Tibetan Spelling Rules
Tibetan syllables follow strict structural rules. This guide explains the components of a syllable and the rules the spellchecker enforces.
Anatomy of a Tibetan Syllable
Every Tibetan syllable is built around a single root letter. Up to six additional components may surround it, each occupying a defined position. Not all positions are filled — most syllables use only two or three.
| Prefix | Superscript | Root | Subscript | Vowel | Suffix | Post-suffix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| before root | above root | root letter | below root | above or below stack | after root | final |
| བ | ས | ག | ྲ | ུ | བ | — |
| བསྒྲུབto accomplish | ||||||
Prefix (སྔོན་འཇུག)
Placed before the root. Only five letters can be prefixes:
Not every combination of prefix + root is valid. The spellchecker knows which combinations are attested in classical Tibetan.
Superscript (མགོ་ཅན)
Sits above the root. Only three letters can be superscripts:
Each superscript only combines with specific roots. For example, ས can sit above ཀ (སྐ) but not above ར.
Subscript (ཞབས་ཀྱུ)
Written below the root consonant. Four possible subscripts:
Like superscripts, each subscript only combines with certain roots. For example, ཡ་བཏགས can appear under ཀ (ཀྱ) but not under ང.
Vowel (དབྱངས)
Marked above or below the stack. The default vowel is unmarked ཨ.
Only one vowel mark is allowed per syllable. Two consecutive vowel marks is an error, with a few notable exceptions.
Suffix (རྗེས་འཇུག)
Follows the root. Ten possible suffixes:
The suffix determines which particle forms are valid after the word (see Particle Rules below).
Post-suffix (ཡང་འཇུག)
The final element, appearing after the suffix. Only two are valid:
Root is required. Every valid Tibetan syllable must have a root consonant. All other components are optional.
Particle Rules
Particles are small grammatical words that follow nouns and verbs. In classical Tibetan, a particle's spelling changes depending on the last letter of the word it follows. This is called euphonic change — the forms are chosen to make pronunciation flow naturally.
The determining factor is the suffix of the preceding word (or the absence of a suffix).
This section covers which form to write. For what each particle does — and how to use particles to find where words begin and end — see Reading a Tibetan Sentence.
Relational Particle (འབྲེལ་སྒྲ)
Marks possession or association (of, 's). The correct form depends on the preceding word's suffix:
| Particle | Used after suffix | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ཀྱི | ད བ ས | བོད་ཀྱི་of Tibet |
| གི | ག ང | ཆོས་གི་of the dharma |
| གྱི | ན མ ར ལ | སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་of beings |
| འི | འ or no suffix | ལྷའི་of the deity |
| ཡིlenient | any (lenient variant) | ལྷ་ཡི་used in poetry for metrical reasons |
Agentive Particle (བྱེད་སྒྲ)
Marks the agent, instrument, reason, or source of an action — roughly equivalent to “by,” “with,” or “because of.” The forms follow the same suffix groupings as the relational particle:
| Particle | Used after suffix | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ཀྱིས | ད བ ས | བོད་ཀྱིས་by Tibet |
| གིས | ག ང | ཆོས་གིས་by the dharma |
| གྱིས | ན མ ར ལ | སེམས་ཅན་གྱིས་by beings |
| ས | འ or no suffix | ལྷས་by the deity |
| ཡིསlenient | any (lenient variant) | used in poetry for metrical reasons |
Locative Particle (ལ་དོན)
Marks location or direction (in, at, to). The ལ་དོན has more forms than the other particles. རུ is rare — after འ or no suffix, ར is the usual form.
| Particle | Used after suffix | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ན | any suffix or no suffix | བོད་ན་in Tibet |
| ལ | any suffix or no suffix | བོད་ལ་to Tibet |
| སུ | ས | ཆོས་སུ་into the dharma |
| ཏུ | ག བ (or post-suffix ད) | ཕྱོགས་ཏུ་in the direction |
| དུ | ང ད ན མ ར ལ | བར་དུ་until |
| རུrare | འ or no suffix | བཀའ་རུ་into the command; according to the decree |
| ར | འ | ཆེར་greatly |
Indefinite Article (a, one)
The indefinite article / number one. Three forms based on the preceding suffix:
| Particle | Used after suffix | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ཅིག | ག ད བ | ཆོས་ཅིག་a dharma |
| ཤིག | ས | ཕྱོགས་ཤིག་a direction |
| ཞིག | ང ན མ ར ལ འ or no suffix | ལྷ་ཞིག་a deity |
Error Types
When the spellchecker finds a problem, it identifies the type of error. Here is what each type means:
Wrong particle form
བོད་གི་The particle doesn't match the suffix of the word before it. Here གི་ is used after བོད་ (which ends in ད), but ད calls for ཀྱི་.
Fix: Use ཀྱི་ after words ending in ད, བ, or ས.
Invalid prefix combination
ཧཧིབ་The letter before the root is not a valid prefix for that root. ཧ cannot act as a prefix.
Fix: Only the five prefix letters (ག ད བ མ འ) can precede a root, and only in attested combinations.
Invalid superscript combination
A superscript letter is stacked above a root it cannot combine with. Each of the three superscripts (ར ལ ས) only stacks above specific roots — for example, ས can sit above ཀ to form སྐ, but not above ར.
Fix: Check which roots are valid for that superscript.
Invalid subscript combination
ངྱིThe subscript below the root is not valid for that root. ང cannot take ཡ་བཏགས.
Fix: Subscripts (ྱ ྲ ླ ྭ) only combine with certain roots.
Invalid suffix
ཀཝ་The letter after the root is not one of the ten valid suffixes.
Fix: Only these ten letters can be suffixes: ག ང ད ན བ མ འ ར ལ ས.
Double vowel
Two vowel marks appear on the same syllable, which is structurally impossible.
Fix: Each syllable can only carry one vowel mark.
Encoding error (critical)
wrong characterA character that looks like Tibetan is actually the wrong Unicode codepoint — a common issue when text is copied from certain older fonts or systems.
Fix: Re-type the syllable from scratch using a Unicode Tibetan keyboard, or use a font conversion tool.