Tibetan phrasebook

Tibetan (བོད་སྐད་ / ལྷ་སའི་སྐད་) is the main language of Tibet, and its accompanying regions and among overseas Tibetan communities around the world. Tibetan is spoken by several million people in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) of the Chinese People’s Republic, the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan, as well as the neighboring countries Bhutan (around 4,000 speakers), India (over 124,000 speakers), and Nepal (around 60,000 speakers). Written Tibetan is used as the religious language in the countries where Tibetan Lamaistic Buddhism is practiced (e.g. in Mongolia and parts of China proper). Tibetan communities also exist in Taiwan, Norway, Switzerland and the United States of America. It is an official language in Tibet, as well as in the Tibetan autonomous prefectures of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan, and all road signs in this region are bilingual in Chinese and Tibetan.

This phrasebook is based on the Ü-Tsang dialect of Tibetan, which is the dialect spoken in Lhasa, and the officially-recognised standard version of Tibetan. We have a separate Amdo Tibetan phrasebook for that dialect.

Pronunciation guide

The Tibetan script is an Indic script related to those of many South and Southeast Asian languages. Like other Indic scripts, it is an abugida, meaning that each letter represents a consonant, and vowels are indicated by modifications to the consonant letter.

While Tibetan spelling in the written language is fairly standard throughout the ages and regions, spoken pronunciation is very diverse and there are many, often mutually incomprehensible, dialects.

In recent times “Lhasa dialect” has been taught to foreigners as a standard. However, there is neither an easy nor a widely agreed standard on how to indicate the phonetics of speaking Tibetan using the Latin alphabet. So be prepared for confusion and fun as you try to pronounce these phrases and hear many different pronunciations from the locals.

Vowels

ཨ

: Like “a” in “alone”; like “a” in “cat” (a).

ཷ

: Like “aw” in “paw” (å).

ེ

: Like “e” in “bet” (e).

ི

: Like “i” in “in” (i).

ཱི

: Like “ee” in “seen” (í).

ོ

: Like “o” in “so” (ó).

ྲྀ

: Like “e” in “father” (ö).

ཱུ

: Like “ue” in “glue” (ú).

ུ

: Like “oo” in “soon” (ū).

ུ

: Like “ee” in “seen” but with rounded lips (ü).

ེ

: Like “ay” in “day” (ą).

Consonants

ཀ

: Like “k” in “skill” (k).

ག

: Like “g” in “garden” (g).

ང

: Like “ng” in “sing” (ng).

ཅ

: Like “ch” in “charge” (ç).

ཇ

: Like “j” in “jar” (xh).

ཉ

: Like “ny” in “canyon” (nj).

ཏ

: Like “t” in “stop” (t).

ད

: Like “d” in “drop” (d).

ན

: Like “n” in “never” (n).

པ

: Like “p” in “spot” (p).

བ

: Like “b” in “beat” (b).

མ

: Like “m” in “mighty” (m).

ཙ

: Like “ts” in “weights” (c).

ཛ

: Like “ds” in “adds” (x).

ཡ

: Like “y” in “you” (j).

ཟ

: Like “z” in “zoo” (z).

ཞ

: Like “s” in “treasure” (zh).

ར

: Must be trilled - just like Italian “r” (r).

ས

: Like “sa” in “sand” (s).

ཤ

: Like “sh” in “shut” (sh).

ལ

: Like “l” in “lonely” (l).

Common diphthongs

ཁ

: Like “k” in “kill” (kh).

ཆ

: Like “ch h” in “punch hard” (çh).

ཐ

: Like “t” in “time” (th).

ཕ

: Like “p” in “pit” (ph).

ཚ

: Like “ts h” in “fights hard” (ţh).

Phrase list

Some phrases in this phrasebook still need to be translated. If you know anything about this language, you can help by plunging forward and translating a phrase.

Basics

Common signs OPEN : ཁ་ཕྱེ། kha chad CLOSED/SHUT : ཁ་རྒྱག་པ། kha gyabpa ENTRANCE : འཇུག་སྒོ། jug go EXIT : ཐོན་སྒོ། thön go PUSH : བིགྱར་གྱབ། Bigyar gyab PULL : ཐན། Than TOILET : གསང་སྤྱོད། sang chö MEN : བུ། bu WOMEN : བུ་མོ། བོུ། bu mo FORBIDDEN : བྱེད་མ་ཆོག je ma chog SHRINE THIS WAY : མཆོད་མཇལ་ཡོད། chö jel yö

Hello.

: (བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།) Tashi delek.

Hello. (informal)

: De-po ()

How are you?

: Khye-rang ku-zug de-po yin-pe ()

Fine, thank you.

: De-po yin. Thug je che.

What is your name?

: Khye-rang gi tshen-la ga-re zhu-gi yod? (polite) Khye rang gi ming ga re yin (informal)

My name is ______ .

: Ngai ming ___ yin.

Nice to meet you.

: Khye-rang jel-ney ga-po joong ()

Please.

: Thuk-je zig ()

Thank you.

: Thuk-je-che (ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ།)

You’re welcome.

: ()Yin dang yin

Yes.

: Re (རེད།)

No.

: Ma re (མ་རེད།)

(Note: Yes and no are usually expressed using an affirmed or negated version of the question ending.)

Excuse me

: gong-pa-ma-tsom / gong-ta

I’m sorry.

: Gong dag

Goodbye

: Chagpo nang, as in take care. Kha lay shug (said to other person if they are staying). kha lay pheb (said to other person if they are going)

I can’t speak Tibetan [well]

: nga pö-kay [yag-po] kyab gi mey

Do you speak English?

