The copula ཡོད་རེད་ implies a definite assertion or affirmation by the speaker and is used for the second and third persons singular and plural. According to the context, it may be translated as “there is/are” (existential sense) or “to be at (a certain location)” (situational sense), or by the verb “to have” (possessive sense).

• བོད་ལ་གནམ་གྲུ་ཡོད་རེད། “There are airplanes in Tibet.”
• ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཨགས་འདའི་(འདིར་)ཡོད་རེད། “Tupten is here.”
• ཁོང་ལ་དེབ་མང་པོ་ཡོད་རེད། “He has many books.”
• ཚེ་རིང་ལ་མོ་ཊ་ཡོད་རེད། “Tsering has a car.”
• སྔན་མ་བོད་ལ་གནམ་གྲུ་ཡོད་མ་རེད། “In the past, there were no airplanes in Tibet.”
• དེ་དུས་ཚེ་རིང་ལ་མོ་ཊ་ཡོད་རེད། “At that time, Tsering had a car.”

Remember that constructions expressing possession are identical to existential constructions.

The copula ཡོད་རེད་ may also be translated by some form of the verb “to be” (attributive sense). This requires that the attribute of the subject that precedes the verb should be a qualifying adjective.

• འདི་སྙིང་རྗེ་པོ་ཡོད་རེད། “This is pretty.”
• འདི་གསལ་པོ་ཡོད་རེད། “This is clear.”
• འདི་ཚ་པོ་ཡོད་རེད། “This is hot.”

It may not, however, be used with a noun:

• · *ཁོང་རྒྱ་མི་ཡོད་རེད། “He is Chinese.”

Note that there are two other ways of writing ཡོད་རེད་, but the pronunciation is the same in each case: ཡོག་རེད་ or ཡོའོ་རེད་; there is also a literary form ཡོད་པ་རེད་. The negative form of the auxiliary is ཡོད་མ་རེད་, for which there are also two other written forms: ཡོག་མ་རེད་ and ཡོའོ་མ་རེད་, as well as a literary form ཡོད་པ་མ་རེད་. The variant ཡོད་རེད་ has been retained here because it is the one most commonly used in contemporary writing. Moreover, the spelling is based on the etymology of the expression: ཡོད་རེད་ is in fact derived from ཡོད་པ་རེད་, whereas the forms ཡོག་རེད་ and ཡོའོ་རེད་ are purely phonetic.