Tibetan Grammar - verbs

WORK IN PROGRESS (by Stefan J. Eckel): the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading.

31.Jan.12 The approach to explain Tibetan verbs will be changed to that of the "three thematic relations: Theme, Location, and Agent"

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

[...]

Verbs བྱ་ཚིག་

Note: 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 Tibetan grammarians do not classify words describing a mere state of being or existence as བྱ་ཚིག་.

Intransitive and Transitive 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 Intransitive and Transitive 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 that can have two objects. These are 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 Tibetan the grammar for intransitive and transitive verbs is generally as follows:

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

Theme is used here as a convenient term for both the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb - both are in ming tsam. The term will be stretched (beyonds its definition from thematic relations) as far as necessary; (e.g. it will also include patient - undergoes the action and changes its state ). See: Note

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.

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.

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.

The Syntactic Verb Categories

Beside being an explanation of syntactic verb categories in Tibetan us such, this section is chiefly aimed to be an background for the syntactic categories referred to in the main section which is "Classification of verbs according to semantic and syntactic groups".

The Three Categories of agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive

agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive

The descriptions of verbs types in here will be in sometimes different form the descriptions found in other grammar compilations. The verb types used in here are introduced to mainly deal with three difficulties found with Tibetan verbs:

• There are verbs that have a participant marked with the agentive particle but have no participant in ming tsam.
• There are verbs that are not transitive but have a participant marked with the agentive particle.
• ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ do not correspond to the devision into transitive and intransitive.

The categories used in here will be referred to as "ming tsam intransitive", "agentive transitive" and "agentive directed". These categories are so named with respect to the existence of a participant marked with the agentive particle, the presence or absence of a theme in ming tsam and the nature of the verb.

ming tsam intransitive	no agent	theme in ming tsam
agentive transitive	agent with the agentive particle	theme in ming tsam
agentive directed	agent with the agentive particle	no theme in ming tsam

The category that sticks out is that of "agentive directed" verbs. The verbs of the agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive categories are respectively either transitive or intransitive. They are easily classified by the possibility of a given verb to either take an agent (marked with the agentive particle) together with its theme (in ming tsam) or not. In contrast to that the verbs of the agentive directed category include verbs that are intransitive, transitive and "indirect ditransitive". They have in common that they have two participants, one marked with the agentive particle and one with a la don, but no theme in ming tsam.

The Subcategories of The agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive Verbs

The categories ming tsam intransitive, agentive transitive and agentive directed can be further divided into:

syntactic categorie	syntactic subcategorie	example
ming tsam intransitive	stative copula	linking verbs: theme in ming tsam, (no agent); ཡིན་པ་ "to be, are"; (example)
	stative non-volitional	unintentional intransitive verbs that describe a state of being and adjectives: theme in ming tsam, (no agent); ངལ་བ་ "to be tired", བཟང་ "[to be] good, excellent"; (example)
	dynamic non-volitional	unintentional intransitive describing an action or change: theme in ""ming tsam"", (no agent); འཆི་བ། "to die"; (example)
	dynamic directed	verbs of motion: theme in ming tsam, qualifier with la don; (no agent); འགྲོ་བ་ "to go"; (example)
	stative located	verbs of existence, possession; verbs of living; verbs of necessity: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent); ཡོད་པ་ "to exist", "to have", དགོས་པ་ "to be needed"; (example)
	stative affective	attitude verbs: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent); དགའ་བ་ "to like"; (example)
	stative directed	verbs of dependence: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent); རྟེན་པ་ "to rely, depend"; (example)
	agentive	These are the intransitive aspects of the "verbs of absence and presence": theme in ming tsam, qualifier with the agentive particle, (no agent); སྟོང་པ་ "to be empty"; (stative agentive example), (dynamic agentive example)
	associative	intransitive "verbs of interrelation": conjunctive and disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, verbs expressing connections of association and possession: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: associative particle དང་, (no agent); (example)
	originative	intransitive verbs of separation; theme in ming tsam, qualifier with the originative particle, (no agent); (example)
	stative irregular	evaluative verbs: theme in ming tsam or with la don or agentive particle; རུང་བ་ "suitable", འཐུས་པ་ "to be sufficient"; (example)
agentive transitive	effective	simple transitive verbs where the agent acts upon an theme (object): agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam; འཐུང་བ་ "to drink"; (example)
	fruitional	transitive verbs where the theme (object) is not acted upon and the agent is passive, perceiving or obtaining the theme (object); these are fruitional and unintentional verbs: agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam; རྙེད་པ་ "to find", མཐོང་བ་ "to see"; (example)
	ditransitive	ditransitive verbs where the action upon the theme (object) by the agent is directed towards a recipient (indirect object); these are verbs expressing any transfer of goods, information or action and verbs expressing to produce something for somebody: agent with agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam, recipient with la don; སྦྱིན་པ་ "to give"; (example)
	directed	these are transitive verbs where the action is not directed towards a recipient us such, but that have a qualifier of space or any other qualifier marked by a la don: agent with agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier: la don; སྦྱོར་བ་ "to connect, to join"; (example)
	agentive	the transitive dynamic verbs of the semantic group of the verbs of presence: agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam, qualifier-the material used for the action wtih agentive particle; འགེངས་པ་ "to fill with"; (example)
	associative	transitive verbs of interrelation - conjunctive or disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison: theme in ming tsam, qualifier with associative particle; (example) Examples with a stated agent are very difficult to find for this type of verb. If there were to be an example with a stated agent then this agent would be marked with the agentive particle.
	originative	transitive verbs of separation; theme in ming tsam, qualifier with originative particle; Examples with a stated agent are very difficult to find for this type of verb. If there were to be an example with a stated agent then this agent would be marked with the agentive particle.; (example)
agentive directed	intransitive dynamic directed see [ ] for the discussion about these verbs	some intentional verbs of perception: perceiver with agentive particle, direction with la don; ལྟ་བ་ "to look"; (example) verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage in": the one who makes the effort with agentive particle, that what the effort is towards with la don; འབད་པ་ "to make effort"; (example)
	indirect ditransitive/ indirect transitive directed see [ ] for the discussion about these terms and the verbs	verbs of benefit or harm; that what effects the harm with agentive particle, the recipient-the one or that what is harmed-with la don; གནོས་པ་ "to harm"; (example) surface contact verbs; (example)
	stative directed	ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" (see below)
	transitive verbs with directed grammar	These are: verbs of mental activity when the "object of interest" is actively engaged in. They then have the theme (or direction, see below) with la don. དཔྱོད་པ་ "to examine" verbs with referential la don ལ་: verbs expressing identity and equivalence can have their theme with la don ལ་ and the qualifier with la don སུ་ etc.; འཛིན་པ་ "to apprehend (something as something)"; (example)

