mother father

ཨ་མ་ - ama ཨ་བ་ - aba

grandmother
ཨ་�ི ་ - api
grandfather
མེ ་མེ ་ - meme
People

sister (younger) brother (younger)

་ན ོ་མ ོ་ - nomo ན ོ་ན ོ་ - nono
PEOPLE

person, human uncle

མི ་ - mi ཨ་ཞང་ - azhaŋ

woman man
�་མ ོ་ - pomo �་ཚ་ - putsha

female friend male friend

མཛའ་མ ོ་ - dzamo མཛའ་བ ོ་ - dzabo
 PEOPLE

To show
respect to the
hearer, add
the particle
-le to the end
of sentences.

Mother! Father!
ཨ་མ་ལེ ། ཨ་བ་ལེ །
Amale! Abale!
Use in to talk
about
yourself,
members of
your family
and other
intimately
known facts.

I am a grandmother. I am a grandfather.
ང་ ནི ་ ཨ་�ི ་ ཡི ན། ང་ ནི ་ མེ ་མེ ་ ཡི ན།
ŋa api in. ŋa meme in.

I am a great man. She is my friend.

ང་ ནི ་ �གས་བ ོ་ མི ་ ཡི ན། ཁ ོ་ ངའི ་ མཛའ་མ ོ ཡི ན།
ŋa ni ??? mi in. K'o nyi dzamo in.
PEOPLE

Use duk to
talk about
things you
see or have
seen.

She is here. He is there.

ཁ ོ་ འདི་ཀ་ འ�ག ཁ ོ་ འ་ཀ་ འ�ག
K'o dika duk. K'o aka duk.
Use yot in
"there is/are"
sentences if
you know
without
looking.

I am here. My older sister is there.

ང་ འདེ་ཀ་ ཡ ོད། ངའི ་ ཨ་ཅེ་ འ་ཀ་ ཡ ོད།
ŋa dika yot. nyi ache aka yot.

He is very tall. This is my younger sister.

ཁ ོ་ མ་ན་ རི ང་མ ོ་ འ�ག། འ�་ ངའི ་ ན ོ་མ ོ་ ཡི ན།
k'o mana riŋmo duk. Du nyi nomo in.
 this she
འ�་ - du ཁ ོ་ - kho

he
ཁ ོ་ - kho
they
ཁ ོང་ - khoŋ Pronouns
you (familiar) I
་�ེ ་རང་ - khyeraŋ ང་ - ŋa
 * aspirated
ཀ ཁ ག ང
*
consonants:
h pronounce with
k k g ng
make khaki a puff of air
grand mango
# unlike in
ཅ ཆ ཇ ཉ English, the
tongue touches
ch chh j ny
lunch Chinese jam canyon the back of the
teeth
#
ཏ ཐ ད ན

Alphabet
h
t t d n
noon

པ ཕ བ མ
h
p p b m
rope positive boom mum

ཙ ཚ ཛ ཝ
ts tsh dz w
tse-tse tse-tse wet

ཞ ཟ འ ཡ
zh z a y
Brezhnev zero cup yes

ར ས ལ ཤ
r s l sh
(trilled) son lend she

ཧ ཨ
h a
hair cup
 2 ALPHABET

In addition to the thirty letters, four vowel

signs are also used:

◌ི ◌ུ
གི་�་ ཞབས་་
gigu zhapskyu

pronounce as pronounce as
i in "hit" u in "put"

◌ེ ◌ོ
ན་རོ་
naro

pronounce as
e e o in "hot"
Vowels

If no vowel sign is present in a syllable,

pronounce it with the vowel a as in
"father" or as the u in "cup".

Here are some examples of vowels

combined with the main letters:

ཨ་ a, ་ i, ་ u, ་ e, ་ o

ཀ་ ka, ཀི་ ki, ་ ku, ཀེ་ ke, ཀོ་ ko

 ALPHABET 3

The letters can be stacked, like this:

Combined letters
ས་ sa and ཀ་ ka form ་ ska,
ར་ ra and ག་ ga form ་ rga,
ལ་ la and བ་ ba form ་ lba.

ཡ་ ya and ར་ ra look different when

subscribed to other letters.

When spelling out loud, these subscribed

letters are spelled out as "yasta" and
"rasta".

ཀ་ ka and ཡ་ ya gives ་ kya.

Combinations with the letter ར་ ra

subscribed below other letters are
pronounced with the tip of the tongue
curled back; in the transcription, we mark
these so called retroflex sounds by a dot
under the letter.

ཀ་ ka and ར་ ra gives ་ ṭa,

ས་ sa and ར་ ra gives ་ ṣa.
4 ALPHABET
In each syllable, there is always one
main letter, in addition to which there
may be six other optional elements
(letters or vowel signs). Read the
elements in the order suggested.
Remember that if no vowel sign is
present, the vowel is "a".

