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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