Useful phrases in Dzongkha

A collection of useful phrases in Dzongkha (རྫོང་ཁ), a South Tibetic language spoken in Bhutan.

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See these phrases in any combination of two languages in the Phrase Finder. If you can provide recordings, corrections or additional translations, please contact me.

Key to abbreviations: frm = formal, inf = informal, sg = singular (said to one person), pl = plural (said to more than one person).

Phrase རྫོང་ཁ (Dzongkha)
Welcome Chamba lekso
Hello (General greeting) སྐུ་གཟུགས་བཟང་པོ་ལགས།
(Kuzu zangpo la) - frm
སྐུ་གཟུགས་བཟང་པོ།
(Kuzu zangpo) - inf
སྐུ་གཟུགས།
(Kuzu) - inf
Hello (on phone)
How are you? ཁྱོད་ག་དེ་སྦེ་ཡོད།
(Choe gadey bey yoe?)
Reply to 'How are you?' ང་ལེགས་ཤོམ་སྦེ་ཡོད། ཁྱོད?
(Nga lekshom bey yoe. Choe?)
Long time no see
What's your name? ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མིང་ག་ཅི་སྨོ?
(Chhoegi ming gachi mo?)
My name is ... ང་གི་མིང་ ... ཨིན།
(Ngagi ming ... inn)
ང་བསོད་ ... ཨིན།
(Nga ... inn)
Where are you from? ཁྱོད་ག་ཏེ་ལས་སྨོ?
(Chhoe gatey lay mo?)
I'm from ... ང་ ... ལས་ཨིན
(Nga ... lay inn)
Pleased to meet you ང་ཁྱོད་དང་མཇལ་དེ་སེམས་དགའ་ཨི་།
(Nga chhoe da chhedi sem gaa yi)
ཁྱོད་དང་གཅིག་ཁར་འཕྱད་དེ་སེམས་དགའ་ཡི།
(Chhoe dang chikar chhedi sem gaa yi)
ཁྱོད་དང་གཅིག་ཁར་འཕྱད་དེ་ང་ཡང་སེམས་དགའ་ཡི།
(Chhoe dang chikar chhedi nga yang sem gaa yi) - reply
Good morning
(Morning greeting)
ངྲོ་པདེ་ལེགས།
(Dobro delek)
Good afternoon
(Afternoon greeting)
Nima dele
Good evening
(Evening greeting)
ཕྱི་རུ་བདེེ་ལེགས།
(Chiru delek)
Good night Simcha dele
Goodbye
(Parting phrases)
ལོག་ཤུལ་ལས་འབྱལ་གེ།
(Lok shu ley jel gey) - See you later
ཡ་ཡ། ཡར་སི་མས།
(Yaya. Yasi mey) - Okay. Bye
Good luck! Tashi delek!
Cheers! Good Health!
(Toasts used when drinking)
Have a nice day
Bon appetit /
Have a nice meal
Bon voyage /
Have a good journey
Yes ཨིན། (ing)
No མེན། (men)
Maybe
I don't know
I understand
I don't understand ང་གིས་ ཧ་མི་གོ་བས།
(Nga gi ha migo wai)
Please speak more slowly ཨ་ཙི་ འགྲོས་ཀྱིས་སྦེ་གསུང་གནང།
(Ah tsi due ki bay sung nang)
Please say that again ཡང་བསྐྱར་གསུང་གནང་པ་ཅིན་ ལགས?
(Yang char sung nang pa chin la?)
Please write it down
Do you speak English?
Do you speak Dzongkha?
Yes, a little
(reply to 'Do you speak ...?')
Speak to me in Dzongkha
How do you say ... in Dzongkha?
Excuse me Atsi zur nang
How much is this? འདི་ག་དེམ་ཅིག་ཨིན་ན?
(Di gadem chi enna?)
Gadem chi mo?
Ga day chi mo?
Teru ga they chi mo?
Sorry ཙིགཔ་མ་ཟ།
(Tsip maza)
Gom mathrae
Please ང་ལུ་གནང་།
(Nga lu nang)
Thank you བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ།
(Kadrin chhe)
གནམ་མེད་ས་མེད་བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ་ལགས།
(Nami sami kadrinchhe la)
Reply to thank you ཡ་ཡ། (yaya)
Jembalaekso
Where's the toilet / bathroom? ཆབ་གསང་ག་ཏེ་ཡོད་ག?
(Chhab sang gatey yue ga?)
This gentleman will pay for everything
This lady will pay for everything
Would you like to dance with me?
Do you come here often?
I miss you
I love you
Get well soon
Go away!
Leave me alone!
Help!
Fire!
Stop!
Call the police!
Christmas greetings
New Year greetings
Easter greetings
Birthday greetings
One language is never enough
My hovercraft is full of eels

Hear some Dzongkha phrases

If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, please contact me.

Information about Dzongkha | Phrases | Numbers

Learn Dzhongkha with uTalk

Dzongkha language resources on Amazon

Links

Other collections of Dzongkha phrases
https://wikitravel.org/en/Dzongkha_phrasebook
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Dzongkha_phrasebook
https://www.gesar-travel.com/dzongkha-for-beginners/?lang=en
http://wandertours.com/helpful-phrases-in-dzongkha-for-travelers/
https://www.memrise.com/course/333372/dzongkha-basic-phrases/

Phrases in Tibeto-Burman languages

Burmese, Dzongkha, Manipuri, Newar, Tibetan

Phrases in other languages

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