NUMERALS. 
Gender ,—A few adjectives, when joined to a substantive denoting a 
living being can adapt their article to the gender of the substantive. 
In the first place rgadpo-rgadmo must be mentioned here. It means 
‘old ’ when said of living beings. Examples : sta rgadpo, the old horse; 
stargodma rgadmo, the old mare; rgyalpo rgadpo , the old king; rgyalmo 
rgadmo, the old queen. 
Then those adjective-substantives which denote names of nations and 
types of religion are subject to change of gender. They correspond to 
angresi, boddi, ladagsi, etc., but whilst the latter occur only in an attributive 
connection, the former are used to form the predicate. Examples: mi de 
bodpa, angrespa, mashikapa in, that man is Tibetan, English, Christian ; 
homo de bodmo , angresma , mashikama in, that woman is Tibetan, English, 
Christian. Compare under Definite Article. 
The Comparative in Ladakhi is expressed by sang which governs the 
genitive. Example : ngai khangpa i khangpai sang rgyalla yod , my house 
is better than this one. 
Infinitives drop the genitive ending before sang. Example : dagsa las 
coces sang monlam tabces rgyalla yod, now we had better prey than work. 
Note. —Many people, especially in Lower Ladakh, are not strict in using the 
genitive, so that sang seems to govern the accusative at the same time. Example : 
bongngu sang sta eke, the horse is bigger than the ass. 
For strengthening the sang of the comparative the words theb, more, 
and mangnga, much, are often added. Example : ngai khangpa i khangpai 
sang theb rgyalla yod, my house is better than this one. 
Note.— mangnga is often used without sang to express the comparative. Ex* 
ample: kho mangnga sogpo (or rtsogpo ) song, he became still worse. 
The Superlative ,—It can only be expressed by using the comparative 
with reference to ‘ all.’ Example: mi thsangmai sang rgyalla, the best 
man (the man, better than all). A very high degree of a quality is often 
expressed by adverbs such as md , very ; Idingse, really ; manna, totally. Ex¬ 
amples : md gyalla , very good ; Idingse rtsogpo, really bad ; manna zhigste, 
totally destroyed. 
NUMERALS. 
Cardinals. —The connecting syllable between tens and units in most case 
is composed of (1) the first consonant of the stem of each ten, (2) a vowel, 
(3) the otherwise silent first consonant of the stem of the unit, called phuL 
The phuls of the units are the following: 1 g, 2 g, 3 g, 4 b, 5 —, 6—, 
7 b, 8 b, 9 d (pronounced r). 
