The basic word order in Tibetan is Subject-Object-Verb. As is often the case in languages with this SOV word order, there are no prepositions but postpositions. This is part of a general tendency in Tibetan, in which the main information is deferred to the end of a clause or sentence. The head nouns of the relative clauses are usually placed after the relative clauses. Moreover, the main clause, which goes at the end of the statement, is always placed after the subordinate clauses (object, causal, etc.).

Word order within a noun phrase is as follows:

• Noun + [Adjective + Determinant + Plural Marker] + Case

Thus, the substantive comes first, followed by the qualifying adjective, the article (or demonstrative adjective), the plural marker, and the case. The case particle takes last place in the noun phrase (although it may happen that the case marker is followed by a topicalizer ནི་). For example:

• བུ་མོ་སྙིང་རྗེ་པོ་དེ་ཚོར་ “To those pretty girls”

In Tibetan, then, there are no prepositions but only postpositions: the equivalents of “in,” “on,” “with,” and so on all follow the noun to which they relate. We don’t say “in the water” but “water in”; not “on the table” but “table on.”

Postpositions are always followed by a case particle, usually the locative case (but also sometimes other cases such as the genitive or the ablative). They also command the genitive, which is inserted between the noun group and the postposition. The structure of the prepositional phrase is therefore:

• Noun (or Noun Phrase) + [Genitive གི་] + Postposition + Locative ལ་

Note: While the genitive is always used when the preceding word ends in a vowel, its use is optional with certain postpositions when the preceding word ends in a consonant. This is particularly the case with: ནང་ “in,” སྒང་ “on,” རྒྱབ་ “behind,” and མདུན་ “in front of.”

Some examples of constructions using postpositions are:

• གླིང་གའི་ནང་ལ་ “In the park”
• དེབ་(ཀྱི་)ནང་ལ་ “In the book”
• ཅོག་ཙེའི་འོག་ལ་ “Under the table”
• འཛམ་གླིང་ནང་ལ་ “In the world”
• སློབ་ཚན་ནང་ལ་ “In the lesson”
• སློབ་གྲྭའི་འཁྲིས་ལ་ “Next to the school”