5 a vowel symbol
one of ◌ི, ◌ེ, ◌ོ
2 a superscribed letter
one of ར་ལ་ས་

་
1 3 6 7
ག་ ང་ ད་ ན་ བ་ མ་ འ་ ར་ ལ་ ས་
(usually not pronounced་)

any letter of the alphabet

a dot
one of་ ག་ ད་ བ་ མ་ འ་

only ས་ possible here

marking
second suffix letter
first suffix letter
the main letter

the end
prefix letter

of the
one of

syllable,
called
�ག་ - tsheg

4 a subscribed letter
one of་ ཝ་ ཡ་ ར་ ལ་

5
vowel symbol ◌ུ
mne-mon-ic /nɪ'mɒnɪk; AmE-'mɑ:n-/ noun a word, sentence,
poem, etc. that helps you to remember something (OED)

APPLE ཁ་ལེ བ་ I cook apples, EYE ཁ་ལེ བ་

Mnemonics
so you should
(kushu) (mik)
eat them, man.

BAG ཁ་ལེ བ་ When I go to I see a mic with my

school with my mik. (Microphone is an
(jola) bag I say Julley eye for sounds).
to everyone

BOOK ཁ་ལེ བ་ Key—Tap to FILE BOOK ཁ་ལེ བ་

unlock!
(kitap) (kitap)
Cheating on scores will
(WHITE/BLACK) I knocked on the be discovered, because
board tac-tac-
BOARD ཏག་ཏི་ the principal has his
tac, and then I
filebook.
(takti) heard a horn
tee-tee-tee. HAND ལག་པ་
(lakpa)
"Hands up! I
won't leave
without a lakh!"
BRACELET ཁ་ལེ བ་ Take the the thief shouted
Chinese bracelet at pa. (Lakh is
(takchpo) and put it on. 100 000 [Rupees])

CHAIR �ར་�ི ་ Where is my HANKERCHIEFཁ་ལེ བ་

kurkure? Tashi
(kurtsi) is sitting on the
(lagfis)
chair, crunching Hankerchief = hand +
your favourite kerchief; lagfis =
spicy snack! lakpa + is.

COLLAR ཁ་ལེ བ་ The gorilla HAT ཁ་ལེ བ་

playing on a
(kamisi gongrtsa) gong in a kamis
(tippi)
is getting on my Tea + Pea = Hat
nerves (nerve is
'rtsa' in Ladakhi).
MNEMONICS

HOT SPRING ཁ་ལེ བ་ A picnic girl is

(donmochu) hot.
(don = picnic, mo = girl,
chu = hot)

LID, COVER ཁ་ལེ བ་ The khaki

laptop has a
(khaleb) khaki lid.

PAPER ཁ་ལེ བ་ Was paper

invented by the
(shugu) Shoguns?

SEED, NUT ཡག་པ་ The yak is eating

a pile of nuts.
(yakpa)

SKIN ཁ་ལེ བ་ Pakistani spa

makes my skin
(pakspa) feel good.

STONE ཁ་ལེ བ་ A stone is a

rather difficult
(rdoa) object to throw
in the air.

TOOTH ས ོ་ The saw has

many teeth.
(so) Moreover, it cuts
wood just as a
tooth cuts food.
 1

1 one ༡ གཅི ག་ chik १ एक ek

2 two ༢ གཉིས་ nyis २ दॊ do
3 three ༣ གསུམ་ sum ३ तन tiin
4 four ༤ བཞི ་ zhi ४ चार chaar
5 five ༥ ལྔ་ ṣŋa ५ पॉच paanch
6 six ༦ དྲུག་ ṭuk ६ छद ch'e
7 seven ༧ བདུན་ dun ७ सात saat
8 eight ༨ བརྐྱད་ rgyat ८ आठ aat'
9 nine ༩ དགུ་ rgu ९ नी nau
10 ten ༡༠ བཅུ་ ṣchu १० दस das
11 eleven ༡༡ བཅུ་གཅི ག་ chukshik
12 twelve ༡༢ བཅུ་གཉིས་ chugnyis
13 thirteen ༡༣ བཅུ་གསུམ་ chuksum
14 fourteen ༡༤ བཅུ་བཞི ་ chuzhbi
15 fifteen ༡༥ བཅུ་ལྔ་ chorŋa
16 sixteen ༡༦ བཅུ་དྲུག་ churuk
17 seventeen ༡༧ བཅུ་བདུན་ chupdun
18 eighteen ༡༨ བཅུ་བརྐྱད་ chopgyat
19 nineteen ༡༩ བཅུ་དགུ་ churgu
20 twenty ༢༠ གཉིས་བཅུ་ nyishu