Examples for the Categories

This section is an expansion of "1.2.1.2 The subcategories of the agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive verbs" in order to give example sentences for the different categories. The semantic verb categories that are given as example for each category are not necessarily exhaustive.
(For cross reference between semantic and syntactic categories see the main section "Classification of verbs according to semantic and syntactic groups".)

ming tsam intransitive

stative copula - linking verb

linking verbs; ཡིན་པ་ "to be, are"

theme (subject): ming tsam, complement: ming tsam, strict "theme - complement" word order

དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན།

red           colour   is

Red is [a] colour.

stative non-volitional intransitive verbs

unintentional intransitive verbs; ངལ་བ་ "to be tired"

theme (subject): ming tsam

སེམས་ངལ་བ། mind   tired mind is tired

to be tired v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

stative non-volitional - adjectives

Adjectives can function like stative verbs.; བཟང་ "[to be] good, excellent"
When adjectives are used in this way they lose their second syllable.
E.g.:ངན་པ་ ("bad, inferior") only ངན་ and བཟང་པོ་ ("excellent, good") only བཟང་.

theme (subject): ming tsam

མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་བླ་མ་བཟང་།

person myself bad lama good

Even though I[' m] bad, [my] Lama [is] good.

dynamic non-volitional

unintentional verbs; འཆི་བ་ "to die", འཆར་བ་ "to arise"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: direction: la don, origin: originative

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.

dynamic directed

verbs of motion; འགྲོ་བ་ "to go", མཆོང་བ་ "to jump"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: direction: la don, origin: originative

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.

stative located verbs of existence, possession and verbs of living

verbs of existence and possession; ཡོད་པ་ "to exist" or "to have"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: the place of existence or the one who has something: la don

བོད་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།

Tibet bos grunniens exist

There are yaks in Tibet.

stative located verbs of necessity

Verbs of necessity like དགོས་པ་ "to be needed" are closest in grammar to verbs of possession. The need itself is not directed but what is needed is "directed" towards a "location", it is needed at that "location". This is like in the example of the verbs of possession where the person who possess things is the location at which these things exist.

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier, for whom or what it is needed: la don

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

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

stative affective

attitude verbs (verbs of emotion and attitude); དགའ་བ་ "to like"
Note: Some verbs within the "attitude verbs" category which are (more or less) voluntary e.g. like གུས་པ་ "to respect" could be placed with either stative affective or stative directed verbs.

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier - what the attitude is towards: la don

ཞི་བདེར་དགའ་བ། peace happy like to like peace / wellbeing

to like v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ དགའ་བ།  དགའ་བ།  དགའ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

stative directed

verbs of dependence; རྟེན་པ་ "to rely, depend"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier - what it is depended upon: la don

འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་དང་རྐྱེན་ལ་བརྟེན་ནོ། ། result cause and conditions depend Results depend on causes and conditions.

to depend (on), to rely (on) v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན་པ།  བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན། past pres. fut. imp.

intransitive stative agentive

This is the stative (fruitional) aspect of the "verbs of absence and presence". They express a resultant state, e.g.,སྟོང་པ་ "to be empty".

theme - that which is "missing of something" or "full with something": ming tsam, qualifier - what is "present" or absent, lacking, "that what is empty of": agentive particle

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

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

intransitive dynamic agentive

theme - that which is "full with something": ming tsam, qualifier - what is "present": agentive particle

ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང་། house inside water filled (involuntary past tense auxiliary verb) The inside of the house filled up with water.

to become full v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཁེངས་པ།  ཁེང་བ།  ཁེང་བ།   past pres. fut. imp.

associative

These are the intransitive stative and dynamic verbs of interrelation, the conjunctive / disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, and verbs expressing connections of association and possession Many of these have irregular grammar and can occur with other particles, i.e. la don or originative.

theme: ming tsam, qualifier: དང་

བློ་དང་འཚམ་པ་

mind   in accord with

in accordance with the mind

originative

These are the intransitive stative and dynamic verbs of separation, and verbs of avoidance.

theme: ming tsam, qualifier: originative particle

ནད་པ་རྣམས་ཚ་གྲང་སོགས་ཀྱི་ནད་ལས་གྲོལ་བར་ག་ལ་ཡོད་དེ་་་་ sick (plural) hot cold etc. illness free "How can this be?!" How could the ill ever become free of their hot, cold etc. disease (if they do not listen to their skilled doctor).

to become free v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ གྲོལ་བ་།  གྲོལ་བ་།   གྲོལ་བ་།   past pres. fut. imp.

stative irregular

evaluative verbs; རུང་བ་ "suitable", འཐུས་པ་ "to be sufficient"

theme: ming tsam, la don or agentive particle

ལས་སུ་རུང་བ།

work   suitable, permissible

acceptable; proper to do

agentive transitive

effective

transitive verbs where the agent acts upon an a theme (object); འཐུང་བ་ "to drink"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam

ཆུ་དེ་བཏུངས་ན། water that drank if [one] drinks that water ...

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

fruitional

These are fruitional and unintentional verbs. They are transitive verbs where the theme (object) is not acted upon and the agent is passive, perceiving or obtaining the theme (object) like with རྙེད་པ་ "to find", མཐོང་བ་ "to see".
Note: These are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar. See Grammar Terms

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam

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.
  

ditransitive

Ditransitive verbs are verbs where the agent's (subject) action upon the theme (object) is directed towards a recipient (indirect object). These verbs express any transfer of goods, information, or action like སྦྱིན་པ་ "to give", or any verb expressing to produce something for somebody.

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

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.

transitive directed

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier: la don

ཉེས་ཅན་ཁྲིམས་ལ་སྦྱོར་བ་ wrong doers law     connect criminals are brought to the law

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

transitive agentive

These are the transitive verbs that belong to of the "verbs of presence" category.; འགེངས་པ་ "to fill"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier - the material used for the action: agentive particle

གངྒཱའི་བྱེ་མ་གྲངས་སྙེད་ཀྱི། སངས་རྒྱས་ཞིང་རྣམས་མི་གང་གིས། རིན་ཆེན་དག་གིས་ཀུན་བཀང་སྟེ། Ganga grain number find Buddha field (plural) person who jewel    (plural)       all filled if a person would completely fill with jewels, Buddhas fields as many as there are grains of sand in the Ganga ...

to fill v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བཀང་བ།  འགེངས་པ།  དགང་བ།  ཁོང། past pres. fut. imp.

associative

These are the transitive verbs of interrelation.; སྦྲེལ་བ་"to connect, attach, link together"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier - that which the conjunction is with: associative particle དང་

འཕགས་པའི་བཞེད་པ་དང་སྦྲེལ་བ། noble            wish        connect connected with the noble wish

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

originative

These are the transitive verbs of separation.; སྐྱོབ་པ་ "to protect"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier: originative particle

