of dependence

Patient: ming tsam, Qualifier—what it is depended upon: la don ལ་

Note: ལ་ is the most common la don.

to depend v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ རྟེན་པ།  རྟེན་པ།  བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན། past pres. fut. imp.

to be dependent v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བལྟོས་པ།  ལྟོས་པ།  ལྟོས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

• རག་ལས་པ་, to rely, depend

འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་དང་རྐྱེན་ལ་བརྟེན་ནོ། །

result   cause and conditions depend

Results depend on causes and conditions.

ཡོན་ཏན་ཆེ་ཆུང་སྦྱང་བརྩོན་ལ་རག་ལས་པ།

good quality extent effort    depend

The extent of good qualities depends on effort.

ཕར་ཕྱོགས་ལ་བལྟོས་ནས་ཚུར་ཕྱོགས་གྲུབ།

other side      depend     this side   exists, comes about

Depending on the other side this side came into existence (exists).

Verbs of emotion or attitude

Patient: ming tsam, Qualifier—that which the attitude is towards: la don ལ་

Note: ལ་ is the most common la don.

to be afraid v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ སྐྲག་པ།  སྐྲག་པ།  སྐྲག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.	to be sad v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ སྐྱོ་བ།  སྐྱོ་བ།  སྐྱོ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.
to love v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བྱམས་པ།  བྱམས་པ།  བྱམས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.	to have faith v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ དད་པ།  དད་པ།  དད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.
to have respect v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.	to fear v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འཇིགས་པ།  འཇིགས་པ།  འཇིགས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

དཔའ་བོ་ལ་གུས་པ་

hero        respect

respect towards the hero

བྱས་ཉེས་བྱུང་བ་ལ་སྐྱོ།

deed wrong  occur  sad

sad about the occurrence of wrong deeds

མདུན་དུ་སྤྱང་ཀིར་སྐྲག་པ་དང༌།   རྒྱབ་ཏུ་སྟག་ལ་སྐྲག་པ།

front      wolf    afraid   and     behind  tiger   afraid

In the front afraid of the wolf, in back afraid of the tiger.

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པ་ལ་དད་པ་

Buddha        teachings   faith

faith in teachings of the Buddha

ལུག་རྫི་ལུག་ལ་བྱམས།

shepherd sheep   kind, loving

The shepherd is loving to the sheep.

With verbs expressing "to be afraid" the agentive case is also used to mark that which one is afraid of.

ཁྱི་རྡོ་དེ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་འཇིགས།

dog stone that very   fear

The dog [just] fears that stone itself.

སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཆེན་པོས་སྐྲག་པ་དག་གིས་

suffering      great      fear    (plural)'

because of being afraid of great suffering...

ཉོན་མོངས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དག་གིས་འཇིགས་པ་མེད།

kleshas      suffering    (plural)        fear not have

not having [any] fear towards kleshas and suffering

Verbs of necessity

• See above "2.4 verbs with noticeable grammar - verbs of necessity"

Patient—that what is needed: ming tsam, Qualifier—that which needs: la don ལ་

Note: ལ་ is the most common la don.

to need v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

to require v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ མཁོ་བ།  མཁོ་བ།  མཁོ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས།

sprouts water need

Sprouts need water.

དེའང་བོད་སྐད་ལ་མི་མཁོ་བའི་དབྱངས་གསལ་རྣམས་དོར།

in this regard Tibetan language not need vowel consonant (plural) discarded

Regarding this, the vowels and consonants which were not needed for the Tibetan language were discarded.

Verbs of separation and avoidance

Patient: ming tsam, qualifier—that which is separated from: originative ལས་ (most common), or originative ནས་, la don or ming tsam.

