Adjectives

1. ཆེན་པོ།

   Chen po

   Big

   Usage

   For talking about size — asking to change clothes or a room

2. ཆུང་ཆུང་།

   Chung chung

   Small

   Usage

   The opposite of big; learn the pair together

3. ལྗིད་པོ།

   Jid po

   Heavy

   Usage

   For talking about the weight of your bags at check-in

4. ཡང་པོ།

   Yang po

   Light (weight)

   Usage

   Light in weight — a different word from "bright" in most languages

   Grammar Note

   Light in weight, not in brightness

5. གོང་ཆེན་པོ།

   Gong chen po

   Expensive

   Usage

   Say a price is high; it is the usual opening for haggling

   Grammar Note

   gong (price) + chen po (big) = expensive

6. གོང་ཁེ་པོ།

   Gong khe po

   Cheap

   Usage

   Cheap in price; also used to confirm the result of haggling

7. ཚ་པོ།

   Tsha po

   Hot (to the touch)

   Usage

   For hot food, drinks, or water — not for hot weather

   Grammar Note

   Hot to the touch. Hot weather is nam shi tsha po

8. གྲང་མོ།

   Drang mo

   Cold (to the touch)

   Usage

   For cold drinks or water — not for cold weather

   Grammar Note

   Cold to the touch. Cold weather is nam drang mo

9. གསར་པ།

   Sar pa

   New

   Usage

   For checking whether an item is new

10. རྙིང་པ།

    Nying pa

    Old (thing)

    Usage

    Old as in an object; do not use it about a person

    Grammar Note

    Old, of an object. For an elderly person use gen po

11. གཞོན་པ།

    Zhon pa

    Young

    Usage

    For talking about a person's age

12. རྒན་པོ།

    Gen po

    Old (person)

    Usage

    Elderly, said of a person — a different word from old (thing)

    Grammar Note

    Said of people; objects take nying pa instead

13. གཙང་མ།

    Tsang ma

    Clean

    Usage

    Praises both cleanliness and beauty

14. བཙོག་པ།

    Tsog pa

    Dirty

    Usage

    To point out that a room or dish is dirty; say it gently

15. ཡག་པོ།

    Yag po

    Good

    Usage

    The basic word to praise quality or condition

16. སྡུག་ཅག

    Dug chag

    Bad

    Usage

    To say quality or condition is not good

17. ཉེ་པོ།

    Nye po

    Near

    Usage

    Near in distance — you will hear it in answers to directions

18. ཐག་རིང་པོ།

    Thag ring po

    Far

    Usage

    Far in distance; helps you decide whether to walk or ride

19. སྔ་པོ།

    Nga po

    Early

    Usage

    Early in time — in many languages a different word from fast in speed

    Grammar Note

    Early in time. Fast in speed is gyog po

20. ཕྱི་པོ།

    Chi po

    Late

    Usage

    Late in time — in many languages a different word from slow in speed

    Grammar Note

    Late in time. Slow in speed is dal po

21. མང་པོ།

    Mang po

    Many

    Usage

    Many or much; useful for adjusting portions

22. ཉུང་ཉུང་།

    Nyung nyung

    Few

    Usage

    Few or little; use it to ask for a smaller amount

23. གནམ་གཤིས་ཚ་པོ།

    Nam shi tsha po

    Hot (weather)

    Usage

    For hot weather or a hot room — not for hot objects

    Grammar Note

    nam shi (the weather) is hot

24. གནམ་གྲང་མོ།

    Nam drang mo

    Cold (weather)

    Usage

    For cold weather or a cold room — not for cold objects

    Grammar Note

    The weather is cold. For a cold object just say drang mo

25. ཞིམ་པོ་རེད།

    Zhim po red

    Delicious

    Usage

    The most common compliment at a meal

26. ངོ་མཚར་པོ་རེད།

    Ngo tsar po red

    Amazing

    Usage

    Used to express surprise or admiration

27. ཏོག་ཙམ།

    Tog tsam

    Just a little

    Usage

    Point at it when you want only a small amount

28. ཕྱེད་ཀ

    Che ka

    Half

    Usage

    Point at it when you want half the amount

29. ཚང་མ།

    Tshang ma

    All of it

    Usage

    Point at it when you mean the whole lot

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