38. Imperative mood. 1. This is usually the shortest possible form of the verb, which often loses its prefixed letters, though in some instances a final ས་ is added. In many verbs with the vowel a, and in some with e these vowels are changed into o, besides other alterations of the consonants. Particularly often the surds or sonants of the other tense-roots are changed to their aspirates in the Imperative. Thus, ཐོང་ ‘give!’, from གཏོང་; ལྟོས་ Ld: ltos, CT: tō̤ ‘look!’, from ལྟ་; ཐོབ་ ‘throw!’, from འདེབས་. In one-rooted verbs it is, of course, like the Present, but it can always be sufficiently distinguished by adding the particle ཅིག་ (ཤིག་ or ཞིག་, according to [13].). This is used in the classical literature indiscriminately in addressing the highest and the lowest persons (or, in other words, as well to command, as to pray), but according to the modern custom of CT only when addressing servants and inferior people.—2. In forbidding, the Present-root is used with the negative particle མ་, མ་ ‘do not give!’, མ་ ‘do [[50]]not look!’, མ་ ‘do not throw!’—3. In praying or wishing (Precative or Optative) either the same forms as under 1. are used, or the Imperatives of འགྱུར་ ‘to come’ or འོང་ ‘to come’ (the latter, ཤོག་, of a quite different root) are connected with the Termin. Infin. མཐོང་ or ཤོག་ ‘may (I, you, he etc.) see!’—4. In none of the three a person is indicated, but it is natural that in commanding and forbidding the subject will be the second, sometimes the third person; in the precative also the first person can be understood.
Note. The common language of WT, acknowledging only the Perfect-root, changes nothing but the vowel: བཏོང་ ‘give!’ from བཏང་; ལྟོས་ ‘look!’ from ལྟ་; བཏོབ་ ‘throw!’ from བཏབ་ (Perf. of འདེབས་). Instead of ཅིག་, which is not much used, བཏོང་ (‘give!’) is often added to the roots of other verbs (s. [39]), thus, བཏོན་ ton toṅ ‘take out!’ from བཏོན་ (འདོན་). Or the Imperative is paraphrased by དགོས་ gos (Ld.), gō̤, goi ‘must’, added to the root of the verb: བསད་ ‘must be killed’.—In CT the changing of the vowel seems to be usually omitted, but the ཅིག་ is more used. Here, also, the Perfect root is not so exclusively preferred.
39. Intensive verbs. 1. Very frequent in books is the [[51]]connection of the four-rooted verb བྱེད་ (Pf. བྱས་, Fut. བྱ་, Imp. བྱོས་) ‘to do’, elegantly བགྱིད་ (Pf. བགྱིས་, Fut. བགྱི་, Imp. གྱིས་), respectfully མཛད་ (Imp. མཛོད་) with the Term. Inf. of another verb, to intensify the action of the latter. By this means not only one-rooted verbs can be made to participate in the advantages of the four-rooted, as མཐོང་ ‘see’, མཐོང་ ‘saw’, མཐོང་ ‘shall, will see’, མཐོང་ ‘see!’, but also several other periphrastical phrases are gained for speaking more precisely than otherwise would be possible. The Future tense བྱ(འོ)༌ serves, besides its proper notion of futurity, particularly to express the English auxiliaries ‘must, ought etc.’: thus, བརྗོད་ ‘must not be uttered, ought not to be uttered’, sometimes it may be translated by the Imperative mood. The spoken language, at least of WT, is devoid of this convenience, and possesses nothing of the kind except the above mentioned intensive form of the Imperative, formed by བཏོང་ (s. [38., Note]).—2. Another class of intensive verbs are formed by connecting two synonyms, as འཇིགས་ ‘to be afraid’, literally ‘to be fear-frightened’, and other similar ones.
40. Substantive and Auxiliary Verbs. 1. To be a) ཡིན་, in elegant and respectful speech ལགས་ lag-pa, Ü: lā-pa (the latter word never used in WT) is the mere means [[52]]of connecting the attribute with its subject, as: མི་ ‘this man is a Ladakee’, དེ་ ‘is it you, Sir?’. Therefore the question སུ་ is to be understood ‘who are you’ or ‘who is he’ etc., the personal pronoun being often let to be guessed.—ཡིན་ itself is often omitted in daily life in WT as well as in poetry, e.g. ཨི་ ‘this load (is) very heavy’ WT. Negatively: མ་, མིན་ vulg. མན་, resp. མ་.—b) ཡོད་ yod-pa, yöʼ-pa, eleg. མཆིས་ c̀ʽī-pa, resp. བཞུགས་ z̀ug(s)-pa, Ü: z̀ū-pa, negat.: མེད་, མ་, མི་ means ‘to exist’, or ‘to be present’, ‘to be found at a place’, therefore the question སུ་ is to be understood: ‘Who is here? Who is there?’—ཡོད་ and བཞུགས་ are in general use, མཆིས་ is seldom heard. When connected with the Dative of a substantive it expresses the English ‘to have, to have got’, as: ང་ ‘I have money’; ང་ ‘I have pain’. In this case the respectful term is not གཞུགས་ but མངའ་ ṅa-wa: རྒྱལ་ ‘has not the King an indisposition?’ i.e. ‘is Your Majesty ill?’.—c) འདུག་ dug-pa (eleg. གདའ་ is seldom heard), resp. བཞུགས་, ‘to be present, stay, be found at a place’; negat. [[53]]མི་. Both འདུག་ and ཡོད་ can be used instead of ཡིན་, though not this instead of them.—d) རེད་ rĕʼ-pa = འདུག་, negat. མ་ in Spiti and CT, seldom in books.—e) མོད་ mod-pa, möʼ-pa has a somewhat emphatical sense: ‘to be (something) in a high degree’, ‘to be (somehow) in plenty’. It occurs most frequently in the Gerund with ཀྱི་ ([41].), when it frequently has the sense of ‘though’, but never with a negative.—f) སྣང་ naṅ-wa, originally ‘to appear, to be visible, extant’, negat. མི་. Sometimes in books, and common in certain districts.—g) In books the concluding o ([34].) is, moreover, found to represent the verb ‘to be’ in all its meanings, and is capable of being connected with words of all classes besides verbs, e.g. དང་ ‘is the first’ = དང་. In a similar manner also the ཅིག་ of the Imperative ([38].) implies the verb ‘to be’.—h) The Preterit root for all these verbs is སོང་ soṅ ‘was, has been’, and besides also ‘has gone, become’, which is its original meaning.—For the use of these verbs as auxiliaries s. [35]. sq.