Verbs of separation

Qualifier—that which is separated from: originative ལས་.

to liberate v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བཀྲོལ་བ།  འགྲོལ་བ།  དགྲོལ་བ།  ཁྲོལ། past pres. fut. imp.	to transcend v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འདས་པ།  འདའ་བ།  འདའ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.
to protect v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྐྱབས་པ།  སྐྱོབ་པ།  བསྐྱབ་པ།  སྐྱོབས། past pres. fut. imp.	to liberate v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཐར་བ།  ཐར་བ།  ཐར་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.
to reverse v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ལྡོག་པ།  ལྡོག་པ།  ལྡོག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

འཁོར་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་བ།

samsara      liberated

liberated from samsara

དགྲ་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ་

enemy   protect

protected from the enemy

བློ་ཡུལ་ལས་འདས་པ།

mind realm  pass beyond

gone beyond the realm of mind

ལམ་ནོར་བ་ལས་ལྡོག་པ།

path mistaken   turn away

turn away from the mistaken path

Verbs of avoidance

Qualifier—that which is avoided (irregular): originative, la don or ming tsam.

to avoid v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བཟུར་བ།  འཛུར་བ།  གཟུར་བ།  ཟུར། past pres. fut. imp.

to turn away v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བྱོལ་བ།  འབྱོལ་བ།  འབྱོལ་བ།  བྱོལ། past pres. fut. imp.

to keep away v.t. ཐ་དད་པ གཡོལ་བ།  གཡོལ་བ།  གཡོལ་བ།  གཡོལ། past pres. fut. imp.

མཚོན་ཆ་ལས་ཟུར་ཅིག

weapon      avoid  "!"

Avoid the weapon!

གཞུང་ལམ་ནས་བཟུར་ཏེ་བྲོས་སོང་།

main road    avoided escaped (past auxiliary)

[He] avoided the main road and escaped

ལམ་བྱོལ་ནས་ཕྱིན་པ།

road turn away  went

Turning off the road [he] went.

ཆུ་འོག་བྲག་རྡོ་ལས་གཡོལ་བ།

water under rocks     dodge

to avert the under water rocks

གཞུང་ལམ་ལ་གཡོལ་ནས་ལམ་ལོག་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།

main road    keep away  derelict path  went

Keeping away from the main road, [he] went along a derelict path.

Verbs of absence and "presence"

Patient: ming tsam, Qualifier—that which is absent or "present": agentive case

Verbs of absence

Patient—that which is absent of something: ming tsam, Qualifier—that which is absent: agentive case

to be empty v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ སྟོངས་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.	to be devoid of v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ དབེན་པ།  དབེན་པ།  དབེན་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.
to lack v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ དབུལ་བ།  དབུལ་བ།  དབུལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.	to lack v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཕོངས་པ།  ཕོང་བ།  ཕོང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

མི་ཤུགས་ཀྱིས་མི་ཕོང་བ།

person strength not lack

the person doesn’t lack strength

བདག་གིར་ལྟ་བའི་མི་མཐུན་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་པ།

mine    view  not concordant side     empty, free

free from the non-concordant side of the view of "mine"

ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ།

land   water  empty

the land is empty of water

ནོར་འཁྲུལ་གྱིས་དབེན་པ།

mistake          devoid

devoid of mistakes

དངོས་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་པའི་ཕྱིར།

things       all   essential nature  empty   because

Because all things are empty of an essential nature...

མཚན་མའི་དྲི་མས་དབེན་ལ་

characteristic stains devoid

devoid of the stains of characteristics

Verbs of "presence"

Note: Here the term "presence" is used as the counter part to "absence" and is not to be taken very literately. (if you know of a better way to name these verbs after their function (with one or two words) please let me know)

Patient—that which is effected by the "presence": ming tsam, Qualifier—that which is "present": agentive case.

to be full v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ གང་པ།  གང་བ།  གང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.	to fill up with v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཁེངས་པ།  ཁེང་བ།  ཁེང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.
to fill v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བཀང་བ།  འགེངས་པ།  དགང་བ།  ཁོང༌། past pres. fut. imp.	to fill, to pack with v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ གཏམས་པ།  གཏམས་པ།  གཏམས་པ།  གཏོམས། past pres. fut. imp.
to be full v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འགྲངས་པ།  འགྲང་བ།  འགྲང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

བུམ་པ་ཆུས་ཁང༌།

vase   water  full

The vase is full of water.

ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང༌།

house  inside  water filled   (past auxiliary)'

The inside of the house had filled with water.

བུམ་པ་ཆུས་བཀང༌།

vase   water  fill

The vase was filled with water.

བང་མཛོད་ནོར་གྱིས་གཏམས།

store-house riches    fill

[They] filled the store room with valuables.

ཟས་ཀྱིས་གྲོད་པ་འགྲངས་དྲགས་ནས་ན་སོང་།

food    stomach   full        'too'      ill   became

having 'over-filled' the stomach, [he] became ill

Verbs that express connection or disconnection: conjunctive, disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, verbs of possession II

Qualifier—that which the connection is with: དང་, la don or originative.

Conjunctive verbs I—ཐ་མི་དད་པ་

Patient: ming tsam, Qualifier—that which the conjunction is with: དང་

Note: The དང་ is frequently omitted.

to be related, connected v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འབྲེལ་བ།  འབྲེལ་བ།  འབྲེལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

to meet v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཕྲད་པ།  འཕྲད་པ།  འཕྲད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

འབྲས་བུ་དང་ནི་འབྲེལ་བའི་རྒྱུ།

result          connected  cause

the cause which is connected to the result

གང་ཚེ་མར་མེ་སྐྱེ་བཞིན་པ།   །མུན་པ་དང་ནི་ཕྲད་པ་མེད།

when   lamp  arise (auxiliary)  darkness    meet    not exist

When there is the arising of a flame, the meeting with darkness does not exist.

Conjunctive verbs II—ཐ་དད་པ་

Qualifier—that which the conjunction is with: དང་ or la don

Note: While the verb སྦྱོར་བ་ (which has a number of meanings) frequently uses the la don, they are very rarely seen with other verbs.

to connect, join, apply, unite v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ སྦྱར་བ།  སྦྱོར་བ།  སྦྱར་བ།  སྦྱོར། past pres. fut. imp.

to connect, attach, link, bind together v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ། past pres. fut. imp.

འཕགས་པའི་བཞེད་པ་དང་སྦྲེལ་བ།

noble            wish        connect

connected with the noble wish

་་་་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་སྐབས་དེ་དང་སྦྱར་ཏེ།

termed, called   time  that   applied

applied to that time when called...

ཉེས་ཅན་ཁྲིམས་ལ་སྦྱོར་བ་

wrong doers law     connect

criminals are brought to the law

Without qualifier marked by དང་

ཐལ་མོ་སྦྱར་ནས་གུས་འདུད་ཞུ།

palm    joined  respectfully bow  request

joining the palms [one] requests respectfully

• the palms are simply joined and not joined with something.

Disjunctive verbs

Qualifier—that which is "disjointed" from: དང་ or originative ལས་.

to be free from to separate v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

to contradict to go against v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འགལ་བ།  འགལ་བ།  འགལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ཁྲིམས་དང་འགལ་བ།

law          go against

to go against the law

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་བསླབ་པ་ལས་འགལ་བར་མི་བྱེད།

bodhisattva              training       contradict   not do

not to transgress the Bodhisattva's training

དེ་ནི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱུ་དང་བཅས་པ་ལས་བྲལ་བར་འདོད་པའི་གློའོ།

That   beings         all     suffering  cause      have         free        wish    mind (from གློ་སྙིང་)

That is the mind of wishing that all beings [may be] freed from suffering together with it’s causes.

དེ་ལྟ་ན་ཡང་ལྟ་བའི་བྱ་བ་དང་བྲལ་བའི་ལྟ་བ་ནི་ལྟ་བ་མ་ཡིན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།

being that way even look deed separated look    look   not is    (future auxiliary)'

Even being that way, the looking which is separated from the act of looking will not be looking (intentional).

