Compound Words

Usually Tibetan words are one, two or more syllable words, such as ས་ sa earth or ལྟ་བ་ lta ba view. There are also compound words where two individual words are connected together forming a new word. Or the པ་/ མ་ pa/ma variation syllables are used to make a new word with the core word expanding in context such as བོད་པ་ bod pa - Tibetan (བོད་ Tibet)  If you have a nice vocabulary of common Tibetan words you could even easily guess what this new compound word means. This is why it's good to focus on frequently appearing short words to build up the vocabulary to notice the compound word patterns in sentences (or spoken Tibetan).

For example, ཁང་ khang - house is a good frequent word good to know. From this you could see it used in ཁང་པ་ - house holder, དངུལ་ཁང་ silver-house or bank, སྨན་ཁང་ medicine-house or hospital, and ཚོང་ཁང་ selling-house or store.

ཕ་ pha - father and མ་ ma mother forms ཕ་མ་ - parents. Then there's the classical example of གནམ་ gnam sky and གྲོ་ gru boat which means གནམ་གྲུ་ airplane.

རྒྱལ་ rgyal is royal/victory so རྒྱལ་པོ་ is king and རྒྱལ་མོ་ is queen. This is an example where the ending པོ or མོ indicate male or female. སྲས་ sras is noble son so རྒྱལ་སྲས་ means prince or also often great bodhisattva (son of a Buddha). རྒྱལ་མཚན་ is victory banner, also a common Tibetan name, Gyaltsen.

སྔགས་ snags is mantra so སྔགས་པ་ is mantra 'doer' or yogi. འདོད་ 'dod is desire and ཆགས་ chags is to be attached so  འདོད་ཆགས་ means attachment.

We also have the pattern of using two opposite words that then describes the quality combining these two words.

ཆེ་ che is big and ཆུང་ chung small so ཆེ་ཆུང་ is size. མང mang is many and ཉིང་ nying is few so མང་ཉིང་ is quantity.  རིང་ ring is long and ཐུང་ thung is short so རིང་ཐུང་ is length. ཕོ་ pho is male and མོ་ mo is female so pho mo is gender.  ཡག་་yag is good and ཉེས་ nyes is bad so yag nyes is quality. There are many others.

Examples

།རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ་བཞུགས་སོ། །

The Thirty-Seven Practices of All the Bodhisattvas (text title)

།འདི་གསུམ་ལྡན་ན་སྔགས་པ་ལགས། 

One who adopts these three is a mantra adept.

འདོད་ཆགས་ཞེ་སྡང་མེད་པར་བརྟེན་བགྱི་སྟེ། །

Not with feelings of attachment or aversion,

མཉམ་པ་ཉིད་ལ་ཆེ་ཆུང་མེད་པ་ལ༔

When equalness is beyond all distinctions of size,

མི་རྟག་འཆི་བ་དྲན་མ་དྲན།     །བློ་སྣ་རིང་ཐུང་ཅི་འདུག་ལྟོས།

To know whether or not you’re aware of impermanence and death, check if your plans are long- or short-term (length).

མི་ནུབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དབང་བསྒྱུར་འཁོར་ལོ་སྟེ། །

The eternal banner of victory and the all-powerful wheel: