Tibetan has been described as having six cases: absolutive, agentive, genitive, ablative, associative and oblique.

Personal pronouns are inflected for number, showing singular, dual and plural forms.

The Standard Tibetan language distinguishes three levels of demonstrative: proximal འདི <'di> "this", medial དེ "that", and distal ཕ་གི "that over there (yonder)".

The aspect of the verb affects which verbal suffixes and which final auxiliary copulae are attached.

[12] The evidentials in Standard Tibetan interact with aspect in a system marked by final copulae, with the following resultant modalities being a feature of Standard Tibetan, as classified by Nicolas Tournadre:[13] Unlike many other languages of East Asia such as Burmese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, there are no numeral auxiliaries or measure words used in counting in Tibetan.

[14] In scientific and astrological works, the numerals, as in Vedic Sanskrit, are expressed by symbolical words.

As for transcriptions meant to approximate the pronunciation, Tibetan pinyin is the official romanization system employed by the government of the People's Republic of China, while English language materials use the THL transcription[18] system.

[26] Although the four-tone analysis is favored by linguists in China,[27] DeLancey (2003) suggests that the falling tone and the final [k] or [ʔ] are in contrastive distribution, describing Lhasa Tibetan syllables as either high or low.

[23] The vowels of Lhasa Tibetan have been characterized and described in several different ways, and it continues to be a topic of ongoing research.

Phonemic vowel length exists in Lhasa Tibetan but in a restricted set of circumstances.

In normal spoken pronunciation, a lengthening of the vowel is also frequently substituted for the sounds [r] and [l] when they occur at the end of a syllable.

The vowel quality of /un/, /on/ and /an/ has shifted, since historical /n/, along with all other coronal final consonants, caused a form of umlaut in the Ü/Dbus branch of Central Tibetan.

In April 2020, classroom instruction was switched from Tibetan to Mandarin Chinese in Ngaba, Sichuan.

[37] Students who continue on to tertiary education have the option of studying humanistic disciplines in Tibetan at a number of minority colleges in China.

[39] In February 2008, Norman Baker, a British Member of Parliament, released a statement to mark International Mother Language Day claiming, "The Chinese government are following a deliberate policy of extinguishing all that is Tibetan, including their own language in their own country" and he asserted a right for Tibetans to express themselves "in their mother tongue".

In the Texas Journal of International Law, Barry Sautman stated that "none of the many recent studies of endangered languages deems Tibetan to be imperiled, and language maintenance among Tibetans contrasts with language loss even in the remote areas of Western states renowned for liberal policies... claims that primary schools in Tibet teach Mandarin are in error.

From Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Tibetan, written in the Tibetan script:[50] འགྲོ་'groབ་baམིའི་mi'iརིགས་rigsརྒྱུད་rgyudཡོངས་yongsལ་laསྐྱེས་skyesཙམ་tsamཉིད་nyidནས་nasཆེ་cheམཐོངས་mthongsདང༌།dangཐོབ་thobཐངགི་thangagiརང་rangདབང་dbangའདྲ་'draམཉམ་mnyamདུ་duཡོད་yodལ།laཁོང་khongཚོར་tshorརང་rangབྱུང་byungགི་giབློ་bloརྩལ་rtsalདང་dangབསམ་bsamཚུལ་tshulབཟང་bzangཔོ་poའདོན་'donཔའི་pa'iའོས་'osབབས་babsཀྱང་kyangཡོད།yodདེ་deབཞིན་bzhinཕན་phanཚུན་tshunགཅིག་gcigགིས་gisགཅིག་gcigལ་laབུ་buསྤུན་spunགྱི་gyiའདུ་'duཤེས་shesའཛིན་'dzinཔའི་pa'iབྱ་byaསྤྱོད་spyodཀྱང་kyangལག་lagལེན་lenབསྟར་bstarདགོས་dgosཔ་paཡིན༎yinའགྲོ་ བ་ མིའི་ རིགས་ རྒྱུད་ ཡོངས་ ལ་ སྐྱེས་ ཙམ་ ཉིད་ ནས་ ཆེ་ མཐོངས་ དང༌། ཐོབ་ ཐངགི་ རང་ དབང་ འདྲ་ མཉམ་ དུ་ ཡོད་ ལ། ཁོང་ ཚོར་ རང་ བྱུང་ གི་ བློ་ རྩལ་ དང་ བསམ་ ཚུལ་ བཟང་ པོ་ འདོན་ པའི་ འོས་ བབས་ ཀྱང་ ཡོད། དེ་ བཞིན་ ཕན་ ཚུན་ གཅིག་ གིས་ གཅིག་ ལ་ བུ་ སྤུན་ གྱི་ འདུ་ ཤེས་ འཛིན་ པའི་ བྱ་ སྤྱོད་ ཀྱང་ ལག་ ལེན་ བསྟར་ དགོས་ པ་ ཡིན༎'gro ba mi'i rigs rgyud yongs la skyes tsam nyid nas che mthongs dang thob thangagi rang dbang 'dra mnyam du yod la khong tshor rang byung gi blo rtsal dang bsam tshul bzang po 'don pa'i 'os babs kyang yod de bzhin phan tshun gcig gis gcig la bu spun gyi 'du shes 'dzin pa'i bya spyod kyang lag len bstar dgos pa yinAll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.