For another presentation of verbs and verb forms, see Paul Hackett's A Tibetan Verb Lexicon pp. 4-25.
There are three fundamental verb forms:
Basic verbs end sentences, with the possible addition of a second, modifying verb (such as རྟོགས་དགོས་). Infinitives do not end sentences.
Tibetan infinitives sometimes may but often do not translate into the direct English equivalent, such as to remember or to meditate. For example, བསྒོམ་པར་བྱ – from the basic verb བསྒོམ་, the future tense of སྒོམ་ (to meditate) – means should meditate or will meditate. It does not mean will perform to meditate.
This is the reason that generally when translating Tibetan verbs into English, it is not translated into the infinitive (as one might have found when studying some other languages). བྱེད་ is do, not to do.
In English, there are three non-finite1 verb constructions: the infinitive (to finish), the present participle (finishing), and the past participle (finished). In Tibetan, although they are similar in that they are not complete verbs, neither participles (called verbals by Wilson) nor infinitives function in the same way they do in English. In some instances, they can be translated as to …, but more often they are used in constructions that have different syntax.
The basic verb is the verb with no added syntactic particle. They are mostly single-syllable, or core verbs, such as བྱེད་ (do, make, perform) or དྲན་ (remember, be mindful of). There are, however, multisyllable and phrasal verbs.
Basic Verbs:
Multisyllable (non-phrasal) are often literal translations of Sanskrit words. For example, མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་ (realize), translates the Sanskrit verb abhisami. It is not a phrasal verb but a multisyllable verb because instead of being a brief phrase it is a collection of syllables. མངོན་པར་ is the standard Tibetan translation of abhi. རྟོགས་ is the translation of i, the root. The sam prefix is not translated.
Phrasal verbs are multisyllable verbs formed from brief phrases. They have been used together for so long that they have become a lexical unit and their meaning may or may not be obvious from a literal translation of the phrase.
Take ཁས་ལེན་ for example:
It literally means “grasped by the mouth.” However, it is not a phrase but a word. Translated properly it means assert.
Some common phrasal verbs include:
When multisyllable verbs change forms to show tenses, only the last syllable changes. Not all multisyllable verbs change to show different tenses, however. རག་ལས་ is a single-form verb that does not change to indicate present, past, future, etc…
All multisyllable verbs are negated in the same way. The final syllable is negated using either མ་ or མི་.
རག་མ་ལས་ does not depend [on]
ཁས་མི་ལེན་ does not assert
ཡིད་ལ་མི་བྱེ་ does not pay attention [to]
CORE VERB + སུ་, ར་, རུ་, དུ་, ཏུ་
Causative verb phrase: used in constructions that express activity caused by an outside force.
དྲན་དུ་བཅུག་
made to remember
Entreaty constructions: requesting someone to do something
དགོངས་སུ་གསོལ་
please consider
When used in simple infinitives, the la-particles are syntactic particles, not case-marking particles.
Requires the core verb (such as དྲན་) to be made into a verbal (དྲན་པ་) and then into an infinitive (དྲན་པར་). Used frequently in verb phrases. Sometimes carries a meaning similar to the English infinitive (to remember), but more often, the verbal infinitive is translated in the present tense (དྲན་པར་བྱ་ – will remember or should remember).
The infinitive-making particle ར་ is a verb modifying syntactic particle, not a case marking particle.
There are five basic contexts in which a verb may occur.
A simple or core form of the verb, such as རྟོགས་ or བསྒོམ་.
Buddha taught the doctrine.
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན།
Core verbs can have up to four forms:
A core verb as a member of a compound verb construction, such as རྟོགས་དགོས་ (must realize)
[One] must accomplish the causes of happiness.
བེད་བའི་རྒྱུ་བསྒྲུབ་དགོས།
A core verb followed by a continuative syntactic particle, such as རྟོགས་ནས་
a latency is deposited and, having become powerful…
བག་ཆགས་བཞག་ནས། མཐུ་ཅན་དུ་གྱུར་ནས།
A core verb followed by a sentence-terminating syntactic particle, such as terminators or imperative particles.
Make effort!
བརྩོན་འགྲུས་རྩོམས་ཤིག
In some compound forms, as with ནུས་, the verb must be made into its verbal infinitive form before being connected to the second verb. The verbal infinitive form is made by turning the verb into a verbal and adding ར་, in essence adding པར་ to the end of the verb.
able to have achieved
བསྒྲུབས་པར་ནུས།
difficult to obtain
རྙེད་པར་དཀའ།
[A Buddha] is able to display many bodies at once.
སྐྱའི་བཀོད་པ་དུ་མ་ཅིག་ཅར་ཉིད་དུ་སྟོན་པར་ནུས།
The verb that determines the syntax of the phrase is the first verb. Not the ནུས་ or དཀའ་. “When two verbs go walking, the first does the talking.”
