The volition in Tibetan

What is the volition?

The volition is the difference between two kinds of verbs:

• what you want to do

• what you do not want to do,

Some languages use words and phrases for that, others use case marking, auxiliaries or affixes.

A few examples:

• Volitional verbs, you choose to do it:

to listen, to watch, to go, to speak, to wake up, to sleep, to eat

• Non-volitional verbs, you do not choose it:

to hear, to see, to be born, to die, to forget, to be sick (and if you are a lazy student wishing to get sick, it is still a non-volitional verb ;-) )

In Tibetan

Some verbs are volitional, some others are not, you will have to know because the affixes you have to use are not always the same for each group.

Also, the non-volitional verbs cannot use the imperative mode (except a few exceptions).