Dzongkha phrasebook

Dzongkha is the national language of Bhutan. It has about 160.000 native speakers and about 470.000 second language speakers. It's mainly spoken in the districts Thimpu, Paro, Haa, Chukha, Wangdue Phodrang, Punakha and Gasa. Dzongkha is the most common language in the west of Bhutan, Tshangla in the east. Pronunciation guide Dzongkha uses the Tibetan writing system. There are 5 vowels (a, e, i, o and u) and 30 consonants. Vowels Vowels are shown with vowel symbols. There are 4 vowel symbols: a - ཨ (without a symbol it is "a") e - ཨེ i - ཨི o - ཨོ u - ཨུ There is only 1 vowel per syllable. Syllables are seperated with a "Tsheg", which looks like this: ་ The syllables follow an easy pattern: ཀ་ = Ka ཀི་ = Ki ཀིད་ = Kid ཀི་ད་ = Kida ཀི་དེ་ = Kide ཀི་དེབ་ = Kideb (By the way: "Kideb" means "notebook".) Consonants There are 30 consonants. ཀ (ka) ཁ (kha*) ག (ga) ང (nga) ཅ (cha) ཆ (chha*) ཇ (ja) ཉ (nya) ཏ (ta) ཐ (tha*) ད (da) ན (na) པ (pa) ཕ (pha*) བ (ba) མ (ma) ཙ (tsa) ཚ (tsha*) ཛ (dza) ཝ (wa) ཞ (zha*) ཟ (za) འ ('a) ཡ (ya) ར (ra) ལ (la) ཤ (sha) ས (sa) ཧ (ha) ཨ (a) * = These letters are pronounced like the one before, but with a harder breath. 'a = A short break. a = Silent consonant. Used, when there is no consonant needed, like in the word ཨ་པ (apa), which is "father". Phrase list Basics Hello. (formal)  Kuzu zangpo la. Hello. (informal)  Kuzu zangpo. Nice to meet you.  Nga choe da choebay sem gai. How are you?  Gaday bay Zhu Ga? I'm fine.  Legshom. (Layshom) What is your name?  Chhoe gi ming ga chi mo? My name is _____.  Nge gi ming _____ in. I am from ____.  Nga ____ lay in. Thank you.  Kadrin chhe. See you later! (informal)  Shu lay log jay ge! Where?  Gathey? How much?  Gademchi? Problems What is the Problem?  Choe gi Ka Ngyel ga chi mo? Where is the Bank?  Ngyul Khang Ga teey mo? Numbers Dzongkha has its own digits. The system works like the English digit system, so 2012 = ༢༠༡༢ 1 (༡)  chi 2 (༢)  nyi 3 (༣)  sum 4 (༤)  zhi 5 (༥)  nga 6 (༦)  dru 7 (༧)  duen 8 (༨)  gay 9 (༩)  gu 10 (༡༠)  chu tham 11 (༡༡)  chu chi 12 (༡༢)  chu nyi Time Clock time time  (...) o'clock  bazaar 8 o'clock  bazaar gyed Duration _____ minute(s)  karma _____ _____ hour(s)  ganta _____ _____ day(s)  zha _____ _____ week(s)  duenthrak _____ _____ month(s)  daw _____ _____ year(s)  lho _____ Days Monday  Migmar Tuesday  Lhakpa Wednesday  Phurbu Thursday  Pasang Friday  Pemba Saturday  Nima Sunday  Dawa Months January  indha dangpa February  indha nyipa March  indha sumpa April  indha zhipa May  indha ngapa June  indha drupa July  indha duenpa August  indha gaypa September  indha gupa October  indha chuthampa November  indha chuchimpa December  indha chunyepa (Note: For the months of lunar calender the prefix is '''rangda''', '''indha''' is used for the months of the international calender.) Writing time and date Thursday, 2nd february, 2012  Pasang, indha nyipa 2, 2012 Colors Green  Changkha Red  Marp White  Karp Blue  Hoem Black  Naap Yellow  Serp Orange  Leewang Animals bird  Ji chu cat  Ji ley chicken  Jum cow  No dog  Ro che fish  Na frog  Bab horse  Ta pig  Phab turtle  Ru bel Transportation Bus and train Directions Taxi Identified by the yellow top(hood) and BT registration affixed before the number. Taxi  La khor Fare  La How much?  Ga day chi mo? Lodging Money How much is this/it?  Ngultrum ga they chi mo? Eating Meal  Toh /zhay go eating  shay go za ni delicious  zhim bay bitter  khag ta sweet  ngam sour  chup Water  chu Tea  ja Curry  tsoem Soup  thup Chilly  ema Cheese  datsi cook  toh bey ni eat  zhey Dry Chilli  ema kam Potato  kewa Bars Alcoholic Beverage  Changg Bar  Changkhang Tip  Soera What's the bill?  Ga de chi mo? I am drunk.  Changg dang so ye. Water  Chu Local Drink  Ara It is strong. (spirit)  Ah ni gag tra du. It is mild.  Lha si si du. Shopping Shop  Tsongkhang How much?  Ga de chi mo? Discount please!  Gong phab nang! Driving Car  Numkhor Drive  Numkhor tang ni Licence  Lak Kher Police  thrim sung Road  Lam High speed  joba joba shuk bay tang Low speed  drogay bay tang Please take caution! (driving)  Reb drim di tang! Let's go!  Jogay! stop  numkor kag nang risky  ngyen khag Love I love you  Nga gi che lu ga. I can't stay without you  Nga che me pa me cha bay. I will make you a phone call.  Nga gi che lu juthen tang gay. Do you remember me?  Che nga dem mey ga? You're so beautiful!  Che namay samay jarim dhu!