Negation and Existence Particles

The མ། མི། are affixed before the verb or existence particle they are negating. For example:

• མ་ཡིན་པ། མ་ལུས་པ། མ་མཐོང་བ།
• མི་རིགས་པ། མི་འགྱུར་བ། མི་རྟག་པ།

However, there is a construction where the མ་སྒྲ། is affixed in between two nouns and negates both.
For example:

• “To speak in a mixture of languages.” [Lit. “neither goat nor sheep”] ར་མ་ལུག་བཤད་པ།
• “Neither snow nor rain fell.” གངས་མ་ཆར་འབབ་པ།

Although the Existence Particles (སྒྲུབ་སྒྲ།) are not explicitly mentioned in the root grammar texts, some later commentaries add them in through extrapolation.

Together with the latter two Negation Particles, the four indicate the copular, identity, existential, and possessive usages of the verb “is / to be” (and its negation) and are placed after what they affirm or negate, usually at the end of a phrase or sentence.

Classically, these four are not verbs (as in English) due to not fulfilling the definition. However, due to their grammar rules (such as placement at the end of a sentence, utilising Ladons, being nominalised for similar reasons to verbs, etc.) some modern Tibetans agree it is useful to think of them as verbs.

Copular

This uses the ཡིན་སྒྲ། and མིན་སྒྲ།, and usually connects a noun with its adjective (both in the First Case) to form an “A is / is not B” statement. For example:

• “Pot is impermanent.” བུམ་པ་མི་རྟག་པ་ཡིན།
• “This pen is not red.” སྨྱུ་གུ་འདི་དམར་པོ་མིན།

Identity

This uses the ཡིན་སྒྲ། and མིན་སྒྲ།, and connects two parts of speech (both in the First Case) as being identical.
For example:

• “Tashi is the head of the organisation.” བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཚོགས་པའི་དབུ་འཛིན་ཡིན།
• “My teacher is not Dawa.” ངའི་དགེ་རྒན་ཟླ་བ་མིན།

This can also be formed using གྱུར། མ་གྱུར། and the two parts of speech marked in the First and Second Cases.

With identity, the two parts of speech are mutually inclusive, whereas with the copular usage they will have three possibilities. That is:

• Tashi is the head of the organisation and the head of organisation is Tashi, but
• This pen is red but red is not this pen

Existential

This uses the ཡོད་སྒྲ། and མེད་སྒྲ།, and indicates the existence of something (in the the First Case) at a particular location (in the Seventh Case). For example:

• “There are many snow mountains in Tibet.” བོད་ལ་གངས་རི་མང་པོ་ཡོད།
• “There is no time to spare in this life.” ཚེ་འདིར་ནི་བསྡད་ལོང་མེད།

Possessive

This uses the ཡོད་སྒྲ། and མེད་སྒྲ།, and indicates the possession of something (in the the First Case) by someone or something (in the Seventh Case). For example:

• “Drolma has two children.” སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྲུ་གུ་གཉིས་ཡོད།
• “Tashi does not have a pen.” བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལ་སྨྱུ་གུ་མེད།

In a sense, the existential and possessive usages overlap, since “Tibet has many snow mountains” and “This life has no time to spare” would be perfectly fine translations of the above examples, while possession could be conceptualised as existence at a particular location.

Possession can also be indicated using the ཅན་སྒྲ། and ལྡན་སྒྲ། (Possession Particles) as well as the བཅས་སྒྲ། (Nominalising Particle).
Non-possession can also be indicated using the བྲལ་སྒྲ། as well as མི་ལྡན། མ་བཅས། and so forth.

Up a level: Fourteen grammar particles