དགྲ་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ་ enemy   protect protected from the enemy

to protect v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྐྱབས་པ།  སྐྱོབ་པ།  བསྐྱབ་པ།  སྐྱོབས། past pres. fut. imp.

agentive directed

intentional verbs of perception

Intentional verbs of perception can have agentive directed grammar. ལྟ་བ་ (to look) is mostly seen with agentive directed grammar. Other intentional verbs of perception e.g.ཉན་པ་ "to listen" can be seen with either agentive transitive or agentive directed grammar.
Note: These are classified as ཐ་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar. See Grammar Terms

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier(direction): la don

དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟ་བ། book         look [one] will look at (/ study) the books

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

verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage in"

རྩོལ་བ་ "to endeavor, to exert", འབད་པ་ "to make effort"
Note: These are classified as ཐ་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar. See Grammar Terms

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - what the effort is towards: la don

ལས་དོན་ལ་རྩོལ་བ། undertaking to endeavor to endeavor in the undertaking

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

verbs of comparison / competition

Verbs of comparison when expressing "to rival" e.g., འགྲན་པ་ "to rival, to challenge, compete with" have agentive directed grammar.

Note: For the time being this usage of these verbs is treated as being similar to the grammar of "verbs expressing 'to make effort, to engage in'" since their qualifier, the direction of the action is not directly affected in the way it is in case of "verbs of benefit or harm" and "surface contact verbs". On the other hand when taking in to account the agentive transitive - associative grammar that theses verbs display when expressing "to check and verify, to compare two things" (see below) it may also be argued that they are rather agentive directed - indirect transitive.

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - that what is challenged, competed with: la don

སྲིན་བུ་མེ་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་ཉི་མ་ལ་འགྲན། firefly                sun    challenge The firefly challenges the sun.

to rival, to compete with ' ཐ་དད་པ་ འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན། past pres. fut. imp.

Note: Since the verbs of comparison display two types of grammar they have a separate category of their own within the main section "Classification of Verbs according to Semantic and Syntactic Groups" below. They are not together with "Agentive Directed Verbs" (with which they share grammar with), but come after "Verbs of Interrelation" (the second type of verbs they share grammar with).

verbs of benefit or harm

E.g., གནོས་པ་ "to harm", ཕན་པ་ "to benefit"
Verbs of benefit or harm have an agent (subject) with the agentive particle and a recipient (indirect object / direction) with a la don. They are here called indirect ditransitive because an action is passing over to a recipient. That which is passed over (the benefit or harm) is not stated as the theme but is lexicalized in the verb (inherent within the meaning of the verb) The recipient receives this benefit or harm and can not be the theme..

agent(subject): agentive particle, recipient (indirect object / direction): la don

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.

stative directed

The verb ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade" is in Tibetan itself classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ while it is transitive in English.
With the verb ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" the participant "that pervades" is mostly marked with the agentive particle and the object or space that is pervaded marked with the la don. "That which is pervaded" is considering to be a qualifier in here .
The verb can also occur with "that what pervades" in ming tsam.

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - that what is pervaded: la don

སེམས་ཉིད་རང་བྱུང་གི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་ཀྱང་།

essence of mind self arisen wisdom samsara nirvana all pervade even

even though the self arisen wisdom of the essence of mind pervades all of samsara and nirvana ...

verbs of mental activity

verbs of mental activity like དཔྱོད་པ་ when it means "to examine", སེམས་པ་ when it means "to contemplate" When an agent (subject) is actively engaging in the "object of interest" verbs of mental activity can have the direction of their investigation marked with the la don instead of having a theme in ming tsam. This difference in grammar comes from the difference between "[just] thinking something" and "[directly] investigating something". This could be interpreted either as a case where the theme is in marked with a la don or as being similar to the grammar of intentional verbs of perception like ལྟ་བ་ "to look".
For a further explanation that looks into how particles are used in regard to semantic categories and the action of verbs (e.g. if is directed or not), see: Verbs and Particles - Notes

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme or qualifier - direction of attention: la don

རྒྱུ་ལ་དཔྱོད་པ་ cause examine to examine the cause

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

verbs with referential la don

Some verbs can come with a referential la don ལ་. E.g.,འཛིན་པ་ when it means "to apprehend (something as something)" can have that which a statement is made about marked with (a referential) la don ལ་. and the qualifier of identity and equivalence marked with the la don ཏུ་སུ་ etc.. This could be interpreted either as a case where the theme is in marked with the la don or a case where the grammar is similar to that of intentional verbs of perception like ལྟ་བ་ "to look" which has direction of the attention plus a qualifier.
For a further explanation that looks into how particles are used in regard to semantic categories and the action of verbs (e.g. if is directed or not), see: Verbs and Particles - Notes

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme / direction - what is apprehended: ལ་ , qualifier of identity: སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན། household grave only apprehend to apprehend a household only as a grave

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

Agentive Transitive and ming tsam Intransitive Verbs with Same Type of Qualifier

Within the agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive verbs there are transitive and intransitive verbs that use the same case marking particles with their particular qualifier. These groups often contain semantic pairs of transitive and intransitive counterparts. (See below: "2.4 semantic pairs or groups")

The following groups of transitive and intransitive verbs can be distinguished based on different case marking particles used for their qualifiers:

la don	transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the la don particle
agentive	transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the agentive particle
associative	transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the associative particle
originative	transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the originative particle

E.g.:

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

འབྲེལ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be related, connected འབྲེལ་བ།   འབྲེལ་བ།   འབྲེལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

agentive transitive  qualifier with the associative particle དང་	ming tsam intransitive  qualifier with the associative particle དང་
སྦྲེལ་བ་    ཐ་དད་པ་	འབྲེལ་བ་    ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འཕགས་པའི་བཞེད་པ་དང་སྦྲེལ་བ།	འབྲས་བུ་དང་ནི་འབྲེལ་བའི་རྒྱུ།
noble          wish      connect	result      connected  cause
connected with the noble wish	the cause which is connected to the result

Semantic Pairs or Groups

In Tibetan there are a number of cases where the general meaning of an action can be found to be expressed by different verbs (of a semantic pair or group) belonging to different syntactic categories, with each expressing a more particular aspect of that general meaning. E.g.:

E.g.:

འགེངས་པ་ agentive transitve ཐ་དད་པ་ to fill, to fill up with སྦབཀང་བ།  འགེངས་པ།  དགང་བ།  ཁོང༌། past pres. fut. imp.

