Tibetan Interrogatives

Question 1

གང

Answer 1

what?

eg/ རྒྱུ་མཚན་གང་ཡིན་ = what is the reason?

Question 2

ཅི་ ཇི་

Answer 2

what?
how?

བདེ་བའི་རྒྱུ་ནི་ཅི་ཡིན = what is the cause of happiness?
དངུལ་ཅི་ཡོད་ whatever money I have
ཅི་ཡང་ whatever
ཅི་ཡང་མ་ཡིན་ nothing whatsoever

Question 3

སུ

Answer 3

who?

eg/ བླ་མ་འདི་སུ་ཡིན = who is this lama?

Question 4

ཅི་ཚམ

Answer 4

how much? How far?

ཅི་ཙམ་སྡུག་ཀྱང however much you may suffer…
Cf/ ག་ཚོད་ how much? How many?

Question 5

གང་གི

Answer 5

whose? of what?

Question 6

གང་གིས

Answer 6

By what? By whom?

Question 7

སུས

Answer 7

by whom?

Question 8

གང་ནས་ གང་ལས

Answer 8

whence? from what?

Question 9

སུ་ལས

Answer 9

from whom?

Question 10

ཅི་ནས ཅི་ལས

Answer 10

from what?

Question 11

གང་ལ

Answer 11

to what? where?

Question 12

སུ་ལས

Answer 12

from whom?

Question 13

ཅིར་ ཅི་ལ

Answer 13

to what? why?

Question 14

ཤེས་རབས་ཆེན་པོ་སུ་ལ་ཡོད

Answer 14

who has great wisdom?

Question 15

མི་དེ་དག་གང་ནས་ཡོང

Answer 15

where do these men come from?

Question 16

ཁང་པ་དེ་སུའི་ཡིན

Answer 16

whose house is that?

Question 17

བདེ་བ་གང་ལས་ཤར

Answer 17

From what does happiness arise?

Question 18

ཁོང་ནི་གང་ལ་འགྲོ

Answer 18

where is she going?

Question 19

Four principle interrogatives in classical Tibetan

Answer 19

གང་ what? who?

ཅི་ - ཇི་ what? how?

སུ who?

Question 20

ག་རེ་

Answer 20

what

Question 21

ག་པར་

Answer 21

Where

Question 22

ག་ནས་

Answer 22

from where?

Question 23

ག་གི་

Answer 23

which?

Question 24

ག་དུས་

Answer 24

when?

Question 25

ག་ཚོད་

Answer 25

How many? How much?

Question 26

ག་འདྲས་

Answer 26

how?

Question 27

སུ

Answer 27

who?

Question 28

སུའི་

Answer 28

whose?

Question 29

སུ་ལ་

Answer 29

To whom

Question 30

འདི་ག་རེ་རེད།

Answer 30

What is this?

Question 31

ག་ཚོད་

Answer 31

How much? How many? དིའི་གོང་ག་ཚོད་རེད། what is the cost of this? ཆུ་ཚོ་ག་ཚོད་རེད། what is the time? (How many hours?)