2. འགྱུར་ originally ‘to be changed, turned into something’ then ‘to become, to grow’, auxiliary for the Future tense in the old classical language, as mentioned in [37]. Since this can be considered as the intransitive or passive sense, opposed to བྱེད་ ‘to make, render’, the connection [[54]]of འགྱུར་ with the Term. Inf. of another verb must, in many cases, be rendered by the passive voice in our languages. In WT the verb ཆ་ c̀ʽa-c̀e ‘to go’ is used in the sense of ‘to become, to grow’. The Perfect root for both is སོང་ ‘(went), grew, became, has become, is’ (s. above).—In CT and later books འབྱུང་ is used instead.
3. ‘must’ is expressed by དགོས་ ‘to be necessary’ (s. [38. Note]). In WT this is used in a very wide sense for any possible modification of the notion of necessity: ‘I must, should, want to, ought’ and even ‘I will, wish, beg (for something)’ is nothing but ང་ ‘to me is necessary’ which may be, in the last mentioned case, rendered somewhat more politely by adding ཞུ་ z̀u ‘pray!’ ང་ ‘I want potatoes, pray!’ is as much to say as ‘Will you kindly give me some potatoes’. In books and more refined language several other verbs are used in the same sense, viz. རིགས་ ‘it is right to’ (usually with the Genit. Infin.), རུང་ ‘it is meet, decent’, འདོད་ ‘to wish, desire’, both with the Supine; དགའ་ ‘to like’ with the Dat. Inf. The popular substitute of the last, especially in use in WT, is འཐད་, of similar meaning, added to the root.
41. Gerunds and Supines. We retain these terms, employed by former grammarians, but observe that they do not refer to the form, but to the meaning, as well as that Gerund is not to be understood in the same signification [[55]]as in Latin, but as the Gérondif of some French grammarians, or what Shakespeare calls Past conjunctive participle in Hindi. These forms are of the greatest importance in Tibetan, being the only substitutes for most of those subordinate clauses which we are accustomed to introduce by conjunctions. They are formed by the two monosyllabic affixes ཏེ་ (so after the closing consonants ན་ ར་ ལ་ ས་); དེ་ after དེ་, སྟེ་ after ག་ ང་ བ་ མ་ and vowels and ཅིང་ (ཤིང་ or ཞིང་ according to the same rule as ཅིག་ [13].), both of which are added to the root, or by the terminations mentioned in 15. as composing the declension of nouns, which are added partly to the root, partly to the Infinitive or Participle.
A. Gerunds. All the following forms can be rendered by the English Participle ending in ing, but the more accurate distinctions must be expressed by various conjunctions.
1. ཏེ་ (དེ་ etc.), the most frequent of all these endings. It is added to the Present-root as well as to the Perfect-root: གཏོང་ ‘giving’, བཏོང་ ‘having given’, and stands for all clauses beginning with when, as, since, after etc. Also in the spoken language of WT it is used most frequently.—Examples: ཕྲུ་ ‘the child, having been carried away by the water, died’; རྒྱལ་ ‘the king having died, the prince occupied [[56]]the throne (king’s-place)’; ཆུ་ ‘as there is a great water, we cannot go’.
2. ཅིང་ (ཤིང་ etc.), of a similar sense, chiefly used for smaller clauses within a large one, མི་ ‘when, being displeased, he became angry’, or ‘growing displeased and angry’. Often it denotes two actions going on at the same time, or two states of a thing existing together, and then can only be translated by ‘and’, thus, མཐའ་ ‘without end and boundary’; ཤ་ ‘to eat flesh and drink blood’[1]. It stands also in a causal sense: ‘by doing etc.’, as: ཉ་ ‘(we) live by catching fish’. These two (1. and 2.) can also, like the closing o, as mentioned in [40. 1. g], be added to every class of words, in the sense of being: ཁྱོད་ ‘as you are high(-born), being of a great family’. In conversation, ཅིང་ is scarcely ever heard.