English-Tibetan Dictionary
Browse common English words and their Tibetan translations, with parts of speech and example sentences. Use this dictionary to look up everyday vocabulary or as a starting point for learning Tibetan.
Translate full sentences into TibetanAbout Tibetan
Tibetan is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, and India. It uses its own script derived from the Brahmi script. Tibetan is a tonal language with a rich literary tradition, especially in Buddhist texts. The script is an abugida with 30 consonants and 4 vowel signs.
Cultural Note
Tibetan script is derived from Brahmi. Classical Tibetan differs from modern spoken dialects. Honorific forms are important.
Browse common Tibetan vocabulary
| Word | Part of speech | Translation | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pronouns | |||
| I | pron. | ང་ | I am here now. ང་ ད་ལྟ་ འདིར་ཡོད། |
| you | pron. | ཁྱེད་ | You are very kind. ཁྱེད་ རྒྱ་ཆེར་ བཟང་པོ་ ཡོད། |
| he | pron. | ཁོ་ | He is my friend. ཁོ་ ངའི་ གྲོགས་པོ་ ཡིན། |
| she | pron. | མོ་ | She is very happy. མོ་ དེ་རིང་ ཤིན་ཏུ་ དགའ་པོ་ ཡོད། |
| we | pron. | ང་ཚོ་ | We live in this city. ང་ཚོ་ གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ འདིར་ སྡོད་ཀྱི་ཡོད། |
| they | pron. | ཁོང་ཚོ་ | They are at school now. ཁོང་ཚོ་ ད་ལྟ་ སློབ་གྲྭར་ ཡོད། |
| Question Words | |||
| what | int. | ཅི་ | What is your name? ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ མིང་ ཅི་ ཡིན། |
| where | int. | ག་པར་ | Where do you live? ཁྱེད་ ག་པར་ སྡོད་ཀྱི་ཡོད། |
| who | int. | སུ་ | Who is that person? མི་ དེ་ སུ་ རེད། |
| Verbs | |||
| to be | v. | ཡིན་ | This book is new. དེབ་ འདི་ གསར་པ་ ཡིན། |
| to go | v. | འགྲོ་ | We go to school early. ང་ཚོ་ སྔ་པོར་ སློབ་གྲྭར་ འགྲོ། |
| Nouns | |||
| water | n. | ཆུ་ | Water is important. ཆུ་ གལ་ཆེན་པོ་ ཡིན། |
| Adjectives | |||
| good | adj. | བཟང་པོ་ | This food is very good. ཟས་ འདི་ ཤིན་ཏུ་ བཟང་པོ་ ཡོད། |
| Conjunctions | |||
| and | conj. | དང་ | Tea and bread. ཇ་ དང་ པང་ལེབ་ གྲ་སྒྲིག་ ཡོད། |
| Interjections | |||
| yes | interj. | ཡིན་ | Yes, I know him. ཡིན་ ངས་ ཁོ་ ཤེས། |
| no | interj. | མིན་ | No, I am not busy. མིན་ ང་ བྲེལ་བ་ མེད། |
How It Works
Type an English word above to find its Tibetan translation.
Common Uses
- •Learning Tibetan
- •Travel to Tibet
- •Buddhist studies reference
FAQ
Is this Tibetan-English dictionary free?
Yes, completely free.