In the spoken language, adjectives always come after the nouns they describe, and may be followed by determinants such as articles and quantifiers. Thus the basic word order is:

• Noun + Adjective + Article

For example:

• སྨྱུ་གུ་ནག་པོ་དེ་ “That black pen”

Constructions involving an attributive adjective bear a superficial resemblance to constructions with a predicative adjective.

• སྨྱུ་གུ་ནག་པོ་རེད། “The pen is black,” or “(This) is a black pen”

The ambiguity may be avoided by using a demonstrative. Compare:

• སྨྱུ་གུ་འདི་ནག་པོ་རེད། “The pen is black.”
• འདི་སྨྱུ་གུ་ནག་པོ་རེད། “The pen is black.”