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 | — |
| བསྒྲུབ(bsgrub — to 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, ya-btags (ྱ) can appear under ཀ (ཀྱ) but not under ང.
Vowel
Marked above the stack. The default vowel is a (unmarked).
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).
Relational Particle (of, 's)
Marks possession or association. 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 (by, with)
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 (in, at, to)
Marks location or direction. The locative has more forms than the other particles:
| 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 |
| རུ | འ or no suffix | རྒྱལ་ཁབ་རུ་in the kingdom |
| 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 (ha) 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 (nga) cannot take a ya-btags subscript.
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.