Grammar Bits › Comparing and measuring › MORE, MOST, AS … AS, NOT AT ALL

MORE, MOST, AS … AS, NOT AT ALL

X IS … -ER THAN Y
Object of comparison + ལས་ + Adjective root + ག་ / ང་ / བ་ / པ་
Negative : མ་ / མི་ before the adjective or འདུག. The ལས་ can come right after the object wherever it stands in the sentence
  • Root of the adjective = the full adjective without its last syllable (ཡག་པོ། gives ཡག, ཆེན་པོ། gives ཆེ).
  • The added syllable depends on the final letter of the root: ག after ག, ང་ or བ་ after ང, བ་ (or པ་) after other endings and after no suffix.
  • ལས་ always comes immediately after the object of comparison (“compared with…”). Put it after the wrong noun and the sentence says the opposite.
Simple comparisons (བ་ / པ་)
མོག་མོག་ལས་འཐེན་ཐུག་ཞིམ་པ་འདུག Noodle soup is tastier than momos.
(Compared to momos, noodle soup is tastier.)
ཆུ་ཕ་གི་ལས་ཆུ་འདི་ཚ་བ་འདུག། This water is hotter than that water.
(Compared to that water, this water is hotter.)
ཅོག་ཙེ་འདི་ལས་ཕ་གི་མཐོ་བ་འདུག That table is higher than this.
(Compared to this table, that one is higher.)
ཁྱི་མང་ཆེ་བ་ཞི་མི་ལས་ཤུགས་ཆེ་བ་ཡོད་རེད། Most dogs are stronger than cats.
(Most dogs, compared to cats, are stronger.)
ཁྱི་ལས་རྟ་གཟུགས་པོ་ཆེ་བ་ཡོད་རེད། The horse's body is bigger than the dog's.
(Compared to the dog, the horse's body is bigger.)
After ག or ང (ག་ / ང་)
གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་ལས་པོ་ཏཱ་ལའི་དབྱིབས་ཡག་ག་འདུག The Potala's form is better than the temple's.
(Compared to the temple, the Potala's form is better.)
གཞུང་ལམ་ལས་སྲང་ལམ་ཀྱོག་ག་འདུག The alley is more winding than the main road.
(Compared to the main road, the alley is more winding.)
ལྕང་མ་ལས་ཐང་ཤིང་འདྲོང་ང་འདུག The pine is straighter than the willow.
(Compared to the willow, the pine is straighter.)
ང་ལས་ངའི་རོགས་པས་བོད་སྐད་ཡག་ག་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཡོད་རེད། My friend knows Tibetan better than I do.
(Compared to me, my friend knows Tibetan better.)
Questions and negatives
གཡག་མཛོ་ལས་ཆེ་བ་འདུག་གས། Are yaks bigger than dzo?
(Yaks, compared to dzo, are they bigger?)
དབྱིན་སྐད་ལས་བོད་སྐད་ལས་སླ་བ་མི་འདུག Tibetan is not easier than English.
(Compared to English, Tibetan is not easier.)
ཁེ་ས་ལས་མོག་མོག་འདི་ཚོ་མ་ཞིམ་པ་འདུག These momos are less tasty than yesterday's.
(Compared to yesterday's, these momos are less tasty.)