Dietary & Allergies

1. ང་ཤ་མི་བཟའ་མི་ཨིན།

   Nga sha mi zay mi in.

   I am vegetarian.

   Usage

   Basic vegetarian declaration

   Grammar Note

   "in" is the Dzongkha copula "is/am"

2. ང་སྲོག་ཆགས་ཀྱི་བཟའ་ཆས་ག་ནི་ཡང་མི་བཟའ།

   Nga sokchak gi zaychay gani yang mi zay.

   I don't eat any animal products.

   Usage

   Explain vegan diet

   Grammar Note

   "gani yang" + negative = "none at all"

3. ང་ལུ་སྟར་ཀོ་དང་བ་དམ་ལུ་འགོག་རྐྱེན་ཡོད།

   Nga lu tarko dang badam lu gokkyen yoe.

   I have a nut allergy.

   Usage

   Names both tree nuts and peanuts. To say almond specifically, use རྒྱ་གར་སྟར་ཀོ (literally "Indian སྟར་ཀོ")

   Grammar Note

   "Nga lu … yoe" = "I have ~"; དང་ (dang) = "and" links the items. ཙན་དན (tsanden) is sandalwood (Santalum), borrowed from Sanskrit candana — not a food at all, and completely unintelligible here. The forms: nut = སྟར་ཀོ ("the kind of tree-fruit with a hard shell"), walnut = སྟར་ཀོ, almond = རྒྱ་གར་སྟར་ཀོ, peanut = བ་དམ. Do NOT carry the Tibetan gloss over and call བ་དམ "almond" — in Dzongkha it is peanut, and bo and dz diverge on this word. Note that མོ་གཅུས (mo gcus), sometimes given for English "nut", is the hardware nut that goes on a bolt — never use it

4. གྲོ་ཞིབ་མེདཔའི་བཟའ་ཆས་ག་ཡོདཔ་སྨོ།

   Drozhib mep'i zaychay ga yoep mo?

   Do you have gluten-free food?

   Usage

   Question for celiac/gluten intolerance

   Grammar Note

   "smo" marks yes/no questions

5. ང་ཧ་ལལ་བཟའཝ་ཨིན། ཕག་ཤ་མི་བཟའ།

   Nga halal zaw in. Phak sha mi zay.

   I eat halal; I don't eat pork.

   Usage

   Convey Muslim dietary rules

   Grammar Note

   "zaw" is the habitual form

6. ང་ལུ་འོ་མ་འཇུ་མི་ཚུགས།

   Nga lu oma ju mi tshu.

   I can't digest milk.

   Usage

   Explain lactose intolerance

   Grammar Note

   "tshu" = potential aux; with "mi" = "cannot"

7. ང་ལུ་མཚོའི་བཟའ་ཆས་ལུ་འགོག་རྐྱེན་ཡོད།

   Nga lu tsoi zaychay lu gokkyen yoe.

   I have a seafood allergy.

   Usage

   When avoiding fish/shellfish

   Grammar Note

   "tsoi" = genitive "of the sea"

8. བཟའ་ཆས་འདི་གི་ནང་ལུ་ག་ཅི་ཡོད།

   Zaychay di gi nang lu gachi yoe?

   What's in this dish?

   Usage

   Check ingredients

   Grammar Note

   "-nang lu" = "inside"

9. བཙོང་མེདཔར་བཟོ་ཚུགས་ག།

   Tsong mepar zo tshu ga?

   Can you make it without onion?

   Usage

   Ask to omit an ingredient

   Grammar Note

   "-ga" is a soft question marker

10. ང་ལུ་སྒོང་རྡོག་ལུ་འགོག་རྐྱེན་ཡོད།

    Nga lu gongdog lu gokkyen yoe.

    I have an egg allergy.

    Usage

    Avoid egg-containing dishes

    Grammar Note

    "-lu" marks the dative

11. འགོག་རྐྱེན་སྦྱིན་མི་གི་བཟའ་ཆས་ཐོ་ག་ཡོདཔ་སྨོ།

    Gokkyen jin mi gi zaychay tho ga yoep mo?

    Do you have an allergen list?

    Usage

    Request an allergen list

    Grammar Note

    "jin mi" = "one that causes/gives"

12. འདི་སྲོག་ལུ་ཉེན་ཁ་ཡོདཔའི་འགོག་རྐྱེན་ཨིན།

    Di sok lu nyenkha yoep'i gokkyen in.

    This is a life-threatening allergy.

    Usage

    Indicate severity

    Grammar Note

    "-yoep'i" = adjectivalizing "that has"

13. འདིའི་ནང་ལུ་སྣུམ་ཡངན་སྨན་ཚོད་ཡོད་ག།

    Di nang lu num yangna mentsho yoe ga?

    Does this contain oil or spices?

    Usage

    Check for oil/spice

    Grammar Note

    "yangna" = "or"

14. བཟའ་ཆས་གཞན་དང་འདྲེས་སྲིད་ག།

    Zaychay zhen dang dre si ga?

    Could it cross-contaminate?

    Usage

    Ask about cross-contamination

    Grammar Note

    "si" = potential auxiliary "may"

15. ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་བཟོད་ལུ་ལེགས་སོ།

    Choe gi thuk-zoe lu lekso.

    Thank you for understanding.

    Usage

    Thank for accommodating

    Grammar Note

    "thuk-" is the honorific prefix

16. ང་ཤ་བཟའ་མི་ཚུགས།

    Nga sha zay mi tshu.

    I can't eat meat.

    Usage

    State you can't eat meat

    Grammar Note

    Verb + "mi tshu" = negative potential

17. ཕག་ཤ།

    Phag sha

    Pork

    Usage

    Point at it to ask whether a dish contains it; covers both allergies and religious restrictions

18. ནོར་ཤ།

    Nor sha

    Beef

    Usage

    Point at it to ask whether a dish contains it; covers both allergies and religious restrictions

19. བྱ་ཤ།

    Ja sha

    Chicken (meat)

    Usage

    Point at it to ask whether a dish contains it; covers both allergies and religious restrictions

20. ཉ་ཤ།

    Nya sha

    Fish (as food)

    Usage

    Point at it to ask whether a dish contains it; covers both allergies and religious restrictions

21. སྒོང་རྡོག།

    Gong dog

    Egg

    Usage

    Point at it to ask whether a dish contains it; covers both allergies and religious restrictions

22. ཨོམ།

    Om

    Milk

    Usage

    Point at it to ask whether a dish contains it; covers both allergies and religious restrictions

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