Rare with ལ་

ཞེན་པ་ལ་བྲལ་བ་

attachment separated

to be free from attachment

Verbs of "agreement"

Patient (subject): ming tsam, Qualifier—that what is in accord with: དང་ or la don.

conform to in accordance with to bin in harmony v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ མཐུན་པ།  མཐུན་པ།  མཐུན་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

in accord with, suitable v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འཚམས་པ།  འཚམ་པ།  འཚམ་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

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སྔ་ཚིག་དང་མཐུན་པ།

former words in accord with

in accordance with the former words

བློ་དང་འཚམ་པ་

mind   in accord with

in accordance with the mind

འཁོར་ལོ་བར་མཐའ་གཉིས་ཀའི་ངེས་དོན་དང་ཆ་མཐུན་པ་

wheel  middle  last    both  definitive meaning part accord

...[it] is in accordance with the definitive meaning of both, the middle and last [turning of] the wheel [of Dharma].

ཐེག་པ་གཞེན་ལ་མི་འཚམས་པ་

vehicles other     not  accord

not in accord with other vehicles

ཁ་གཏིང་གཉིས་མཐུན་

words and thoughts two accord

with words and thoughts in accord (united)

དེ་དག་ཀུན་ཀྱང་འཁོར་བའི་རྒྱུ་བདག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ་སྤངས་ནས་ཐར་པ་མྱང་འདས་ཀྱི་གོ་འཕང་བསྒྲུབ་པར་མཐུན་ནོ།།

those  all         samsara  cause self    grasp   discard   liberation   nirvana          state    accomplish   accord

All those are in accord with discarding the cause of samsara, the grasping at [a] self and accomplishing the state of liberation, Nirvana.

Note: མྱང་འདས་ is short for མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་, Nirvana.

གལ་ཏེ་གཅིག་གམ་སྙམ་ན། མ་ཡིན་ཏེ། མཚན་ཉིད་མི་མཐུན་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཏེ།

in case    one  ?  wonder if  not is    characteristic not in accord because

If [one] wonders:"Are [the self and the skandhas] one?" - [they] are not, because [their] characteristics are not in accordance, ...

Verbs of "comparison"

Patient—that what is compared: ming tsam, Qualifier—what it is compared against: དང་ or la don

to match, to rival to compete with to challenge v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན། past pres. fut. imp.	to compare against to check and verify v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྡུར་བ།  སྡུར་བ།  བསྡུར་བ།  སྡུར། past pres. fut. imp.
to match against to compare to things old for འགྲན་པ་ v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྒྲུན་པ།  སྒྲུན་པ།  བསྒྲུན་པ།  སྒྲུན། past pres. fut. imp.

རིག་པ་འགྲན་པ་

intelligence match

to match wits

ཇོ་ནང་ཀུན་སྙིང་གིས་རྒྱ་དཔེ་དང་བསྡུར་ཏེ་

Taranatha       Indian book   verified

Taranatha verified [the translation] against the Indian [text]

ཤིང་སྡོང་ལ་ཡར་འཛེག་པའི་ལུས་རྩལ་དེ་སྤྲ་དང་སྤྲེའུ་ལ་འགྲན་ཐུབ།

tree trunk   up    climb   body skill that monkey and monkey rival  able

that skill of climbing up trees is able to rival [that of] monkeys

Note: ལུས་རྩལ་ normally means "physical exercise", but "physical skill" seems more fitting in this context.

སྲིན་བུ་མེ་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་ཉི་མ་ལ་འགྲན།

firefly                 sun        rival

the firefly rivals the sun

མི་སྡར་མས་དཔའ་བོ་ལ་བསྒྲུན་ཕོད་དམ་མི་ཕོད།

coward        hero        match dare     not dare

Can a coward dare to match a hero?

Verbs of possession II

Patient: ming tsam, Qualifier: དང་ or la don

Note: see the chapter on la don "la don substitute for དང་ with verbs using དང་

• ལྡན་པ་, to have, possess, together with; བཅས་པ་, together with, having.
  

ལྷག་མ་དང་བཅས་པ།

remainder   have, with

with remainder

དོན་དང་ལྡན་པའི་བྱ་བ།

meaning have   work, deed

work which has a meaning

Verbs of evaluation, assertion

Patient (subject)—that which is evaluated or asserted: ming tsam, la don, or agentive case.

