When the complement of the subject is a substantive (equative meaning), Tibetan uses the verb: བྱེད་ “to do” (in the past stem: བྱས་) or the verb ཆགས་ followed by past auxiliaries (in association with the various evidential moods: assertive, testimonial, egophoric).

• ཁོང་སྨྱོན་པ་ཆགས་པ་རེད། “He became crazy.” (Assertive)
• ཁོང་སྨྱོན་པ་ཆགས་སོང་། “He became crazy.” (Testimonial)
• ཁོང་ཨེམ་ཆི་བྱས་པ་རེད། “He became a doctor.”
• ང་ཨེམ་ཆི་བྱས་པ་ཡིན། “I became a doctor.”

Note that in the case of the imperfective past, the same form as the present is used:

• དེ་དུས་ཁོང་ཨེམ་ཆི་རེད། “He was a doctor.” (Literally: “At that time he is a doctor.”)