Adjectives

1. སྦོམ།

   Bom

   Big

   Usage

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

2. ཆུང་ཀུ།

   Chung ku

   Small

   Usage

   The opposite of big; learn the pair together

3. ལྗིད་ཏོག་ཏོ།

   Jid tog to

   Heavy

   Usage

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

4. ཡང་ཏོག་ཏོ།

   Yang tog to

   Light (weight)

   Usage

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

   Grammar Note

   Light in weight, not in brightness

5. གོང་སྦོམ།

   Gong bom

   Expensive

   Usage

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

   Grammar Note

   gong (price) + bom (big) = expensive

6. གོང་ཁེ་ཏོག་ཏོ།

   Gong khe tog to

   Cheap

   Usage

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

7. ཚ་ཏོག་ཏོ།

   Tsha tog to

   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 tog to

8. གྲང་ཏོག་ཏོ།

   Drang tog to

   Cold (to the touch)

   Usage

   For cold drinks or water — not for cold weather

   Grammar Note

   Cold to the touch. Cold weather is nam shi drang tog to

9. གསརཔ།

   Sarp

   New

   Usage

   For checking whether an item is new

10. རྙིངམ།

    Nyingm

    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 gep

11. ན་གཞོན།

    Na zhon

    Young

    Usage

    For talking about a person's age

12. རྒསཔ།

    Gep

    Old (person)

    Usage

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

    Grammar Note

    Said of people; objects take nyingm instead

13. གཙང་ཏོག་ཏོ།

    Tsang tog to

    Clean

    Usage

    Praises both cleanliness and beauty

14. བཙོགཔ།

    Tsogp

    Dirty

    Usage

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

15. ལེགས་ཤོམ།

    Leg shom

    Good

    Usage

    The basic word to praise quality or condition

16. ངན་པ།

    Ngen pa

    Bad

    Usage

    To say quality or condition is not good

17. ཐག་ཉེ་ས།

    Thag nye sa

    Near

    Usage

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

18. ཐག་རིང་ས།

    Thag ring sa

    Far

    Usage

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

19. སྔ་བ།

    Nga wa

    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 drag

20. ཕྱི་བ།

    Chi wa

    Late

    Usage

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

    Grammar Note

    Late in time. Slow in speed is lhoe lhoe

21. མང་།

    Mang

    Many

    Usage

    Many or much; useful for adjusting portions

22. ཉུང་ཀུ།

    Nyung ku

    Few

    Usage

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

23. གནམ་གཤིས་ཚ་ཏོག་ཏོ།

    Nam shi tsha tog to

    Hot (weather)

    Usage

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

    Grammar Note

    nam shi (the weather) is hot

24. གནམ་གཤིས་གྲང་ཏོག་ཏོ།

    Nam shi drang tog to

    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 tog to

25. མཛེས།

    Dze

    Cute

    Usage

    A versatile compliment for people, animals, or things (broadly means "beautiful")

26. ཞིམ་པ།

    Zhim pa

    Delicious

    Usage

    The most common compliment to give during a meal

27. བཟང་།

    Zang

    Amazing

    Usage

    Expresses surprise or admiration

28. སྤྲོ་བ་ཡོདཔ།

    Tro-wa yoepa

    Fun

    Usage

    Used to share how enjoyable an experience was (literally "there is joy")

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