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.
We have a separate Amdo Tibetan phrasebook for that dialect.
Pronunciation guide
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).
- ཁ
- Like cart (IPA: kʰa)
- ག
- Like "g" in "garden" (g).
- ང
- Like "ng" in "sing" (ng).
- ཅ
- Like "ch" in "charge" (ç).
- ཇ
- Like "j" in "jar" (j).
- ཉ
- Like "ny" in "canyon" (ñ).
- ཏ
- Like "t" in "stop" (t).
- པ
- Like "p" in "spot" (p).
- ཕ
- Like "fa" in "farm" (farm)
- ཙ
- Like "ts" in "weights" (ţ).
- ཛ
- Like "ds" in "adds" (ds).
- ཟ
- Like "z" in "zoo" (z).
- ཞ
- Like "s" in "treasure" (ž).
- ར
- Must be trilled - just like Italian "r" (r).
- ས
- Like "sa" in "sand" (sa).
- ཤ
- Like "sh" in "shut" (š).
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
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Common signs
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- Hello.
- Tashi deleg (བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།)
- 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
- 1 ༡ chig
- 2 ༢ nyi
- 3 ༣ sum
- 4 ༤ zhi
- 5 ༥ nga
- 6 ༦ drug
- 7 ༧ dun
- 8 ༨ gyey
- 9 ༩ gu
- 10 ༡༠ chu
- 11 ༡༡ chu chig
- 12 ༡༢ chu nyi
- 13 ༡༣ chu sum
- 14 ༡༤ chu zhi
- 15 ༡༥ chob nga
- 16 ༡༦ chu drug
- 17 ༡༧ chu dun
- 18 ༡༨ chu gyey
- 19 ༡༩ chu gu
- 20 ༢༠ nyi shu
- 21 ༢༡ nyi shu tsa chig
- 22 ༢༢ nyi shu tsa nyi
- 23 ༢༣ nyi shu tsa sum
- 30 ༣༠ sum chu
- 40 ༤༠ zhib chu
- 50 ༥༠ ngab chu
- 60 ༦༠ drug chu
- 70 ༧༠ dun chu
- 80 ༨༠ gyey chu
- 90 ༩༠ gub chu
- 100 ༡༠༠ gya
Time
Clock time
Duration
du ring
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
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
Taxi
Lodging
Money
Eating
- 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
Learning more
Tibetan language disambiguation page - Standard Tibetan and Tibetan phrasebook in Wikidata together