: khye-rang in-ji-kay she gi yö pey?

Is there someone here who speaks English?

: dhir inji-kay shenyan yö pey.

Help!

: Rog pa je

Look out!

: Phar toe

Good morning.

: ngadro deleg

Good evening.

: gondro deleg

Good night.

: Sim shag nang

I don’t understand.

: Ngai she gyi med. Ha kho gi mey.

Where is the toilet?

: Sang chod gawa yö rey.

Problems

Numbers

༡

: chig

༢

: nyi

༣

: sum

༤

: zhi

༥

: nga

༦

: drug

༧

: dun

༨

: gyey

༩

: gu

༡༠

: chu

༡༡

: chu chig

༡༢

: chu nyi

༡༣

: chu sum

༡༤

: chu zhi

༡༥

: chob nga

༡༦

: chu drug

༡༧

: chu dun

༡༨

: chu gyey

༡༩

: chu gu

༢༠

: nyi shu

༢༡

: nyi shu tsa chig

༢༢

: nyi shu tsa nyi

༢༣

: nyi shu tsa sum

༣༠

: sum chu

༤༠

: zhib chu

༥༠

: ngab chu

༦༠

: drug chu

༧༠

: dun chu

༨༠

: gyey chu

༩༠

: gub chu

༡༠༠

: gya

1000

: chig tong

Time

Now

: da ta

After

: Jē la

Before

: göng ma

Morning

: shok-pa

Moon

: nyin-gung

Evening

: gong-dag

Night

: tsen mo

Midnight

: tshen gung

Clock time

1AM

: tshen la tchhu tshö chig pa

2AM

: tshen la tchhu tshö nyi pa

1PM

: tchhu tshö chig pa

2PM

: tchhu tshö nyi pa

Duration

du ring

Minute(s)

: kar ma

Hour(s)

: tchhu tshö

Day(s)

: nyi ma

Week(s)

: za khor

Month(s)

: da wa

Year(s)

: lo

Days

today

: དེ་རིང་ (de ring)

yesterday

: ཁ་སང་ (kha sang)

tomorrow

: སང་ཉིན་ (sang nyin)

last week

: གཟའ་འཁོར་སྔོན་མ་ (za khor ngön ma)

next week

: གཟའ་འཁོར་རྗེས་མ་ (za khor jey ma)

Sunday

: གཟའ་ཉི་མ་ (za nyi ma)

Monday

: གཟའ་ཟླ་བ་ (za da wa)

Tuesday

: གཟའ་མིག་དམར་ (za mi mar)

Wednesday

: གཟའ་ཧླག་པ་ (za hlag pa)

Thursday

: གཟའ་ཕུར་བུ་ (za phur pu)

Friday

: གཟའ་པ་སངས་ (za pa sang)

Saturday

: གཟའ་སྤེན་པ་ (za pen pa)

Months

When referring to months, the Tibetans distinguish between their own calendar and the internationally used calendar. For the purposes of this phrasebook we only want to refer to the latter and this is quite easy, since it follows the pattern:

“foreigner-month-<number 1-12>-pa”

ཕྱི་ཟླ་པ་

chhi da pa

The numbers are listed above. The only exception is for January, because the Tibetan for ‘first’ is not chig pa but དང་པོ་ dang po, so:

January

: chhi da dang po

February

: chhi da nyi pa

March

: chhi da sum pa

April

: chhi da zhi pa

May

: chhi da nga pa

June

: chhi da drug pa

July

: chhi da dun pa

August

: chhi da gyey pa

September

: chhi da gu pa

October

: chhi da chu pa

November

: chhi da chu chig pa

December

: chhi da chu nyi pa

Writing time and date

Colors

Color

: ཚོན་མདོག་ tseun dok

Blue

: སྔོན་པོ་ ngeun po

Yellow

: སེར་པོ་ ser po

Green

: ལྗང་ཁུ་ jang koo

Red

: དམར་པོ་ mar po

Brown

: སྨུག་པོ་ mook po

Black

: ནག་པོ་ nak po

Orange

: ལི་ཝང་ li wang

White

: དཀར་པོ་ kar po

Transportation

Bus and train

Directions

Street

: Lam kha

Right

: Ye-la

Left

: Yon-la

Straight

: kha thug

North

: Jang chog la

South

: lho chog la

East

: shar chhog la

West

: nub chhog la

Taxi

Lodging

Money

How Much

Ga-Tsod

Yuan

Gor-mo

1-Yuan

Gor-mo Chik

Eating

Fruits

: sching tog

Vegetables

: tsel

Apple

: ku shu

Breakfast

: zhog dzha

Lunch

: nyi gung kha lag

Supper

: gpong dro kha lag

Chicken

: dzha scha

Beef

: Kang scha

Meat

: tshag scha

Fish

: nya scha

Cheese

: chur wa

Egg

: go nga

Salad

: drang tsel

Bread

: ba lap

Rice

: dre

Noodles

: thuk pa

Bon appetit!

: ཞལ་ལག་མཉེས་པོ་ནང་གོ། shelak nye po nang ko

delicious

: ཞིམ་པོ་ སྤྼོ་པོ་(H) shimpo t(r)opo (H)

meal

: གསོལ་ཚིགས་ sol tsi’

meal, food

: ཁ་ལག (NH) ཞལ་ལག (H) kalak, shelak

Bars

Shopping

Driving

Authority

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