ཁེང་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to fill with, to fill up with ཁེངས་པ།  ཁེང་བ།  ཁེང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

གང་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be full འགྲངས་པ།  འགྲང་བ།  འགྲང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

agentive transitive     qualifier with the agentive particle	ming tsam intransitive dynamic non-volitional      qualifier with the agentive particle	ming tsam intransitive stative     qualifier with the agentive particle
འགེངས་པ་    ཐ་དད་པ་	ཁེང་བ་     ཐ་མི་དད་པ་	གང་བ་     ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
"to fill up with" the action of doing so	"to fill with" the process of becoming full	"to be full" the result of the process
བུམ་པ་ཆུས་བཀང་བ།	ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང་།	བུམ་པ་ཆུས་གང་བ།
vase  water  filled	house inside water  filled (past auxiliary)	vase  water full
The vase was filled with water [by someone].	The inside of the house filled up with water. (an agent can not be stated)	The vase is full of water.

verb pair examples:

intransitive		transitive
སྐྱེ་	to be born, to arise	སྐྱེད	to give birth to, to produce
འཁུམ་	to shrink back, to shrivel	སྐུམ་	to draw back, to contract
འཁོར་	to turn, to rotate	སྐོར་	to turn [something], to rotate [something]
འགྱུར་	to change, to become, be changed	སྒྱུར་	to change, to transform, to alter, to correct
འགྲུབ་	to be accomplished, to be produced	སྒྲུབ་	to accomplish
ཆག་	break, to be broken	གཅོག་	to break
འཕེལ་	to increase, to improve, to multiply	སྤེལ་	cause to increase, to develop, to propagate
འབྲལ་	to be separated, to be parted from	ཕྲལ་	to separate, to part with
	to melt	བཞུ་	to melt

Verbs which Change Their Meaning with Different Syntaxes

See: "verbs with multiple meanings occurring with different syntax"

Change of the Meaning with Different Particles

Some verbs change their meaning when a different particle is used for the same participant.
E.g., སེམས་པ་ can mean "to think" when the theme (object) is in ming tsam or "to contemplate" when the theme (or direction see above) is marked with the la don ལ་.

(Note: If the theme is a whole clause, the la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are used. See:"la don—Verbal clause as theme")

སེམས་པ་ the theme in ming tsam: "to think"

དབེན་གནས་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་བསམས་ནས་

solitary place good qualities thinking

thinking of the good qualities of solitary places...

སེམས་པ་ the theme marked with the la don: "to contemplate, to think about"

གསུམ་པ་རྙེད་དཀའི་དཔེ་ལ་བསམ་པ་ནི་

third  find difficult example contemplate

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

Change of the Meaning when Used as an Auxiliary Verb

Verbs often lose their original meaning partially or completely when used as auxiliary verb. (For example there is no "going" going on in "I'm going to remain unmoving.".)
E.g., in Tibetan the verb ཟིན་པ་ means "to be grasped, to be taken hold of, to be captured" and "to learn by heart, to memorize". When uses as auxiliary verb it expresses the completion of an action.

Some verbs also have a different meaning when used as modal auxiliary verb. E.g., ཆོག་པ་ either "allowed, permitted" as a modal auxiliary verb or "to be sufficient" as verb on its own, (see "verbs of evaluation / assertion").

When meaning "allowed, permitted" ཆོག་པ་ comes as a modal auxiliary verb right after the verb.

བསམ་འཆར་བཤད་ཆོག

opinion     express  allowed

allowed to express [ones] opinion

When meaning "to be sufficient" then comes after that which 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 Semantic and Syntactic Groups

A verb or a semantice group of verbs can have the grammar of two or more syntactic groups.

There are two main reason for this. Both are in relation to the main function of the particles that is of concern here, to show what kind of relation a participant of a clause has to the verb of the clause.
1.) There are overlaps between the functions of different particles. This comes from the fact that some of the Tibetan particles can mark a wide range of different type of participants and if there are two or more particles that can express the same or a similar relation between participant and verb then there is the possibility that the verb is seen with those different particles. E.g. དང་and ལས་ can mark the qualifier of "disjunctive verbs" which leads to the fact that "disjunctive verbs" are ming tsam intransitive associative and ming tsam intransitive originative.
2.) If a verb can have different semantic meanings like སེམས་པ་ "to think" or "to contemplate" (see above) it can have its participants marked with different particles in regard to those different meanings since the participants are of different types.

Intransitive Verbs Without Qualifier and with la don for Their Qualifier

category: ming tsam intransitive

This section covers those ming tsam intransitive verbs verbs (including the linking verb) that do not have any particular qualifier or have a qualifier that is marked by a la don.

The intransitive verbs without qualifier and with la don for their qualifier are taken together under one heading because for some of those verbs e.g. like the "verbs of living" the qualifier does not constitutes a particular qualifier for the group as such, since many verbs and their clauses can potentially have a qualifier of space (that would be marked by the la don).

Verbs that belong to semantic groups with particular type of qualifiers which are marked with either the agentive particle (གིས་etc.), the originative particles (ལས་, ནས་) , or the associative particle (དང་) and those groups where potentially agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive verbs come with the same type of qualifier are placed in separate groups (see below).

3.1.1 Linking Verb, གཏན་འཁེལ་བའི་ཚིག་ "Word of Certainty"

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative copula

theme (subject): ming tsam, complement: ming tsam, strict "theme - complement" word order

ཡིན་པ་ ming tsam intransitive is / are note: no ཐ་དད་པ་/ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense	ལགས་ ming tsam intransitive is /are note: no ཐ་དད་པ་/ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense
མིན་པ་ ming tsam intransitive (abbreviation of མ་ཡིན་པ་) is not / are not note: no ཐ་དད་པ་/ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense

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...

See also: ཡིན་ with partially omitted complement

Non-Volitional Intransitive Verbs and Adjectives

theme (subject): ming tsam

Stative Non-Volitional Intransitive Verbs

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative non-volitional
These are verbs that express a non-controllable state of being.

བཀྲེས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be hungry བཀྲེས་པ།  བཀྲེས་པ།  བཀྲེས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ངལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be tired ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ན་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be ill, to be in pain ན་བ།  ན་བ།  ན་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

theme: ming tsam

སེམས་ངལ་བ།

mind   tired

mind is tired

Adjectives

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative non-volitional

Adjectives can function like stative verbs in the way that they are used like verbs at the end of a clause. When adjectives are used in this way they lose their second syllable. E.g.:
ངན་ from "ངན་པ་ "bad, inferior" and བཟང་ from བཟང་པོ་ "excellent, good"

theme: ming tsam

མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་བླ་མ་བཟང་།

person myself bad lama good

Even though I[' m] bad, [my] Lama [is] good.

Dynamic Non-Volitional Intransitive Verbs

category: ming tsam intransitive - dynamic non-volitional

འཆི་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to die ཤི་བ།  འཆི་བ།  འཆི་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

འཆར་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to arise ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

theme: ming tsam

བྱིའུ་ཤི།

small bird died

The small bird died.

ཉི་མ་ཤར།

sun   arose

The sun arose.

མེ་ཏོག་འཆར།

flower blossom (arise)

The flower blossoms.

Intransitive Verbs: of Motion, Living, Existence, Possession, Necessity, Attitude, Dependence

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

Verbs of Motion

category: ming tsam intransitive - dynamic directed

འགྲོ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to go ཕྱིན་པ་ / སོང་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  སོང་། past pres. fut. imp.

འཇུག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to enter, setting out on (a path) ཞུགས་པ།  འཇུག་པ།  འཇུག་པ།  ཞུགས། past pres. fut. imp.

theme: ming tsam;  qualifier-direction, destination: la don;  qualifier-origin: originative

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 Living

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located

གནས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to abide, stay གནས་པ།  གནས་པ།  གནས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

འདུག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to stay, be present འདུག་པ།  འདུག་པ།  འདུག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

སྡོད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to stay, to live, to reside བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད་པ།  བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད། past pres. fut. imp.

བཞུགས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to stay, (honorific for སྡོད་པ་) བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས། past pres. fut. imp.

theme: ming tsam;  qualifier-place of abiding: la don

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 Existence

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located

ཡོད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive to exist note: no ཐ་དད་པ་/ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense	གདའ་ ming tsam intransitive to exist, to be there note: no ཐ་དད་པ་/ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense	མཆིས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive to exist note: no ཐ་དད་པ་/ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense
མེད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive not to exist The negation of ཡོད་པ་ is always མེད་པ་ and never *མ་ཡོད་པ་ note: no ཐ་དད་པ་/ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense
འགྲུབ་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to come into existence, to be existent; (to be produced; to be accomplished, to be done; to be proven) གྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

theme: ming tsam;  qualifier-place of existence: la don

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 Possession

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located
Note: The origin of the way possession is expressed comes from "'something' existing at a 'location'" with the location processed as the owner. See Verbs and Particles - Notes

ཡོད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive to have note: no ཐ་དད་པ་/ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense	མེད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive not to exist note: no ཐ་དད་པ་/ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense
མངའ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ tto have, to possess མངའ་བ།  མངའ་བ།  མངའ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.	བདག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be owned, belong to, controlled, governed བདག་པ།  བདག་པ།  བདག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.	བདོག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to have; to exist [for something some where] བདོག་པ།  བདོག་པ།  བདོག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

theme-what is owned: ming tsam;  qualifier-possessor ("to whom it exist"): la don

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 Necessity

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located

See:stative located verbs of necessity above
In Tibetan, the theme of the verb དགོས་པ་ "to need" is that what is needed, it "performs" the action "to be needed", (the "water" in the example below). What or whom it is needed for is the qualifier (the "sprouts"). This is different to how it is understood in English. See: Verbs and Particles - Notes on "need" and theme, subject and dative subject.

དགོས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ toneed, to be need དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

མཁོ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to need, to require, to be require མཁོ་བ།  མཁོ་བ།  མཁོ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

qualifier-that which needs: la don;  theme-that what is needed: ming tsam

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.

Attitude Verbs

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative affective
Note: Some verbs which are (more or less) voluntary e.g.like གུས་པ་ "to have respect" could also be considered to be stative directed.

verbs expressing "to be afraid" can also have their qualifier with the agentive particle; see below

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

theme: ming tsam;  qualifier-that which the attitude is towards: la don ( ལ་ )

Note: ལ་ is the most common la don used.

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 particle can mark that which one is afraid of.

theme: ming tsam;  qualifier-that what on is afraid of, the cause, reason to be afraid: agentive particle

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 Dependence

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative directed

རྟེན་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to depend, to rely རྟེན་པ།  རྟེན་པ།  བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན། past pres. fut. imp.	ལྟོས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be related, to be dependent བལྟོས་པ།  ལྟོས་པ།  ལྟོས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.
རག་ལས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive to rely, to depend note: no ཐ་དད་པ་/ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense

theme: ming tsam  qualifier—what it is depended upon: la don ( ལ་ )

Note: ལ་ is the most common la don used.

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).

Transitive Verbs

category: agentive transitive

This section covers those agentive transitive verbs that do not belong to a semantic group that uses a particular type of qualifier. Verbs that belong to semantic groups with particular type of qualifiers which are marked with either the agentive particle (གིས་etc.), the originative particles (ལས་, ནས་) , or the associative particle (དང་) and those groups where potentially agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive verbs come with the same type of qualifier are placed in separate groups (see below).

"Simple" Transitive Verbs, Unintentional Verbs of Perception, Verbs of Cognition, "Fruitional" Verbs

agent(subject): agentive particle, theme(object): ming tsam

"Simple" Transitive Verbs

category: agentive transitive effective

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

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

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

agent (subject): agentive particle;  theme (object): ming tsam

ཁོ་བོས་ཇ་འཐུང་གིན་ཡོད།

myself tea drink (present, continuous tense auxiliary)

I'm drinking tea.

Unintentional Verbs of Perception

category: agentive transitive fruitional
Note: They are transitive verbs which are ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan. See Grammar Terms

མཐོང་བ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to see མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ཐོས་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to hear ཐོས་པ།  ཐོས་པ།  ཐོས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

agent-perceiver (subject): agentive particle;  theme (object): ming tsam

མདུན་ལམ་གསལ་པོར་མཐོང་བ།

front   way clearly        see

to see clearly the way in front

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

Verbs of Cognition

category: agentive transitive fruitional
Note: They are transitive verbs which are ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan. See Grammar Terms

ཧ་གོ་བ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to understand, to comprehend (derived from གོ་བ་ to understand, comprehend; to notice; to hear [and comprehend]) གོ་བ།  གོ་བ།  གོ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.
ཤེས་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to know, to cognize ཤེས་པ།  ཤེས་པ།  ཤེས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.	རྟོགས་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to know, to understand རྟོགས་པ།  རྟོགས་པ།  རྟོགས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

agent (subject): agentive particle;  theme (object): ming tsam

ཁོས་ཧ་མ་གོ

he   not understand

He doesn’t understand.

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

"Fruitional" Transitive Verbs

category: agentive transitive fruitional
Note: They are transitive verbs which are ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan. See Grammar Terms

འཐོབ་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to attain, to obtain ཐོབ་པ།  འཐོབ་པ།  འཐོབ་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

རྙེད་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to find, get, discover, gain རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

agent (subject): agentive particle;  theme (object): ming tsam

བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་གིས་རྙེད།

nectar   like  Dharma a/one   I        found

I have found this nectar like Dharma.

• 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.

Ditransitive Verbs

category: agentive ditransitive

Ditransitive verbs are verbs where the agent's action upon the theme (object) is directed towards a recipient (indirect object). These are verbs expressing any transfer of goods, information or action (like སྦྱིན་པ་ "to give") or any verb expressing to produce something for somebody. 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.".

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam, recipient (indirect object): la don

སྦྱིན་པ་ agentive ditransitive ཐ་དད་པ་ to give བྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན། past pres. fut. imp.

