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Tibetan phrasebook

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The Om mani padme hum mantra in Tibetan
The Om mani padme hum mantra in Tibetan

Tibetan is the main language of Tibet and among Tibetan communities around the world.

[edit] Pronunciation guide

Tibetan spelling and pronunciation diverged around the 11th century, and there is no widely agreed standard on how to spell phonetic Tibetan with the Latin alphabet.

[edit] Vowels

ཨ 
Like "a" in "alone" (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).

[edit] Consonants

ཀ 
Like "k" in "skill" (k).
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).
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 
A throaty "r", not rolled (r).
ས 
Like "s" in "suck" (s).
ཤ 
Like "sh" in "shut" (š).

[edit] 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).

[edit] Phrase list

[edit] Basics

Common signs

OPEN 
CLOSED 
ENTRANCE 
EXIT 
PUSH 
PULL 
TOILET 
MEN 
WOMEN 
FORBIDDEN 
Hello. 
Tashi delek ()
Hello. (informal
()
How are you? 
Khye-rang ku-zug de-po yin-pe ()
Fine, thank you. 
De-po yin ()
What is your name? 
Khye-rang gi tshen-la ga-re zhu-gi yod? ()
My name is ______ . 
Nga-ee ming-la ______ zi-gi yod ()
Nice to meet you. 
Khye-rang jel-ney ga-po joong ()
Please. 
Thuk-je zig ()
Thank you. 
Thuk-je-che ()
You're welcome. 
()
Yes. 
Rey
No. 
Ma-rey
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
I'm sorry. 
Goodbye 
Goodbye
I can't speak name of language [well]. 
Do you speak English? 
Is there someone here who speaks English? 
Help! 
Look out! 
Good morning. 
Good evening. 
Good night. 
Good night
I don't understand. 
Where is the toilet? 

[edit] Problems

[edit] Numbers

One

  Chig

Two

  Nyi

Three

  Sum

Four

  Zhi

Five

  Nga

Six

  Dug

Seven

  Dun

Eight

  Gyed
 

Nine

  Gu

Ten

  Chu

Twenty

  Nyi-shu

Thirty

  Sum-chu

Forty

  Zhi-chu

Fifty

  Nga-chu

One Hundred

  Gya tham-pa

[edit] Time

[edit] Clock time

[edit] Duration

[edit] Days

[edit] Months

[edit] Writing time and date

[edit] Colors

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Bus and train

[edit] Directions

[edit] Taxi

[edit] Lodging

[edit] Money

[edit] Eating

[edit] Bars

[edit] Shopping

[edit] Driving

[edit] Authority

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