The following verbs can be rather flexible in their grammar, having their patient (subject) in ming tsam or marked by the la don and others having their patient (subject) in ming tsam or agentive case. Some of them change their meaning with syntax.

See: "la don / 3.1 Note on classifications for 1.10 verbs with la don / intransitive verbs / 1.1 expressing a 'quality': evaluative"

Verbs of evaluation, assertion I

Patient: la don or Patient: ming tsam, Qualifier: la don

suitable permissible appropriate v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ རུང་བ།  རུང་བ།  རུང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.	be logical tenable, fits appropriate v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ རིགས་པ།  རིགས་པ།  རིགས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.
be admissible acceptable, valid to follow logically v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འཐད་པ།  འཐད་པ།  འཐད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.	to follow logically v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཐལ་བ།  ཐལ་བ།  ཐལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ལས་སུ་རུང་བ།

work   suitable, permissible

acceptable; proper to do

དེ་ལྟར་བྱེད་མི་རིགས།

like that do not appropriate, logical

It is not appropriate to do like that.

ཉམས་ལེན་གཞན་ཅི་ཡང་མེད་ཀྱང་རུང་བ་ཡིན་པ།

practice   other whatever not even  permissible is

Even [if one] has (/does) not any other practice [then this], it is permissible (/ sufficient).

གང་ཡང་རུང་བ་ what, which whatever is appropriate; any given, whichever

སུའང་རུང་བ་ who any appropriate; whomever

དེ་ལྟར་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བདག་དང༌། གཞན་དང༌། གཉི་གས་བྱས་པར་སྨྲ་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དེ་ནི་བདག་དང༌།

like that suffering   self, I  and   others  and   both     made  say, state  (plural)  suffering  that   self   and

གཞན་དང༌། གཉི་གས་བྱས་པའི་ཕྱིར་བདག་དང་གཞན་དང་གཉི་གའི་བྱ་བ་ཡིན་པར་ཐལ་བར་འགྱུར་ཏེ

others  and   both     made  because self  and others and  both     deed  is     to follow  (auxiliary)'

དེ་ནི་བྱ་བར་མི་རུང་ངོ། །སྡུག་བསྔལ་དེ་ནི་དེ་དག་གི་བྱ་བ་ཡིན་པར་མི་རིགས་སོ། ། ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན།

that deed  not appropriate  suffering that  those     deed  is      not  logical      "if asked why"

In that way, [in regard to] that suffering which is asserted as being produced by self, other or both, [and then] because it is produced by self, other or both it [would] follow that it is the deed of self, other or both. That [suffering] is not appropriate as a deed. [It is] not logical [that] that suffering is their deed. If asked "Why?"...

Verbs of evaluation, assertion II

Patient: agentive case, or Patient: ming tsam

With these verbs occurs the rare case where the patient might need be understood as being in the agentive case. In the example below it is the "drinking of the medicine" that is "sufficient". (This case is quite different from the one of "Verbs expressing 'to make effort, to engage'", in their case it is a volitional action with the one preforming the action in the agentive case and a 'direction' for that action; see above). The best way to view this might be as having a verb complement in the agentive case, substituting the patient. Or in another way, they are monovalent verbs which need to have their complement in the agentive case.

སྨན་འདི་བཏུང་བས་འཐུས།

medicine this drink sufficient

To drink this medicine will be sufficient.

Just as an experiment, one other way to interpret this without the patient / verb complement in the agentive case would be to include a second, identical, omitted participant which would be the patient: སྨན་འདི་བཏུང་བ་ནི་སྨན་འདི་བཏུང་བས་འཐུས།, "drinking this medicine will be sufficient by drinking this medicine". While this is clearly too constructed it could point to the origin of this structure from something "being sufficient" to becoming itself the "instrument-patient-verb complement".

Any ideas, examples, research on origin, interpretation etc. are very welcome.

to be sufficient v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཆོག་པ།  ཆོག་པ།  ཆོག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.	to be sufficient this will do instead of it will do v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འཐུས་པ།  འཐུས་པ།  འཐུས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.
to be fitting agreeable matching, suitable v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འགྲིགས་པ།  འགྲིག་པ།  འགྲིག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

འགྲོ་འཐུས།

go sufficient

sufficient to go / sufficient [if you] go [instead of...]

