Convenience Store

1. ཁུག་མ་དགོས་པས།

   Khug-ma goe-pae?

   Do you need a bag?

   Usage

   Said by staff. Tibet has no convenience-store chains; you shop at a small family-run "tshongkhang". Plastic bags are chargeable across China, so expect to pay a few jiao for one

   Grammar Note

   The final particle "pae" forms a yes/no question, and its shape alternates with the last letter of the preceding word. Answer "goe" (yes) or "mi goe" (no).

2. ཁུག་མ་གཅིག་གནང་རོགས།

   Khug-ma chig nang-rok

   One bag, please

   Usage

   Use it when staff do not offer a bag. Tibetan shops often hand goods over loose, and pilgrims typically carry a cloth shoulder bag of their own

   Grammar Note

   "Nang" is the honorific verb "to give" and "rok" is the request particle. Together, "nang-rok" is the standard polite way to ask for something in Tibetan.

3. འདིར་བཤུས་རོགས།

   Dir shue-rok

   Please scan here

   Usage

   Said by staff. WeChat Pay and Alipay QR payments dominate even in Tibetan shops, with a plate showing both codes standing by the till. Offer cash and you may be told there is no change

   Grammar Note

   "Dir" is a contraction of "di" (this) plus the locative particle, meaning "here". "Shue" originally means to copy out by hand, and has been extended to scanning a code.

4. དངུལ་ངོ་མ་སྤྲོད་ན་འགྲིག་གི་རེད་པས།

   Ngue ngo-ma troe-na drig-gi re-pae?

   Is it all right if I pay in cash?

   Usage

   Electronic payment is so entrenched in Tibet that handing over cash can leave staff at a loss. Alipay and WeChat Pay now accept foreign-issued cards without a Chinese bank account, but keep small notes in case that fails

   Grammar Note

   The frame "verb + na + drig-gi re-pae" asks for permission, literally "if I do X, is that acceptable?". "Na" is the conditional particle and "drig" means to be fitting or acceptable.

5. ཁྱོན་བསྡོམས་སྒོར་མོ་བཅུ་གཉིས་རེད།

   Khyoen-dom gor-mo chu-nyi re

   That comes to twelve yuan

   Usage

   Said by staff. The currency in the Tibet Autonomous Region is the yuan, called "gormo" in Tibetan. If the number escapes you, ask to see the till or calculator display. In Lhasa shops the figure is often quoted in Chinese

   Grammar Note

   Tibetan counts chig (1), nyi (2), sum (3), zhi (4), nga (5), drug (6), dun (7), gyae (8), gu (9), chu (10). Numbers above ten are formed as "chu + digit", so twelve is "chu-nyi".

6. ལེན་འཛིན་དགོས་པས།

   Len-dzin goe-pae?

   Do you need a receipt?

   Usage

   Said by staff. Small shops total things up mentally without a till, so no receipt may exist. In China the formal tax receipt is called a "fapiao", and asking by that name is the most reliable way to get one for expenses

   Grammar Note

   Len-dzin means "a document for receiving money or goods". Tibetan script separates syllables with the mark "tsheg", which does not indicate a word boundary.

7. འདི་གནང་རོགས།

   Di nang-rok

   This one, please

   Usage

   The simplest phrase, used while pointing. In Tibetan shops the stock usually sits on shelves behind the counter out of reach, so pointing is how you order

   Grammar Note

   Tibetan has a two-way deictic contrast: "di" (this) and "de" (that). For quantity, place the numeral after the noun, as in "di nyi nang-rok" (two of these, please).

8. ཆུ་ག་པར་ཡོད་པས།

   Chu ga-par yoe-pae?

   Where is the water?

   Usage

   Tap water is not drunk in Tibet, so bottled water is essential. Lhasa sits at 3,650 metres where the air is very dry, and drinking plenty of water is recommended to help stave off altitude sickness. Shops also stock five-litre bottles

   Grammar Note

   "Ga-par" means "where", and the final particle "pae" is retained even in a wh-question. Swap in any product and the frame holds: "o-ma" (milk), "bag-leb" (bread).

9. ཆུ་ཚ་པོ་ཡོད་པས།

   Chu tsha-po yoe-pae?

   Do you have hot water?

   Usage

   Useful when buying instant noodles. Every Tibetan shop and eatery keeps a thermos and will share hot water if you ask. The habit of drinking hot water runs throughout China, so stations and guesthouses have dispensers too

   Grammar Note

   Tibetan adjectives follow the noun, hence "chu tsha-po". Cold water is "chu drang-mo". Butter tea is "ja suma", though you drink that in a teahouse rather than buy it in a shop.

