Nominalising Particles

This includes the following particles:

• Same as the Possession Particles: པ། པོ། བ། བོ། མ། མོ། ཅན། མཁན། ལྡན།
• Plus: བཅས། བྱ། བྱེད། ཚུལ། སྟངས།

Difference with Possession Particles:

• The possession particles indicate a person as the possessor (sometimes metaphorically) of a noun, adjective or verb
• The nominalising particles indicate other usages that do not fall under the definition of the possession particles, i.e. not indicating persons. They are either a root part of many words (i.e. not something that is affixed) or are used to nominalise verbs, refer to specific parts of speech, create adjectives, and so forth

In terms of verbs, these in different contexts form the infinitive, gerund, participles, or verbal nouns.
Since the collective function of adding the nominalising particles is to put the verb into the First Case, the result is referred to as nominalised verbs.

For example:

• Infinitive: “Going to cut wood” ཤིང་གཅོད་པ་ལ་འགྲོ།
• Gerund: “Listening is the lamp that clears the darkness of ignorance” ཐོས་པ་གཏི་མུག་མུན་སེལ་སྒྲོན་མེ་ཡིན།
• Participle: “The wisdom realising emptiness” སྟོང་ཉིད་རྟོགས་པའི་ཤེས་རབ།
• Verbal noun: “They do not transfer their realisations to others” ཉིད་ཀྱི་རྟོགས་པ་གཞན་ལ་སྤོ་མིན་པས།

In terms of adjectives, most (but not all) have the པོ་སྒྲ། as part of the root word, for example:

• དམར་པོ། དཀར་པོ། ཆེན་པོ། རིང་པོ། གསལ་པོ།
• ཟབ་པ། གསར་པ། རྙིང་པ། གཙང་མ། དམའ་བོ།

In particular, these forms can also be replaced by the མ་སྒྲ། and མོ་སྒྲ། to form adjectives that are symbolically or poetically feminine. For example:

• “Profound” → “Profound [poetic]” ཟབ་པ། → ཟབ་མོ།
• “Great / Big” → “Great / Big [poetic]” ཆེན་པོ། → ཆེན་མོ། (e.g. ལམ་རིམ་ཆེན་མོ།)
• “Old” → “The Ancient School [i.e. Nyingma]” རྙིང་པ། → རྙིང་མ།

In terms of nouns, these nominalising particles are seen as a built in part of the word rather than something that is affixed to them. For example:

• ཁང་པ། རྩ་བ། ལག་པ། བྱམས་པ། དངོས་པོ། གཙང་པོ།

This can become confusing, since some of these can also refer to people, for example:

• རྒྱལ་པོ། རྒྱལ་མོ། དཔའ་བོ། སྟག་མོ།
• These are not considered to have a possession particle (བདག་སྒྲ།) but to just be part of the word itself.

See also: Possession Particles
Up a level: Fourteen grammar particles