Learn Some Tibetan Words and Numbers
- by Catherine
- Last Updated: 2023-10-20
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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