Hi! In one of the games that we have played with our teachers, appeared this expression:
འཐུང་ཡ་ཞིག་རེད་།ཚཔོ་རེད།ཚྭཁུ་རེད། which is བོད་ཇ་
My question is what is the function of ཡ་ཞིག in the first sentence (or hint to guess the word). Why I can not just say as a hint : འཐུང་རེད ?
There was other hint for other word where just “ཞིག” appeared and I am not sure about its meaning and how to use it : མི་ཆུང་ཆུང་ཞིག་རེད
Thank you,
Ana
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ཞིག་ is another way to spell གཅིག་ (one, a, an). You will also see it spelt ཅིག་.
The -ཡ་ is an ending (like -ing) that makes a verb into a noun. So འཐུང་ཡ་ = a drink!
We could use འཐུང་ as a verb in the hint, but “འཐུང་རེད།” would mean something like “(It) was drunk”. So for this context, it would be better to say something more like: མི་ཡིས་ འདི་ འཐུང་གི་ ཡོད་རེད།
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Hi Dirk! Thank you! That was very useful.
So, for the last example that you mentioned: མི་ཡིས་ འདི་ འཐུང་གི་ ཡོད་རེད
Here you are saying something like “This person is drinking tea” . Is this interpretation correct ?
In this case you are using ཡིས as a particle to connect མི (person or someone) to the action འཐུང་གི་ ཡོད་རེད ?
Can we say that in this case ཡིས is something like “by”?
If it is the case, why did you use ཡིས and not just ཡི (from the connectors group : ཡི་ or འི/ཀྱི་/གྱི/གི)?
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མི་ཡིས་ འདི་ འཐུང་གི་ ཡོད་རེད། – this would translate roughly as “People (མི་ཡིས་) drink (འཐུང་གི་ཡོད་རེད་) this (འདི་)”
And yes, the -ཡིས་ works as you say, showing the source of the action.
-ཡི་ is a slightly different use, and it shows a ‘connection’. If -ཡིས་ is ‘by’, -ཡི་ is ‘of’.
Of course, it’s best not to translate them directly b/c they don’t have direct equivalents. But I know it’s impossible to avoid at the start 
Examples:
བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཡིག = The language of Tibet = Tibetan Language
ངའི་ དེབ་ = ང་ཡི་ དེབ་ = The book of mine = My book
པུ་གུ་གིས་ ཀུ་ཤུ་ ཟ་ རེད་ད། = By the child, the apple was eaten = The child ate the apple (spoken, written is ཡིས་ after a vowel)
ཨ་མ་གིས་ འདི་ ཉོས་ སོང་། = By mom, this was bought = Mom bought this.
etc etc.
Just be careful not to get too stuck on those rough translations, b/c it might be an obstacle for understanding uses they have that don’t fit those words!
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Thank you Dirk! It was very clear and helpful.
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