སྟེར་བ་ agentive ditransitive ཐ་དད་པ་ to give, to bestow, to present སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར། 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.

Agentive Directed Verbs

category: agentive directed

agent (subject): agentive particle, direction of the action: la don

Intentional Verbs of Perception

category: agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed

Some intentional verbs of perception e.g. like ལྟ་བ་ "to look" have or can have agentive directed grammar. They have the direction of their attention marked with a la don. Their grammar can be irregular.
ལྟ་བ་ is mostly seen with agentive directed grammar. Other intentional verbs of perception (e.g.ཉན་པ་ "to listen") can be seen with either agentive transitive or agentive directed grammar. See Verbs and Particles - Notes.
Note: They are ཐ་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan (but they do not have a theme in ming tsam. See Grammar Terms).

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

སྣོམ་པ་ agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ to smell (actively); (also: to hold, carry) བསྣམས་པ།  སྣོམ་པ།  བསྣམ་པ།  སྣོམས། past pres. fut. imp.

རེག་པ་ agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ to touch རེག་པ།  རེག་པ།  རེག་པ།  རེག past pres. fut. imp.

agent (subject): agentive particle;  qualifier - direction: la don

དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟ་བ།

book    look

[one] will look at (or study) the books

Examples for irregular grammar.

Three examples of different grammar with སྣོམ་པ་ "to smell".

ཇ་ཞིམ་པོའི་དྲི་ལ་སྣོམས།

tea fragrant scent smell!

Smell the scent of fragrant / delicious tea!

In this case "what is smelled / sniffed" is marked by the la don (དྲི་ལ་) making it into a direction (qualifier).

In the next two cases "what is smelled" (the theme) is not marked by a la don but in ming tsam and in the second sentence the "nose", the "place of smelling" is marked by the la don (སྣར་) .

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.

Four examples of different grammar with for རེག་པ་ "to touch". In the first two sentences that which is touching is marked by the agentive particle (ལག་པས་).

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 the next two sentences that which is touching is not marked by the agentive particle (ཤིང་གི་ཡལ་ག་ and རྐང་པ་) but is in ming tsam. The place of touching is marked by the la don as before. (For changes in grammar between voluntary and involuntary usage of the same verb see "Verbs and Particles - Notes".

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 Expressing "to Make Effort, to Engage In"

category: agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed

"Verbs expressing 'to make effort, to engage in'" are categorized as ཐ་དད་པ་ while they are not transitive. These verbs have their theme, "the effort" etc. lexicalized in the verb and do not have a theme (object) as a participant (in ming tsam). They do have a direction of the action, "what the effort is toward" marked by la don.

འབད་པ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ to exert oneself, to strive, make effort འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབོད། past pres. fut. imp.

འགྲུས་པ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ to persevere, to be diligence, to be industrious འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས། past pres. fut. imp.

རྩོལ་བ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ to endeavour, make effort, exert བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ་བ།  བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ། past pres. fut. imp.

agent (subject): agentive particle;  qualifier, direction - what the effort is towards: la don

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.

Verbs of Pervasion

category: agentive directed - stative directed and ming tsam intransitive directed or located

These verbs are similar to the verbs of presence with the exception that the effected participant is not in ming tsam. That what is pervaded is marked by la don while that what pervades is marked by either the agentive particle or is in ming tsam. The verb ཁྱབ་པ་ means "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" and "it logically pervades", "it follows" when used in logical arguments and debate. Its grammar is irregular.

ཁྱབ་པ་	agentive directed		ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to pervade, permeate
ཁྱབ་པ།	ཁྱབ་པ།	ཁྱབ་པ།
past	pres.	fut.	imp.

agent (subject): agentive particle;  qualifier - direction, space: la don

སེམས་ཉིད་རང་བྱུང་གི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་ཀྱང་།

mind itself self arisen wisdom samsara nirvana all  pervade even

even though the self arisen primordial wisdom [of] the essence of mind, pervades all of samsara and nirvana ...

འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཏིལ་འབྲུ་ལ་མར་གྱིས་ཁྱབ་པ་བཞིན་དུ་གནས་སོ།།

world          realm    sentient being all         Tathagata              essence sesame seed oil         pervade     like    abide

Buddha nature (essence of the Tathagata) abides in all sentient beings of the realms of the world like oil is throughout present within sesame seeds.

Example with ming tsam intransitive directed or located grammar

theme: ming tsam;  qualifier: la don

ཉི་མའི་འོད་ཟེར་ཕྱོགས་མཚམས་ཀུན་ཏུ་ཁྱབ་པ།

sun   light ray   directions   all   pervade

The sun's ray pervade (shone / shine) in all directions (everywhere).

Example of the debate style usage

"that what logical follows" (or is claimed to do so): agentive particle

མི་ཡིན་ན་སེམས་ཅན་ཡིན་པས་ཁྱབ།

human be if sentient being be follows (logically pervades)

If [a phenomena] is a human being it follows that [that phenomena] is a sentient being.

A proposed grammatical structure for this debate style that is in accordance with the grammar of this verb:
With the example above:
"Given the subject of a phenomena, if (ན་) [that phenomena (omitted)] is a human being, it follows (ཁྱབ་) that [that phenomena (omitted - potentially in ming tsam or marked by la don)] is a sentient being."
In general:
"Given the subject of a phenomena, if antecedent—[that phenomena (omitted)] meets the condition (expressed by a clause ending in the root of verb + ན་)—is true, then the consequent logically follows—[that phenomena (omitted — potentially in ming tsam or marked by la don)] is logically pervaded (ཁྱབ་) (which means it has the characteristic expressed) by the proposed consequence."
In short: first protasis—"If (ན་) antecedent is true"—then apodosis—consequent (ཀྱིས་ with an omitted theme) logically follows (ཁྱབ་)."

Verbs of Benefit or Harm

category: agentive directed - indirect ditransitive

Verbs of benefit or harm have an agent (subject) marked with agentive particle and a recipient (indirect object / direction) with la don. The action is passing over to a recipient. That what is passed over, the benefit or harm, is not stated as the theme but is lexicalized in the verb (inherent within the meaning of the verb).

གནོད་པ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ to harm, hurt, injure, damage, undermine གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

འགོག་པ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ to stop, block, negate, refute བཀག་པ།  འགོག་པ།  དགག་པ།  ཁོག past pres. fut. imp.

ཕན་པ། agentive directed ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) to benefit, be of help ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

agent, (subject) doing the benefit or harm: agentive particle;  recipient, direction (indirect object) - the benefited or harmed: la don ལ་;  (theme - the harm or benefit: lexicalized in the verb)

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 with Directed Grammar

category: agentive directed - directed grammar with transitive verbs

Verbs expressing mental activity like སེམས་པ་ "to think" and སྒོམ་པ་ "to meditate, to cultivate" can have their theme (object) or direction (qualifier) market with the la don (ལ་). See: verbs of mental activity. If the theme (object) is a whole clause then the la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are used. See: la don - Verbal clause as the theme (object) of a transitive verb

སེམས་པ། agentive transitive agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ to think བསམས་པ།  སེམས་པ།  བསམ་པ།  སོམས། past pres. fut. imp.

