Secondary Verbs

There are about twenty or so “secondary” verbs that go between the principal and auxiliary verb: Principal Verb + Secondary Verb + Auxiliary.

Most of these verbs are modal verbs:

• དགོས་ “To need,” “to want,” “to have to”
• ཐུབ་ “To be able”
• སྲིད་ “To be possible”
• ཆོག་ “To be allowed”
• ཤེས་ “To know”
• ནུས་ “To dare”
• འདོད་ “To want,” “to wish”
• སྙིང་འདོད་ “To wish”
• བསམ་ “To think”
• རྩིས་ “To intend,” “to plan”

There are also a number of “tense-aspect” verbs:

• ཚར་ “To finish”
• བསྡད་ “To stay”
• རན་ “To be time to”
• འགྲོའོ་ (གྲབས་) “To be about to”
• ཆོག་ཆོག་ “To be ready to”
• ལོང་ “To have the time to”

Directional verbs can also function as secondary verbs:

• ཡོང་ “To come” (action toward)
• འགྲོ་ “To go” (action away from)