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

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.

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་<xx>པ་
chhi da <xx> 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

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

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

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

Authority

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