Auxiliary constructions are a sub-type of verbal infinitive compounds. However, they are a very important and commonly used type and are getting their own section here to reflect this. For more info, see Hackett pp. 19-26, Wilson pp.617-621. Hackett's coverage of auxiliaries is more complete and up-to-date than Wilson's.
The following section is Wilson's overview of auxiliary verbs starting on page 617. For a far more complete treatment of auxiliaries, see /Wilson-Resources/Verb-Classification/06-Auxiliary-Verbs (taken from Hackett).
Tibetan has a number of auxiliary verbs that are used following other verbs:
The following are compound verb constructions, not auxiliaries
The auxiliary verbs བྱ་, བྱེད་, འགྱུར་, and གྱུར་ follow the verbal infinitive form.
Strong present auxiliary:
seeking merely the bliss of this lifetime...
ཚེ་འདིའི་བདེ་བ་ཙམ་དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བར་བྱེད་པ་
Therefore, a profound doctrine such as this has been taught by the gurus and disciples listen.
དེས་ན་འདི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཟབ་མོ་བླ་མས་བསྟན། སློབ་མས་ཉན་པར་བྱེད།
Strong future auxiliary:
I will train with effort in all positive [attitudes].
དགེ་བ་ཀུན་ལ་བདག་གིས་བརྩོན་པས་བསླབ་པར་བྱ།
The more elegant form of བྱེད་ – བགྱི་ (past བགྱིས་, present བགྱིད་, future བགྱི་) – and the honorific མཛད་ may also be used as strong auxiliary verbs.
I will confess negative [attitudes] and refrain from [them] from [my] heart.
མི་དགེ་བ་སྙིང་ནས་བཤགས་ཤིང་སྡོམ་པར་བགྱི།
[He] illuminated like the day the teachings of the Conqueror.
རྒྱལ་བའི་བསྟན་པ་ཉིན་མོ་ལྟར་གསལ་བར་མཛད་དེ།
བྱ་, བྱེད, and even the past form བྱས་, when used with nominative verbs introduce an almost causative sense.
Strong past auxiliary:
Although one has familiarized…
གོམས་པར་བྱས་ཀྱང་
The meaning above is that familiarity has been made to happen.
བྱེད་ can also be used to show a sequence and to bring an agentive sense. In the phrase ཐར་པར་བྱས་ཏེ་, བྱེད་ shows sequence and gives ཐར་ an agentive feel. First I will liberate and then I will…
I [will] liberate this sentient being from suffering [and], having done that, I alone will bear this suffering hell.
སེམས་ཅན་འདི་ སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལས་ ཐར་བར་བྱས་ཏེ་ དམྱལ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་འདི་ ང་གཅིག་པུས་ བཟོད་པར་བྱའོ།
An alternative interpretation of constructions such as ཐར་བར་བྱས་ and གོམས་པར་བྱས་ is that བྱས་ is not an actual auxiliary, but the main verb of the clause or sentence.
No matter how many pleasures of cyclic existence [one] has enjoyed, [they] bring about an increase in craving.
འཁོར་བའི་བདེ་བ་ལ་ཇི་ཙམ་སྤྱད་ཀྱང་སྲེད་པ་རྒྱས་པར་བྱས་ཏེ།
Forms of past and future that are less forceful are made using the nominative verb འགྱུར་ as an auxiliary. The future form is more common than the past. The past tense, གྱུར་, is most frequently used in the first part of a conditional if...then… sequence, meaning were. The then clause may end in གྱུར་, although it frequently ends in a simple core verb.
If...then construction:
If sound were permanent, [it] would be causeless.
སྒྲ་རྟག་པ་ཡིན་པར་གྱུར་ན། རྒྱུ་མེད་ཡིན་པར་འགྱུར།
Weak past auxiliary:
Having come to realize that the depths of this doctrine are difficult to understand…
ཆོས་འདིའི་གཏིང་རྟོགས་དཀའ་བར་མཁྱེན་གྱུར་ནས།
Weak future auxiliary:
[One] will achieve the status of a Vajradhara in this very lifetime.
རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་གི་གོ་འཕང་ཚེ་འདི་ཉིད་ལ་ཐོབ་པར་འགྱུར།
ཤོག་ creates an optative construction that indicates hope.
May [I] liberate all beings!
འགྲོ་ཀུན་སྒྲོལ་བར་ཤོག།
ཟིན་ follows the past form of a core verb to show an action completed in the past.
Even though [one] has achieved the causes of obtaining leisure and opportunity…
དལ་འབྱོར་ཐོབ་པའི་རྒྱུ་བསྒྲབས་ཟིན་ཡང།
(1) Non-finite means that these constructions do not specify verb tense: past, present, or future.