4.6 Grammar Rules of the Genitive Case Markers

Jampa Khedup; Sonam Tsering; Rajiv Ranjan; Erlin Barnard

4.6 Grammar Rules of the Genitive Case Markers

ལྷ་སའི་ སྦི་རག
Lhasa Beer

Taken from the perspective of someone sitting at a table: Tibetan beer, chopsticks resting on a cup, a latte-colored drink, and food on a plate — “Tibetan Food & Drink” by mattwan is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

How to use the five genitive or possessive case markers (གི་ ཀྱི་ གྱི་ འི་ ཡི་) and their grammar rules. The genitive or possessive case markers are used accordingly, based on the final letter of the preceding words, such as;

After a no suffix letter word and word ended with a suffix letter འ་, use འི་ or ཡི་
After a word ending with the suffix letter ག་ and ང་, use གི་
After a word ended with suffix letter ད་ བ་ and ས་, use ཀྱི་
After a word ended with suffix letter ན་ མ་ ར་ ལ་, use གྱི་

Suffix Letters

ག་ང་

ད་བ་ས་

ན་མ་ར་ལ་

འ་

Words Without Suffix Letters

Possessive case markers

གི་

ཀྱི་

གྱི་

འི་ / ཡི་

Here are a few examples of how genitive case markers are used

ང་

ངའི་ / ང་ཡི་

I vs My

ཕ་མ་

ཕ་མའི་

Parents vs Parents’

འཇའ་

འཇའི་

Rainbow vs Rainbow’s

གཡག་

གཡག་གི་

Yak vs Yak’s

ཁོང་

ཁོང་གི་

She/he vs her/his

བོད་

བོད་ཀྱི་

Tibet vs Tibet’s

སེམས་

སེམས་ཀྱི་

Mind vs Of the mind

དགེ་རྒན་

དགེ་རྒན་གྱི་

Teacher vs Teacher’s

གནམ་

གནམ་གྱི་

Sky vs Of the sky

ཤར་

ཤར་གྱི་

East vs Of the east

བལ་

བལ་གྱི་

Cotton vs Of the cotton

Noun/Pronoun

Possessive Pronoun

English Meaning

Challenge Yourself

Activity 1: Choose the Possessive Case Markers