Directions

1. [ས་གནས་]ལུ་འགྲོ་ན་ལམ་ག་ཅི་ཡིན།

   [sa-ne] lu dro-na lam ga-chi yin

   Which road should I take to get to [place]?

   Usage

   Basic phrase to ask directions. Replace [sa-ne] with your destination

   Grammar Note

   The conditional "lu dro-na" means "if going to." Dzongkha directions combine orientation and distance markers

2. གཡས་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་གཞུང་ལམ་ལུ་འགྱོ།

   Ye-kyi chog-su zhung-lam lu gyo

   Turn right onto the main road

   Usage

   Used to give directions involving a right turn. Helpful when directing taxis or pedestrians

   Grammar Note

   "Kyi chog-su" is a postposition meaning "in the direction of." Commands in Dzongkha are formed with the verb stem

3. གཡོན་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་འགྱོ།

   Yon-kyi chog-su gyo

   Turn left

   Usage

   Basic instruction for a left turn. One of the most frequently used directional commands

   Grammar Note

   Left and right are "yon" and "ye" in Dzongkha. The postposition "su" reinforces the directional meaning

4. མར་ཕྱོགས་སུ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་འགྲམ་ལུ་ཡོདཔ།

   Mar-chog-su nyi-kyi dram lu yoe-pa

   It is at the second corner ahead

   Usage

   Describes the location of a destination by counting street corners

   Grammar Note

   Numerals tend to follow nouns. "Lu yoepa" means "is located at"

5. ཐད་ཀར་འགྱོ།

   Tha-kar gyo

   Go straight ahead

   Usage

   The most fundamental directional instruction. Universally applicable

   Grammar Note

   "Gyo" is the imperative of the verb "to go." Command forms in Dzongkha vary by context

6. འདི་ནས་ག་ཚམ་ར་རིང་པ་སྨོ།

   Di-ne ga-tsham-ra ring-pa mo

   How far is it from here?

   Usage

   Used to confirm the distance to a destination. Applicable for both walking and driving

   Grammar Note

   "Ga-tsham-ra" is used for "how much/far" questions. "Ring-pa" means far, "nye-wa" means near

7. ཡང་བསྐྱར་ཤོད་ཞུ།

   Yang-kar sho-zhu

   Could you say that again please?

   Usage

   Used when you haven't understood directions. A polite way to ask someone to repeat in Dzongkha

   Grammar Note

   "Zhu" is a humble suffix indicating politeness. Useful when asking someone to repeat directions

8. བར་སྤྱོད་ར་ཡོདཔ་ཡོད།

   Bar-choe-ra yoe-pa-yoe

   Do you have a map?

   Usage

   Used at tourist offices or hotels to ask for a map. English maps are sometimes available in Bhutan

   Grammar Note

   Repeating the existential verb "yoe" creates a question form. Tourist offices in Bhutan often distribute maps

9. ཐིམ་ཕུ་ལུ་ཇི་ལྟར་འགྲོ་དགོ།

   Thim-pu lu ji-tar dro-go

   How do I get to Thimphu?

   Usage

   Asks how to get to Bhutan's capital. Relevant for various transportation modes

   Grammar Note

   "Ji-tar" is the manner question word meaning "how." In Dzongkha, question words are placed near the questioned element

10. ཉེ་ཤོས་ཀྱི་བཱསི་བཀག་ས་ག་ཏེ་ཡོད།

    Nye-sho-kyi baasi kag-sa ga-te yoe

    Where is the nearest bus stop?

    Usage

    Used to find the nearest bus stop when using public transportation in Bhutan

    Grammar Note

    Superlatives are formed by adding "sho" to adjectives. Location questions use "ga-te" (where). The bus stop is "kag-sa", the same word as in the Public Transport category

11. གཡས།

    Ye

    Right

    Usage

    Point at it inside a taxi; one word is faster than a sentence

12. གཡོན།

    Yoen

    Left

    Usage

    Point at it inside a taxi; one word is faster than a sentence

13. ཐད་ཀར།

    Tha kar

    Straight ahead

    Usage

    Point at it inside a taxi

14. བྱང་།

    Jang

    North

    Usage

    Use to confirm a compass direction against a map

15. ལྷོ།

    Lho

    South

    Usage

    Use to confirm a compass direction against a map

16. ཤར།

    Shar

    East

    Usage

    Use to confirm a compass direction against a map

17. ནུབ།

    Nub

    West

    Usage

    Use to confirm a compass direction against a map

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