Connection

This is used to connect two verbs or even whole phrases and sentences (by connecting their verbs). Some divide it along the verbs being ཐ་དད་པ། and ཐ་མི་དད་པ།, but the more useful distinction is in terms of the temporal relationship of the verbs being either:

1. Sequential
2. Simultaneous

When the two verbs are sequential, they can be:

1. Causally related
   e.g. “Having sown seeds in the field, sprouts grew.” ཞིང་ལ་ས་བོན་བཏབ་སྟེ་མྱུ་གུ་སྐྱེས།
2. Only sequentially related
   e.g. “I will do my homework and then go to the market.” Lit. “Having done my homework…”
   ནང་སྦྱོང་བྱས་ཏེ་ཁྲོམ་ལ་འགྲོ།

Both are sequential, but only the two verbs in the first example have a cause and effect relationship. The first verb, i.e. what the Continuative Particle (ལྷག་བཅས།) is affixed to, is always in its past tense form, while the latter can be in any tense.

The simultaneous construction is less common, since it will usually be formed with the Connective Fifth Case (ནས་སྒྲ།) instead.

For example:

• “Studying by reading the textbook.” Lit. “Reading the textbook and studying.” སྦྱོང་དེབ་བལྟས་ཏེ་སློན་སྦྱོང་བྱེད།
• “He was sad and cried.” ཡིད་སྐྱོ་སྟེ་མིག་ཆུ་བཏང་།

Up a level: Continuative Particles