དཔྱོད་པ། agentive transitive agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ to analyse དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད་པ།  དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད། past pres. fut. imp.

agent (subject): agentive particle;  theme / direction (object / qualifier) - direction of attention: la don

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 That Can Take a Referential ལ་ for Their Theme

verbs with qualifier of identity or equivalence

category: agentive directed - directed grammar with transitive verbs

With transitive verbs that come with a qualifier of identity or equivalence, the theme (object) is often marked with the la don ལ་ and the qualifier of identity or equivalence is marked with the la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་.

འཛིན་པ།	agentive transitive agentive directed		ཐ་དད་པ
to apprehend;...
བཟུང་བ།	འཛིན་པ།	གཟུང་བ།	ཟུང་།
past	pres.	fut.	imp.

་

common structure: agent (subject): agentive particle;   "topic referred to" - theme or direction: referential la don ལ་;  qualifier: la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན།

household grave only apprehend

to apprehend a household only as a grave

See also: Verbs with multiple meanings occurring with different syntax.

Note on དབྱེ་བ་

category: agentive directed - directed grammar with transitive verbs

་་་་ལ་དབྱེ་ན། ་་་་ "... when [this] is divided [into subdivision] ..." occurs often at the beginning of an enumeration, explanation, etc..
Unusual is (1.) that this is the future form of the verb since in most cases a verb before a conditional ན་ is in the past tense of that verb and (2.) that it differs from the grammar of the present tense འབྱེད་པ་ "to divide" which has a theme, that which is divided, in ming tsam.

འབྱེད་པ་	agentive transitive agentive directed		ཐ་དད་པ་
to separate, divide, classify; to distinguish, differentiate; to open, uncover
ཕྱེ་བ།	འབྱེད་པ།	དབྱེ་བ།	ཕྱེས།
past	pres.	fut.	imp.

in the case of this usage: agent (subject): agentive particle;  theme or direction: referential la don ལ་

བེམ་པོ་ལ་དབྱེ་ན།

inanimate matter divide

if [the category of] material phenomenas is divided ...

Verbs of Absence and Presence

theme: ming tsam, qualifier - that what is absent or "present": agentive particle

Verbs of Absence

category: ming tsam intransitive - agentive
Note: There are no intransitive dynamic or transitive forms of the verbs of absence (with the qualifier marked by the agentive particle). See note below.

སྟོང་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be empty སྟོངས་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.	དབེན་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be devoid of, isolated དབེན་པ།  དབེན་པ།  དབེན་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.
དབུལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to lack, be poor དབུལ་བ།  དབུལ་བ།  དབུལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.	ཕོང་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to lack, be short of, destitute ཕོངས་པ།  ཕོང་བ།  ཕོང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

theme - that which is "missing of something": ming tsam;  qualifier - what is absent, lacking, "that what is empty of": agentive particle

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

Note:

A dynamic or transitive form of the verbs of absence would be verbs that express the removal of something. However, the dynamic transitive verbs that express "to remove", "purify", ot "clear away" conform to regular transitive grammar. Similarly, dynamic intransitive verbs that express something "becoming exhausted", "vanishing", or "disappearing" conform to regular intransitive grammar.

For instance དག་པ་ "to be cleansed, to be purified" is the past tense of the verb འདག་པ་ "to become clean, to become purified". In the past tense formདག་པ་ behaves like a verb of absence with "that which is removed" being marked by the agentive particle, while the present and future tense of འདག་པ་ take "that which is to be removed" in ming tsam, with the instrument marked with the agentive particle.

Below are two examples of a resultant state with དག་པ་ "to be purified" and བྲལ་བ་ "to be free of" (which is a disjunctive verb) coming with དྲི་མ་ "stains" - "that which is free of" - marked with the agentive particle (དྲི་མས་).

In contrast to this the next two examples further below are with the present or future tense of འདག་པ་ "to become purified, will become purified" with "that which is going to be purified" occurring in ming tsam, and the instrument being marked with the agentive particle.

འདག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to become clean, to be purified དག་པ།  འདག་པ།  འདག་པ  past pres. fut. imp.

འབྲལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be free from, to separate བྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

examples with: theme - which is "devoid of something": ming tsam;  qualifier - what is absent: agentive particle

སེམས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་དྲི་མས་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་དག་པའི་ཕྱིར་ན་

mind  essence stain naturally    pure    because

because the essence of mind is inherently pure .....

བློ་བུར་ དྲི་མས་བྲལ་བའི་འོག་མིན་ནི།

adventitious stain  free    akanishtha

the Akanishtha which is free of adventitious stains

examples with: theme - that what is affected (is going to be removed): ming tsam;  instrument - that what produces the effect (of removing something): agentive particle

རྒྱུད་འདིའི་ཚིག་ཙམ་བཀླགས་པས་ཀྱང་ སྡིག་སྒྲིབ་ ཚབས་ཆེན་པོ་འདག་པ་དང་།

tantra this word merely read    even negativity obscuration severe great purify and

... having merely read the word of this tantra will purify extremely severe negative deeds and obscuration, ....

ལྟུང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་བཤགས་པ་ཁོ་ནས་འདག་པར་བཤད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ། །

downfall all    confession only      purify    explain    is

[...this] is the explanation that all downfalls are purified by means of confession alone.

Verbs of Presence

The term "presence" is used as the counterpart to "absence".

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative agentive

གང་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be full (result of the process of being filled) གང་པ།  གང་བ།  གང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.	འགྲང་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be satiated, to be full འགྲངས་པ།  འགྲང་བ།  འགྲང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.
ཁེབས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be covered, to be veiled ཁེབས་པ།  ཁེབས་པ།  ཁེབས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.	ཕྱུག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be rich in, to have an abundance of ཕྱུག་པ།  ཕྱུག་པ།  ཕྱུག་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

category: ming tsam intransitive - dynamic agentive

ཁེང་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to fill up with, fill with (the process of becoming full) ཁེངས་པ།  ཁེང་བ།  ཁེང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

category: agentive transitive - agentive

འགེངས་པ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ to fill, to fill up with བཀང་བ།  འགེངས་པ།  དགང་བ།  ཁོང༌། past pres. fut. imp.	གཏམས་པ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ to fill, to fill to capacity, to pack with, cram with གཏམས་པ།  གཏམས་པ།  གཏམས་པ།  གཏོམས། past pres. fut. imp.
འགེབས་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ to cover བཀབ་པ།  འགེབས་པ།  དགབ་པ།  ཁོབ། past pres. fut. imp.	གཡོག་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ to cover གཡོགས་པ།  གཡོག་པ།  གཡོག་པ།  གཡོགས། past pres. fut. imp.
བསྐོར་བ་ agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ to surround, to encircle; (to spin, rotate) བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར་བ།  བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར། past pres. fut. imp.

theme - that which is affected by the presence: ming tsam;  qualifier - that which is present or caused to be present: agentive particle

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative agentive

བུམ་པ་ཆུས་ཁང༌།

vase   water  full

The vase is full of water.

