Note. The spoken language uses, in WT almost exclusively, a termination pronounced c̀as in Turig and Balti, c̀es, c̀e in Ladak, c̀e in Lahoul etc., j̀a in Kunawar, s̀e in Tsaṅ etc., the etymology of which is doubtful, as it is not to be found in any printed book. Lamas in Ladak and Lahoul spell it ཅེས་.
33. The Participle. 1. This is in the written language entirely like the Infinitive ཡིན་ ‘being’, གཏོང་ ‘giving’, བཏང་ ‘having given’.—2. Whether the meaning is active or passive, however, can only be inferred from the context, e.g. བཏང་ is of course ‘the money given’, but དངུལ་ ‘the man having given, or, that has given, the money’; the Tibetan participle means nothing but that the action or condition is connected in some way with a person or thing. But it is natural that in the present participle the active idea should be the more frequent one, as well as in the preterit the passive.—3. In the instance of Intensive verbs (formed with བྱེད་ [38.1]) the usage of scientific authors has strictly connected the active sense with those formed with བྱེད་, as གཏོང་ toṅ-j̀ed, toṅ-j̀ʽĕʼ, instead of གཏོང་, ‘doing give, giving, [[44]]giver’, and the passive to those with བྱ་, as གཏོང་ toṅ j̀a, toṅ j̀ʽa i.o. གཏོང་ ‘to be given’ (dandus), བྱ་ ‘to teach the things to be done and not to be done’ (Thgy.).—4. In certain cases, especially with verbs that mean: to say, ask etc., the Participle is used before the words of the speech, where we should use the Imperfect: རྒྱལ་ ‘the king said.…’
Note. In the spoken language, of WT at least, the Participle is formed by མཁན་, in the active sense as well as the passive (whereas in books this syllable occurs only in the meaning of the performer of an action, s. [12. 1].): དངུལ་ ṅul taṅ kʽan-ni mi (s. [15, Note]) ‘the man giving the money’, བཏང་ ‘the money given’. འདས་ ‘the lama who brought a coat for sale the other day’. བུ་ ‘the girl who had shewn the door to his reverence’ (Mil.). The future participle is represented, just as in English, by the Infinitive ([32, Note]), so that ‘the sheep to be killed’, (in books གསོད་ or གསོད་) is expressed, in the most Western provinces, by: sád c̀as-si lug, Lad.: sád-c̀es-si lug, Lah. etc.: sád c̀eï lug, Tsaṅ: söʼ-s̀ē-kyi lug གསོད་, and, most like the classical language, in Kun.: sód j̀ā̤ lug. [[45]]
34. The finite verb. 1. The principal verb of a sentence, which always closes it ([48].) receives in written Tibetan in most cases a certain mark, by which the end of a period may be known. This is, in affirmative sentences, the vowel o (called by the grammarians: སླར་), in interrogative ones the syllable am. Before both the closing consonant of the verb is repeated, or, if it ends with a vowel, འོ་ and འམ་ are written. The Perfect of the verbs ending in ན་ ར་ ལ་, which formerly had a ད་ as second final—ད་—, assume ཏོ་ and ཏམ་.—2. These additional syllables are omitted a) in imperative sentences, b) in the latter member of a double question, c) when the question is expressed already by an interrogative pronoun or adverb, d) in coordinate members of a period, with the exception of the last one, e) commonly, when the principal verb is the verb substantive ཡིན་, ཡོད་ etc. ([40. 1].).
Examples. a) སོང་ ‘go!’, འདི་ ‘come here!’.—b) མཐོང་ ‘do you see or not?’—c) དེ་ ‘who is there?’, ནམ་ ‘when did (he, you etc.) arrive?’.—d) ཁང་ ‘the houses were destroyed, the men killed, the whole town annihilated’.—e) གཙང་ ‘in the sand of the river is gold’.
Note. In conversation the o is generally omitted, and [[46]]the m of the interrogative termination dropped, so that merely the vowel a is heard, e.g. the question མཐོང་ ‘do (you) see’ and the answer མཐོང་ ‘(I) see’, are commonly spoken in WT: tʽoṅ-ṅa? tʽoṅ.
