Adjectives
Adjectives either add some quality or quantity to a noun. The adjective usually follows the noun, and it will take on a case connector if there is one. For example, in Tibetan the phrase "The rich man's house" would be "man rich-of house". In this example the genitive case connector is attached to the adjective "rich" and not to the noun "man".
The last letter of an adjective is very often the letter པོ་ Other common ending letters are པ་མ་and མོ་
| Examples of Common Tibetan Adjectives | ||
| Tibetan | Pronunciation | Translation |
| སྙིང་རྗེ་པོ་་ | nying-je-po | Beautiful |
| མདོག་ཉེས་ | dog-nyë | Ugly |
| བཟང་པོ་ | zang-po | Fine, Excellent |
| ཚ་པོི་ | tsha-po | Hot |
| གྲང་མོ་ | drang-mo | Cold |
| སྐྱིད་པོི་í | kyî-po | Happy |
| སྐྱོ་པོ་ | kyo-po | Sad |
| མངར་མོ་ | ngar-mo | Sweet (the taste) |
| མང་པོ་ | mang-po | Many |
| ཉུང་ཉུང་ | nyung-nyung | Few |
| སྐམ་པོ་ | kam-po | Skinny |
| རྒྱགས་པ་ | gyag-pa | Fat |
| སེར་པོ་ | ser-po | Yellow |
| དམར་པོ་ | mar-po | Red |
| ལྗང་ཁུ་ | jang-khu | Green |
| སྔོན་པོ་ | ngön-po | Blue |
| མག་པོ་ | nag-po | Black |
| དཀར་པོ་ | kar-po | White |
| རྒྱ་སྨུག་ | gya-mug | Brown |
| ཟིང་སྐྱ་ | zing-kya | Pink |
Adjective Comparison
Adjective comparison in Tibetan works in a way that is similar to English. The adjectives above are in the Positive Degree. They describe a quality or quantity without any comparison.
The Comparative Degree is most commonly formed by adding either "wa" or "pa" to the root of the Positive Degree. In spoken Tibetan these sometimes change to "nga", "ra" or "ga". When this occurs the added sound always mirrors the suffix of the root. This means that if "nga" is added to form the Comparative Degree, the suffix of the root will have been "nga" as well. The same goes for "ra" and "ga".
The Superlative Degree is formed by adding "shö" to the root of the Positive Degree. This applies to both written and spoken Tibetan.
| Adjective Comparison Endings | |||
| Degree | Ending | Pronounced | Comment |
| Comparative | བ་ | wa | Written and spoken |
| པ་ | pa | Written only | |
| ག་ | ga | Spoken only | |
| ང་ | nga | Spoken only | |
| ར་ | ra | Spoken only | |
| Superlative | ཤོས་í | shö | Written and spoken |
| Examples of Adjective Comparison | |||
Positive |
Comparative |
Superlative |
|
Written\Spoken |
Written |
Spoken |
Written\Spoken |
| རྙིང་པ་ | རྙིང་བ་ | རྙིང་ང་ | རྙིང་ཤོས་ |
| nying-pa* (Old) | nying-wa (Older) | nying-nga (Older) | nying-shö (Oldest) |
| གསར་པ་ | གསར་བ་ | གསར་ར་ | གསར་ཤོས་ |
| sar-pa (New) | sar-wa (Newer) | sar-ra (Newer) | sar-shö (Newest) |
| ཤུག་ཆེན་པོ་ | ཤུག་ཆེན་བ་ | ཤུག་ཆེན་བ་ | ཤུག་ཆེན་ཤོས་ |
| shug-chen-po (Strong) | shug-chen-wa (Stronger) | shug-chen-wa (Stronger) | shug-chen-shö (Strongest) |
| ཆེན་པོ་ | ཆེ་བ་ | ཆེ་བ་ | ཆེ་ཤོས་ |
| chen-po (Big) | che-wa (Bigger) | che-wa (Bigger) | che-shö (Biggest) |
| ཆུང་ཆུང་ | ཆུང་བ་ | ཆུང་ང་ | ཆུང་ཤོས་í |
| chung-chung (Small) | chung-wa (Smaller) | chung-nga (Smaller) | chung-shö (Smallest) |
| རིང་པོ་ | རིང་བ་ | རིང་ང་ | རིང་ཤོས་ |
| ring-po (Tall) | ring-wa (Taller) | ring-nga (Taller) | ring-shö (Tallest) |
| སྡུག་པོ་ | སྡུག་པ་ | སྡུག་ག | སྡུག་ཤོས་ |
| dug po (Bad) | dug-pa (Worse) | dug-ga (Worse) | dug-shö (Worst) |
| ཡག་པོ་ | ཡག་བ་ | ཡག་ག་ | ཡག་ཤོས་ |
| yag-po (Good) | yag-wa (Better) | yag-ga (Better) | yag-shö (Best) |
| * This word is used for things, not people | |||