དེ་རིང་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་དེ་ཙམ་གྱིས་འགྲིག་པ་

today said   that just     fitting

what was said will do for today

རྩོད་གླེང་འགྲིགས་ན་བཟང༌།

discussion agreeable  good

If the outcome of the discussion is agreeable it is good

བཤད་པས་འཐུས།

explanation suffice

The explanation will suffice.

Verbs with multiple meanings occurring with different syntax

This is a intended as a short introduction with a few selected examples.

ཆོག་པ་, to be sufficient or to be allowed

1. "to be sufficient, to be acceptable"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: ལོང་བ་དང༌། ལྡང་བ། 2. "to be allowed, to be permissible"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: རུང་བ་དང༌། འགྲིག་པ།

1. to be sufficient acceptable 2. allowed permissible v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཆོག་པ།  ཆོག་པ།  ཆོག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

1. "to be sufficient"; the agentive case marking the patient, that what is sufficient.

• This is a rare cases where the patient is in the agentive case.

གོང་གསལ་དེ་དག་གིས་ཆོག

above clarified these   sufficient

[what] was said above will suffice

2. "to be allowed"; patient (another verb) in ming tsam

བསམ་འཆར་བཤད་ཆོག

opinion  express allowed

to be allowed to express [one's] opinion

སྤྱོད་པ་: to enter, practice or to experience, enjoy

1. "to engage in, to enter, behave, carry out, conduct oneself, practice"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: འཇུག་པའམ་བྱེད་པ། 2. "experience, undergo, enjoy, to use"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: ཉམས་སུ་མྱོང་པའམ་བེད་སྤྱོད་པ།

1. to engage in 2. to experience v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ སྤྱད་པ།  སྤྱོད་པ།  སྤྱད་པ།  སྤྱོད། past pres. fut. imp.

1. "to engage"; what one engages in is in ming tsam or la don

བྱ་བ་ངན་པ་དོར་ནས་བཟང་པོ་འབའ་ཞིག་སྤྱོད་པ།

deed evil  abandoned   good    only     engage

having abandoned evil actions, [he] engaged in only good

2. "to experience"; what one experiences is marked by la don

སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལ་སྤྱོད་པ།

suffering       experience

to experience suffering

ཆགས་པ་: to be attached, or to be situated, or to happen

1. "to be attached, to desire, to crave for"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: འདོད་པ་ 2. "to be situated, to be put /staying in a certain way"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: གནས་པའམ་འཇགས་པ། 3. "to happen, to occur, to become, to be produced"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: བྱུང་བ་དང། གྲུབ་པ།

1. to be attached 2.to be situated 3. to happen v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཆགས་པ།  ཆགས་པ།  ཆགས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

1. "to be attached"; with the la don marking what the attachment is towards

རི་བོང་ཚང་ལ་ཆགས་པ།

rabbit home   attached

The rabbit is attached to [it's] burrow.

2. "to be situated"; with la don as qualifier (adverbial, identity, space, etc.)

ས་བཞིན་དུ་ཆགས་པ་དང༌། རྡོ་བཞིན་དུ་གནས་པ།

earth like  settled     and    stone like   remain

[a person that is] settled like the earth and unmoving like a stone—(a very reliable and steady person)

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དགོན་པ་དེ་ཐང་ཆུང་ཆུང་ཞིག་གི་སྟེང་ལ་ཆགས་ས།

monastery that plain small  a    on     situated  (together with ས་ "site, location" in the following bigger context)

that monastery is situated on a small plain, [this] site...

3. "to occur, to become"; what is occurring etc. is in ming tsam. If the one / thing that became "something" is stated, then both are in ming tsam and the grammar is like that of a linking verb.

འབྲས་བུ་ཆགས་པ།

result       occurred

the result occurred

བཙའ་ཆགས་པ།

rust      became

[it] became rusty

མེ་ཏོག་འདི་ཆེན་པོ་ཆགས།

flower  this  big   became

this flower became big