35. Present Tenses. 1. Simple Present Tense. This is the simple root of the verb, which will always be found in the dictionary; in WT, as mentioned above, of verbs with more than one root, only the Perfect root is in use; if, therefore, stress is laid on the Present signification, recourse must be had to one of the following compositions (s. [31]. and [Note]). Thus, མཐོང་ ‘(I, thou, he etc.) see, seest etc.’, གཏོང་ ‘(I etc.) give’ through all persons; in the end of a sentence: མཐོང་.
2. Compound Present Tenses. a) འདུག་ (s. [40, 1]) is added to the root: མཐོང་ ‘(I) see’, བཏང་ ‘(I) give’. This is common in the dialect of WT especially.—b) The Participle connected with ཡིན་, མཐོང་ ‘I see’. In WT this, of course, is changed to མཐོང་.—c) One of the Gerunds ([41, A]) with ཡོད་ or འདུག་, as མཐོང་ (or ནས་ or གི་ or ཞིང་), འདུག་ or ཡོད་ ‘(I) see, am seeing’; it must, however, be remarked that both ways of expression, b) and c), are not very frequent.—d) གིན་ or འདུག་ is the proper form for the compound [[47]]English present: མཐོང་ ‘(I) am seeing’, འབྲི་ ‘(I) am writing (just now)’.
36. Preterit Tenses. 1. Simple Preterit, Perfect or Aorist Tense; this is the Perfect root: བཏང་, at the close of the sentence བཏང་ ‘gave, have given, was given’; in one-rooted verbs it has, of course, the same form as the present: མཐོང་(ངོ་) ‘saw, have, or was, seen’. This is the usual narrative tense like the Greek Aorist or French Parfait défini.—2. Compound Preterit Tenses.—a) The root with སོང་, བཏང་ ‘have given, gave, was given’, མཐོང་ ‘have seen, saw, was seen’; rarely met with in books, but in general use in the conversation of WT. In CT བྱུང་ j̀ʽuṅ is used in a similar way: ཁྱིས་ ‘the dog has bitten’.—b) The root with ཟིན་ (more in books), or ཚར་ (more in common language), the true Perfect as the tense of accomplished action: བཏང་, བཏང་ ‘have given etc.’, ‘the action of giving is past’, མི་ ‘the man has already left’.—c) The Participle connected with ཡིན་ occurs more frequently in the past sense than otherwise. Here, in the common talk of WT, པ་ is used, even in those cases where the books have བ་, ཡི་ yí-ge kál-pa yin, or, contracted, kál-pen, ‘the letter has been sent off’, in books: བཀལ་ (s. [11, Note]), even གླ་ [[48]]la táṅs-pa yin, táṅs-pen, ‘the wages have been paid’ i.o. བཏང་.—d) Gerunds in ཏེ་ (WT) or ནས་ (CT) with ཡོད་ or འདུག་ (the same as [35. 2. c]); also (in Ü Tsaṅ and later books) the mere Perfect root with ཡོད་, the ཏེ་ or ནས་ being dropped: སོང་ ‘has gone’.
37. Future Tenses. 1. Simple Future. The Future-root, གཏོང་(ངོ་) ‘shall, will give, be given’.—2. Compound Future. a) The auxiliary verb འགྱུར་ (to grow, become) added to the Terminative case of the Infinitive: གཏོང་ ‘shall, will give, be given’, མཐོང་ ‘shall, will see, be seen’. This is the most common, and, together with the Simple Future and the Intensive ([39].), ༌༌༌བར་, the only one in use with the early classical authors in all cases where a special Future-root is wanted, and even where this exists. It disappears, however, gradually from the literature of the later period, and is replaced by the two following compositions.—b) རྒྱུ་ connected with the root: མཐོང་ ‘shall, will see’, གཏོང་ ‘shall, will give’ etc. (རྒྱུ་ is originally a substantive, meaning material, cause, occasion).—c) the root with འོང་ or ཡོང་, སླེབ་ ‘will arrive’, or, i.o. the root, the Term. Inf., སླེབ་.—Both b) and c) are even now in common [[49]]use in CT, whereas in WT:—d) ཡིན་ connected with the root is the general form: མཐོང་ tʽoṅ yin, vulg.: tʽóṅin ‘shall, will see’, བཏང་ táṅin, ‘shall, will give’, བཀལ་ kállin ‘will send’, ཚ་ c̀ʽa yin, c̀ʽa’in, c̀ʽän ‘will go’.—e) In books the Participle with ཡིན་ ([35. 2. b], [36. 2 c]) occurs sometimes also as Future.