ཟས་ཀྱིས་གྲོད་པ་འགྲངས་དྲགས་ནས་ན་སོང་།

food    stomach   full        'too'      ill   became

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

ཡོན་ཏན་གྱིས་ཕྱུག།

qualities  rich

to be rich in qualities

ས་གཞི་ཀོ་བས་མི་ཁེབས་  ཀྱང་  ལྷམ་མཐིལ་ཀོ་བས་གཡོགས་ན་ཆོག་

ground four leather no covered even shoe sole leather cover    sufficient

even if the four continents are not covered with leather if [one] covers the soles of [one's] shoes with leather [it] will be sufficient

category: ming tsam intransitive - dynamic agentive

ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང༌།

house  inside  water filled   (past auxiliary)

The inside of the house had filled with water.

category: agentive transitive - agentive

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.

གངས་རིས་བསྐོར།

snow mountain surrounded

surrounded (circled) by snow mountains

གངྒཱའི་བྱེ་མ་གྲངས་སྙེད་ཀྱི། སངས་རྒྱས་ཞིང་རྣམས་མི་གང་གིས། རིན་ཆེན་དག་གིས་ཀུན་བཀང་སྟེ།

Ganga grain number find  Buddha  field  (plural) person who  jewel (plural)  all  filled

if a person would completely fill with jewels, Buddhas fields as many as there are grains of sand in the Ganga ...

Verbs of Interrelation: Conjunctive and Disjunctive Verbs, Verbs of Agreement, Verbs Expressing Connections of Association and Possession

qualifier —that which the connection is with: associative དང་ or la don             —that which is being disconnected from: associative དང་, la don or originative ལས་

Conjunctive Verbs

Note: The la don can commonly be used as a substitute for the associative particle དང་ with verbs that come with the associative particle. For that reason most or all of these verbs can have either associatve or directed grammar.
Note: The verb སྦྱོར་བ་ "to connect, join, (and many more meanings)" comes frequently with la don instead of the associative particle དང་ . This is much rarer with any other verbs of this category.
Note: The associative particle དང་ is frequently omitted.

category: ming tsam intransitive - associative and less common: ming tsam intransitive - directed

འབྲེལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be related, connected འབྲེལ་བ།  འབྲེལ་བ།  འབྲེལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

འཕྲད་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to meet ཕྲད་པ།  འཕྲད་པ།  འཕྲད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

category: agentive transitive - associative and less common: agentive transitive - directed

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

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

theme: ming tsam;  qualifier - what the connection is with: associative particle དང་ or la don

category: ming tsam intransitive associative

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.

category: agentive transitive associative (If there is a stated agent then it is marked with the agentive particle.)

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...

category: agentive transitive directed

ཉེས་ཅན་ཁྲིམས་ལ་སྦྱོར་བ་

wrong doers law     connect

criminals are brought to the law

Note: These verbs can also be used without a qualifier. E.g., སྦྱོར་བ་ in the next example comes without a qualifier. In this example "the palms are (simply) joined (together)" but are not "joined with something".

ཐལ་མོ་སྦྱར་ནས་གུས་འདུད་ཞུ།

palm    joined  respectfully bow  request

joining the palms [one] requests respectfully

Disjunctive Verbs

category: ming tsam intransitive - associative and ming tsam intransitive - originative

འབྲལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to be free from, to be separated བྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

འགལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ to contradict, to go against འགལ་བ།  འགལ་བ།  འགལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

theme: ming tsam;  qualifier - that what is disconnected from: associative particle དང་ or originative ལས་

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).

Verbs of "Agreement"

category: ming tsam intransitive - associative and ming tsam intransitive - directed

མཐུན་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ conform to, to be in accordance with, be in harmony མཐུན་པ།  མཐུན་པ།  མཐུན་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

འཚམ་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in accord with, suitable འཚམས་པ།  འཚམ་པ།  འཚམ་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

theme: ming tsam;  qualifier - that what is in accord with: associative particle དང་ or la don

ming tsam intransitive - associative

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].

ming tsam intransitive - directed

ཐེག་པ་གཞེན་ལ་མི་འཚམས་པ་

vehicles other     not  accord

not in accord with other vehicles

A "simple agreement" without something to be in agreement with and us such without a particle marking what is in agreement.

ཁ་གཏིང་གཉིས་མཐུན་

words and thoughts two accord

with words and thoughts in accord (united)

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, ...

Example with the la don ར་ marking a whole clause.

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.

Verbs of Comparison

The Verbs of Comparison are in a separate category of their own because they display two types of grammar (in regard to a theme in ming tsam), that of "Agentive Directed Verbs" and that of agentive transitive associative verbs, the "Verbs of Interrelation"

category: agentive transitive associative and agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed

འགྲན་པ། v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ to match, to rival to compete with to challenge འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན། past pres. fut. imp.

སྡུར་བ། v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ to compare against to check and verify བསྡུར་བ།  སྡུར་བ།  བསྡུར་བ།  སྡུར། past pres. fut. imp.

སྒྲུན་པ། v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ to match against to compare to things old for འགྲན་པ་ བསྒྲུན་པ།  སྒྲུན་པ།  བསྒྲུན་པ།  སྒྲུན། past pres. fut. imp.

category: agentive transitive associative

agent: agentive particle;  theme - that which is compared: ming tsam;  qualifier - what it is compared with: associative particle དང་

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

Taranatha       Indian book   verified

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

The next example is without qualifier, since only one argument is needed in this expression. Because the verb has a theme in ming tsam it belongs to this grammar category (even with its meaning being rather that of "competing" like in the examples below with agentive directed grammar).

རིག་པ་འགྲན་པ་

intelligence match

to match wits

category: agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed

agent: agentive particle;  direction - what is compared against, rivaled: la don

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 challenges 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 Evaluation and Assertion

Note: The "verbs of evaluation and assertion" are separated into the two categories of the "verbs of assertion" and "verbs of evaluation". This is done because of their difference in grammar and is merely a naming convention since verbs of both categories can evaluate and / or assert. The naming was done in regard to the fact that on one side verbs like རིགས་པ་ "to be logically" and ཐལ་བ་ "to follow logically" are often used to make (philosophical) claims and assertions, whereas on the other side verbs like འགྲིག་པ་ "to be fitting" and ཆོག་པ་ "to be sufficient" rather evaluate a situation.

Note: Some of the coming verbs change their meaning with syntax.

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