School & Education

10 phrases · Tibetan with romanization, English and audio

  1. སློབ་གྲྭ་གང་དུ་ཡོད།

    Lob-dra gang-du yod?

    Where is the school?

    Usage

    Used to ask the location of a school or educational institution.

    Grammar Note

    "Gang-du" combines the interrogative "gang" (where) with the locative particle "du" (at/in). A standard location question in Tibetan.

  2. སློབ་མ་ཡིན།

    Lob-ma yin

    I am a student.

    Usage

    Used when introducing yourself as a student.

    Grammar Note

    "Ma" is an agentive suffix meaning "one who [does]." So "lob-ma" = "one who studies." Tibetan often nominalizes verbs with such suffixes.

  3. དགེ་རྒན་ཕེབས་མ་སོང་།

    Ge-gen pheb-ma-song

    The teacher has not yet arrived.

    Usage

    Used to say that the teacher has not arrived yet before a class.

    Grammar Note

    "Pheb" is the honorific form of "to come." Teachers are addressed with honorifics. "Ma-song" is negative completive: "has not finished [action]."

  4. སློབ་གྲྭའི་ཆ་ལག་ཇི་ལྟ་བུ་རེད།

    Lob-dra-i cha-lag ji-ta-bu re?

    What are the school facilities like?

    Usage

    Used to inquire about a school's facilities and environment.

    Grammar Note

    "Ji-ta-bu" is a manner question word meaning "what kind of" or "how is it." Tibetan question words occupy their natural syntactic position within SOV order.

  5. བོད་ཀྱི་ཡིག་གཟུགས་སློབ་འདོད།

    Bod-kyi yig-zug lob-dod

    I want to learn Tibetan script.

    Usage

    Used to express a desire to learn Tibetan script.

    Grammar Note

    "Lob-dod" = verb "to study" + modal "dod" (want to). Tibetan script has two main styles: Uchen (printed) and Umê (cursive).

  6. ཐེངས་གཅིག་བཀླགས་ནས་བསྒྱུར།

    Theng-chig klag-ne gyur

    Please read it once and translate it.

    Usage

    Used in class to ask someone to read and translate a passage.

    Grammar Note

    "Ne" is a sequential connective particle meaning "and then" or "after doing." It links successive actions — a standard Tibetan grammatical pattern.

  7. ཚོད་ལྟའི་དུས་ཚོད་གཏན་འཁེལ་བ་ཡིན་ནམ།

    Tö-ta-yi dü-tsö ten-khel-wa yin-nam?

    Is the exam schedule confirmed?

    Usage

    Used to ask whether the exam schedule has been fixed.

    Grammar Note

    "Tö-ta" (ཚོད་ལྟ) means "exam/test". "Yin-nam" is the confirmation question form "is it ...?"

  8. སློབ་ཚན་ལ་སེམས་ཤུགས་ཆེ་པོ་ཡིན།

    Lob-tsen la sem-shug che-po yin

    I am very interested in that subject.

    Usage

    Used to express strong interest in a particular school subject.

    Grammar Note

    "Sem-shug che-po" literally means "great heart-force," a common idiomatic expression for strong interest. Tibetan often expresses emotions through heart-related metaphors.

  9. དེབ་ཐོག་ལ་འབྲི་རོགས།

    Deb thog-la dri rok

    Please write it in the notebook.

    Usage

    Used in class to ask someone to write something in their notebook.

    Grammar Note

    "Rok" is a polite request particle meaning "please." "To write" is འབྲི — the same verb used in the contacts cards. འདེབས means "to throw / to sow", and prefixing "མ་" to any verb makes it a negative imperative ("do not …").

  10. སློབ་གྲྭའི་ཉིན་བཞག་ཇི་ལྟ་བུ་རེད།

    Lob-dra-i nyin-zhag ji-ta-bu re?

    What is the school schedule like?

    Usage

    Used to ask about the school's timetable or daily schedule.

    Grammar Note

    "Nyin-zhag" literally means "placement of days," used for schedule/timetable. Traditional Tibetan monastic schools (dratsang) have their own curriculum for Buddhist studies.

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