10. ཐུར་མ་གཅིག་གནང་རོགས།

    Thur-ma chig nang-rok

    A spoon, please

    Usage

    Ask for one when buying instant noodles or prepared food. Traditional Tibetan meals use few utensils — tsampa is kneaded with butter tea by hand. Chopsticks are "zathur" and any Chinese-run shop will have them

    Grammar Note

    The core request pattern is "noun + chig + nang-rok". For extra deference, append the polite particle "la" at the end.

11. དབུགས་རླུང་ཡོད་པས།

    Ug-lung yoe-pae?

    Do you have oxygen canisters?

    Usage

    Portable oxygen canisters are sold as a matter of course in Lhasa and other Tibetan shops, and are reassuring for visitors unused to altitudes above 3,600 metres. They give only temporary relief, though — if headache or nausea persists, descending is the reliable remedy

    Grammar Note

    Oxygen is expressed as a compound of "ug" (breath) and "lung" (wind, air). "Lung" is a key term in Tibetan medicine for the vital energy circulating in the body, and covers wind, air and breath alike. In Chinese, "yangqi" will always be understood.

12. ཁ་པར་གློག་བླུགས་ན་ཆོག་གི་རེད་པས།

    Kha-par log lug-na chog-gi re-pae?

    May I charge my phone here?

    Usage

    Small Tibetan shops and teahouses will often let you use a socket if you ask, though it rests on the owner goodwill, so buy something first. Cold at altitude drains batteries fast, making a power bank well worth carrying

    Grammar Note

    "Chog" is the auxiliary of permission, distinct from "thub" which expresses ability. When asking someone to allow something, "chog-gi re-pae" is the natural choice.

13. ཉེ་འགྲམ་ལ་ཨེ་ཊི་ཨེམ་ཡོད་པས།

    Nye-dram la ATM yoe-pae?

    Is there an ATM nearby?

    Usage

    In central Lhasa and Shigatse you can find Bank of China and Agricultural Bank machines, but they thin out sharply in rural areas. Few accept foreign cards, and with electronic payment dominant more shops handle no cash at all

    Grammar Note

    Loanwords are transcribed syllable by syllable in Tibetan script, so ATM becomes A-Ti-Em. The retroflex letter used for "ti" was devised for Sanskrit transliteration and now serves modern borrowings.

14. གསང་སྤྱོད་ག་པར་ཡོད་པས།

    Sang-choe ga-par yoe-pae?

    Where is the toilet?

    Usage

    Tibetan shops have no customer toilet and staff will point you to a public one. Paper is almost never provided outside the cities, so carry tissues. The Chinese word "cesuo" is also understood

    Grammar Note

    A euphemism built from "sang" (private, secret) and "choe" (to use), meaning roughly "the place used in private". Dzongkha in Bhutan uses the same word.

15. འོ་མ་ག་པར་ཡོད་པས།

    O-ma ga-par yoe-pae?

    Where is the milk?

    Usage

    Tibetan shops mostly stock shelf-stable carton milk; chilled fresh milk is uncommon. The signature dairy product is "chura", a dried cheese from yak milk, the hard variety of which is chewed slowly for hours

    Grammar Note

    Shared with Dzongkha, "o-ma" sits at the heart of Himalayan food culture alongside butter ("mar") and cheese ("chura"). Yak milk is "dri yi o-ma", since the milk-giving female yak has its own name, "dri".

16. ཐ་མག་ཡོད་པས།

    Tha-mag yoe-pae?

    Do you have cigarettes?

    Usage

    Cigarettes sit on the shelf behind the till, so pointing at the brand is safest. Smoking is strictly forbidden inside temple and monastery grounds, and Tibetan Buddhism carries teachings against it, so refrain anywhere near a sacred site

    Grammar Note

    If they have none the answer is "me". The Tibetan existential verb is suppletive: "yoe" in the affirmative, "me" in the negative. "Tha-mag" is shared with Dzongkha and Mongolian.

17. ཚོང་ཁང་ཆུ་ཚོད་ག་ཚོད་ལ་སྒོ་རྒྱག་གི་རེད།

    Tshong-khang chu-tshoe ga-tshoe la go-gyag-gi re?

    What time does the shop close?

    Usage

    Almost nothing opens 24 hours in Tibet; most shops run from about 9am to 9-10pm. Since all of China keeps Beijing time, the sun rises in Lhasa around 8am, and shops feel later to open than the clock suggests

    Grammar Note

    The suffix "khang" means house or building and forms names of premises: tshong-khang (shop), za-khang (restaurant), ja-khang (teahouse). To open is "go che", literally to open the door.

Browse all TravelPhrases languages