Just to check whether I’ve understood correctly: when making statements, I should use the verb ཡིན་ for the first person and རེད་ for the second/third person, e.g. ཁྱེད་རང་སློབ་ཕྲུག་རེད།
However, when asking a question, I have to use the same verb form that the person will be using to anwer with, e.g. ཁྱེད་རང་ག་ནས་ཡིན། (and not རེད་) is that right?
And is that something that applies to all verbs when making questions?
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Usually. However, ཡིན་ and རེད་ aren’t person specific, they are evidential. (Tibetan is not a grammar with first person / second person verbs, but evidential ones).
From our manual (click link for more):
Verbs in Tibetan follow a system based on ‘evidentiality’. Most second language learners are used to strict grammars where the verbs used are fixed based on the relationship between items within the information itself. In contrast, Tibetan verbs are flexible and depend upon the the relationship between the speaker and the information.
So ཡིན་ is a “near” or “personal” verb, while རེད་ is more “far” or “impersonal”.
More details (link) where we give an example:
ངའི་བུ་ཨེམ་ཆི་ཡིན། / ངའི་བུ་ཨེམ་ཆི་རེད།
Both sentences mean the “same thing”, but one emphasizes the closeness and personal nature of the information to the speaker (“My son is a doctor”, yin), while the other is more matter-of-fact (ray).
Part two of your question is correct. You ask a question from the perspective of the answer you expect to receive (using the same evidential verb).
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Ohhhh thanks for the explanation, it makes more sense now!
And thanks for the link to the manual as well, it’s really helpful.
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