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HE SAID THAT…

HE SAID THAT…
Speaker + Quote + ཟེ་ + ལབ་ + སོང་ / ཀྱི་འདུག
Negative : the negation stays inside the quote (མ་ / མི་ / མེད་). Also written ཟེར་ : ཁོང་གིས་ང་ཨེམ་ཆི་ཡིན་ཟེར་ལབ་སོང་།
  • There are no quotation marks in Tibetan. The quote comes first, ཟེ་ closes it, and the verb of saying waits at the very end of the sentence.
  • Change the pronoun of the original words but never their verb or auxiliary : “You are not a teacher” reported about yourself is ང་དགེ་རྒན་མ་རེད་. It sounds odd, and that is how you know it is right.
  • Use སོང་ for something you heard yourself, ཀྱི་འདུག for what someone is saying now. Verbs close to “say”, like ལན་བརྒྱབ་ “reply”, take the same ཟེ་.
He said / she says
མོས་བློ་བཟང་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཡག་པོ་རེད་ཟེ་ལབ་སོང་། She said Lobsang is a good student.
("Lobsang is a good student," saying, she said.)
ཁོང་གིས་དཔལ་ལྡན་ཨེམ་ཆི་རེད་ཟེ་ལབ་སོང་། He said, Pändän is a doctor.
("Pändän is a doctor," saying, he said.)
ཁོང་ལ་བཀའ་འདྲི་ཞུ་ཡག་ཅིག་ཡོད་ཟེ་ལབ་སོང་། He said he had a question to ask.
("I have a question to ask," saying, he said.)
Saying no
ཁོང་གིས་ང་དགེ་རྒན་མ་རེད་ཟེ་ལབ་ཀྱི་འདུག He says that I am not a teacher.
("I am not a teacher," saying, he says.)
ཕྲུ་གུ་ཚོས་རང་སྦྱོང་བྱེད་འདོད་མེད་ཟེ་ལབ་ཀྱི་འདུག The kids say that they do not want to do (their) homework.
("We do not want to do homework," saying, the kids say.)
དོན་གྲུབ་ཀྱིས་ང་ལ་ཡི་གེ་འབྱོར་མ་བྱུང་ཟེ་ལབ་པ་རེད་། Dhöndrup said, I didn't receive the letter.
("I did not receive the letter," saying, Dhöndrup said to me.)
Replied, direct and indirect
བསྟན་པས་ཡི་གེ་རག་མ་སོང་ཟེ་ལན་བརྒྱབ་སོང་། Tenpa replied that he did not get the letter.
("I did not get the letter," saying, Tenpa replied.)
ཚེ་རིང་གིས་ཡི་གེ་བཏང་པ་ཡིན་ཟེ་ལན་བརྒྱབ་སོང་། Tshering replied that he'd sent the letter.
("I sent the letter," saying, Tshering replied.)
ཚེ་རིང་གིས་ངས་ཡི་གེ་བཏང་པ་ཡིན་ཟེ་ལན་བརྒྱབ་སོང་། Tshering replied, I sent the letter.
("I sent the letter," saying, Tshering replied.)