Nouns
The Tibetan Noun can consist of one or more syllables, although more than four syllables is not common. A monosyllabic noun
can consist of as little as one letter, while a multi-syllable noun might consist of a number of letters.
| Examples of Nouns |
| Noun |
Pronunciation |
Meaning |
| ཇ་ |
ja |
Tea |
| ར་ |
ra |
Goat |
| ལ་ |
la |
Mountain pass |
| ཁེ་ |
khe |
Profit |
| ཐོ་ |
tho |
Notes (for remembering) |
| སོ་ |
so |
Tooth |
| སྐུ་ |
ku |
Body (Honorific) |
| ཁབ་ |
Khap |
Needle |
| གངས་ |
gang |
Snow |
| རྒྱན་ |
gyën |
Ornament |
| སྐར་ཆ་ |
kar-chhe |
Second |
| ཁ་ཁེབ་ |
kha-khep |
Cover (on top of something) |
| དྲི་བ་ |
dri-wa |
Question |
| ནང་མི་ |
nang-mi |
Family |
| ཞི་བདེ་ |
zhi-de |
Peace |
| ཡིག་ཚད་ |
yig-tshë |
Test, examination |
| མི་རྟག་པ་ |
mi-tag-ba |
Impermanence |
| སྐྲ་ཤད་འཛག་པ་ |
dra-shë-dzag-ba |
Strands of fallen hair |
| གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ |
gang-rîn-bo-chhe |
"The precious snowy one", a term used for Mt. Kailash |
| སེམས་ཐག་ཆོད་པོ་ |
sem-thag-chhö-bo |
Determined |
| སྤྱི་ཚོགས་རིག་པ་ |
chi-tshog-ki-rig-ba |
Sociology |
| མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ |
nya-ngën-lë-dë-ba |
Nirvana |
Agent Nouns
Agent nouns are most commonly formed by adding མཁན་
("doer", the one who performs a particular function) to a verb.
Another common form of the agent noun is when བཟོ་བ་(maker, constructor) is added to another noun to form a term for
profession.
| Examples of Agent Nouns |
| Noun |
Pronunciation |
Meaning |
| རྐོས་མཁན་ |
kö-khën |
Carver (wood, stone, etc) |
| སྐར་རྩིས་མཁན་ |
kar-tsî-khën |
Astrologer |
| གར་མཁན་ |
gar-khën |
Dancer, actor, performer, etc |
| སྒྱུ་མ་མཁན་ |
kyu-ma-khën |
Magician |
| རྩོམ་མཁན་ |
tsom-khën |
Author |
| ཞུ་དག་མཁན་ |
zhu-dag-khën |
Editor, proof-reader |
| ལམ་རྒྱུས་བྱེད་མཁན་ |
lam-gyu-je-khën |
Guide |
| ཟངས་བཟོ་བ་ |
zang-zo-wa |
Coppersmith |
| ཤིང་བཟོ་བ་ |
shing-zo-wa |
Carpenter |
| གློག་བཟོ་བ་ |
log-zo-wa |
Electrician |
Terms for professions and other nouns that link people with actions or places, are frequently constructed by
adding
པ or
བ to the action or the place.
| Examples |
| Noun |
Pronunciation |
Meaning |
| རྟ་པ་ |
ta-ba |
Horseman, rider |
| འབྲོག་པ་ |
drog-ba |
Nomad |
| མཁས་པ་ |
khë-ba |
Expert |
| རྔོན་པ་ |
ngö-ba |
Hunter |
| ལུག་པ་ |
lug-ba |
Sheperd |
| རྒྱ་གར་བ་ |
gya-gar-wa |
Indian (person from India) |
| སྐུ་སྲུང་བ་ |
ku-sung-wa |
Security Guard |
| སྐྱབས་བཅོལ་བ་ |
kyab-chöl-wa |
Refugee |
| གནས་སྐོར་བ་ |
në-kor-wa |
Pilgrim |
| ལམ་སྟོན་པ་ |
lam-ton-pa |
Counselor, mentor |