- by Catherine
- Last Updated: 2020-04-26
In Tibet, most people can't speak English but sometimes you may need to strike up a simple conversation with the locals such as a decent greeting during your trip. Learning some simple Tibetan words and numbers before your arrival will enable you to become more confident, closer to the Tibetan people, and have a deeper understanding of the local culture.
Here are some simple but practical Tibetan words and phrases:
| Tibetan Pronunciation | English | Tibetan Words |
|---|---|---|
| Shokpa delek | Good morning | སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས། |
| Tashi Delek/ Kham-Sang | Hello | བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལགས།།/ ཁམས་བཟང།། |
| Thuk-je-che | Thank you | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་། |
| Gong-pa Ma-sum | Excuse me | དགོངས་དག བཟོད་དུ་གསོལ། ཐུགས་རྗེ་གཟིགས། |
| gong-da | Sorry | དགོང་དག་། |
| kayrang kusu debo-yimbay | How are you | ཁྱེད་རང་སྐུ་གཇུགས་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན་པས། |
| Nga debo yin |
I'm fine |
ང་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན |
| Nga debo Min dung |
I'm not doing well |
ང་བདེ་པོ་མིན་འདུག།། |
| Ga-Pa | Where | ག་པར་ |
| Ga-rey | What | ག་རེ་ |
| Ga-Due | When | ག་དུས་ |
| Gang-Day | How | གང་འདྲ་ |
| Ga-rey Jey-ney | Why | ག་རེ་བྱས་ནས། |
| Yün-ring je-kyu ma-joong | Long time no see | ཡུན་རིང་འཇལ་རྒྱུ་མ་བྱུང་། |
| kayrang gi minglâ karay ray | What is your name | ཁྱེད་རང་གི་མཚན་ལ་ག་རེ་ཞུ་གི་ཡོད། |
| Dir gong kâtsay ray | How much is this | འདིར་གོང་ག་ཚད་རེད། |
| Sang-chö ka-bar yo-re | Where is the toilet/bathroom | གསང་སྤྱོ་ག་པར་ཡོད་རེད། |
| Rog nâng-da | Help | རོགས་གནང་དང་། |
| Kha-leh phe |
Goodbye (said by people leaving) |
ག་ལེར་ཕེབས་། |
| Kha-leh shu |
Goodbye (said by people staying) |
ག་ལེར་བཞུགས་། |
| Cha-wa lam-to yong-bar-shok | Good luck | བྱ་བ་ལམ་འགྲོ་ཡོང་བར་ཤོག |
| Chito delek | Good afternoon | ཕྱི་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས། |
| Gongmo delek | Good evening | དགོང་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས། |
Below is a list of 1-20 numbers in Tibetan writing and pronunciation.
|
Numbers |
Tibetan Pronunciation |
Tibetan Number |
|
1 |
chig |
༡ |
|
2 |
nyi |
༢ |
|
3 |
sum |
༣ |
|
4 |
shi |
༤ |
|
5 |
nga |
༥ |
|
6 |
thru' |
༦ |
|
7 |
tun |
༧ |
|
8 |
kyä |
༨ |
|
9 |
ku |
༩ |
|
10 |
chu |
༡༠ |
|
11 |
cuci |
༡༡ |
|
12 |
cunyi |
༡༢ |
|
13 |
cuksum |
༡༣ |
|
14 |
cupshi |
༡༤ |
|
15 |
conga |
༡༥ |
|
16 |
cutru |
༡༦ |
|
17 |
cuptun |
༡༧ |
|
18 |
copkya |
༡༨ |
|
19 |
curku |
༡༩ |
|
20 |
nyishu |
༢༠ |
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