Electronics

1. འགྲུལ་འཕྲིན།

   Drul thrin

   Mobile phone

   Usage

   Coverage drops between valleys — check where the dead zones are before a trek

   Grammar Note

   འགྲུལ (travel) + འཕྲིན (message) — a phone you carry

2. བརྒྱུད་འཕྲིན།

   Gyue thrin

   Telephone

   Usage

   The general word, including landlines; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

   Grammar Note

   བརྒྱུད (to relay) + འཕྲིན (message); "to phone" is བརྒྱུད་འཕྲིན་གཏང་ནི

3. གློག་རིག།

   Log rig

   Computer

   Usage

   Show it when asking where you can work in a hotel or café

   Grammar Note

   གློག (electricity) + རིག (knowledge); the transliteration ཀམ་པིའུ་ཊ is also used

4. གློག་ནུས་གསོ་ཆས།

   Log nue so che

   Charger

   Usage

   Show it at reception when borrowing one

   Grammar Note

   གློག་ནུས (electric power) + གསོ (to restore) + ཆས (device)

5. འཕྲུལ་ལྟོ།

   Thrul to

   Battery

   Usage

   Show it when buying dry cells for a torch

   Grammar Note

   Literally "machine food": འཕྲུལ (machine) + ལྟོ (meal)

6. གློག་ཁ།

   Log kha

   Socket

   Usage

   Bhutan runs 230V / 50Hz with Indian round-pin sockets (Type D/M) alongside C and G — bring an adapter

   Grammar Note

   གློག (electricity) + ཁ (mouth, opening)

7. གློག་ཐག།

   Log thag

   Electric cable

   Usage

   Show it with the charger when you need a charging cable

   Grammar Note

   གློག (electricity) + ཐག (cord)

8. གློག་མེ།

   Log me

   Electricity

   Usage

   Use it to report a power cut; Bhutan runs almost entirely on hydropower and monsoon storms knock it out

   Grammar Note

   གློག (electric) + མེ (fire)

9. ཨིན་ཊར་ནེཊ།

   In tar net

   Internet

   Usage

   A transliteration from English; the native term is གློག་རིག་ཡོངས་འབྲེལ. Hotel Wi-Fi is slow in some valleys

10. གསང་ཚིག།

    Sang tshig

    Password

    Usage

    Show it when asking for the Wi-Fi password

    Grammar Note

    གསང (secret) + ཚིག (word); གསང་བརྡ is used for a watchword

11. པར་ཆས།

    Par che

    Camera

    Usage

    Photography is often banned inside a dzong and during rituals — always show this and ask first

    Grammar Note

    པར (image) + ཆས (device)

12. རྒྱང་མཐོང་།

    Gyang thong

    Television

    Usage

    Covers both the set and the programme; television was only permitted in Bhutan in 1999

    Grammar Note

    རྒྱང (far) + མཐོང (to see)

13. རེ་ཌིའོ།

    Re di o

    Radio

    Usage

    Still an information lifeline in the mountains, and usually playing on long-distance buses

    Grammar Note

    A transliteration from English; the native term is རླུང་འཕྲིན་ཉན་སྒྲོམ

14. འཁྱེག་སྒྲོམ།

    Khyeg drom

    Refrigerator

    Usage

    Show it at reception when medicine needs to stay cold

    Grammar Note

    འཁྱེག (cold) + སྒྲོམ (box); a synonym is བསིལ་སྒྲོམ

15. འཕྲུལ་མེ།

    Thrul me

    Torch / flashlight

    Usage

    Villages have no street lighting and power cuts are routine — carry one if you go out after dark

    Grammar Note

    འཕྲུལ (machine) + མེ (fire)

16. ཤེལ་ཏོག།

    Shel tog

    Light bulb

    Usage

    Show it to say a bulb in your room has gone

    Grammar Note

    ཤེལ (glass) + ཏོག (knob, tip)

17. རླུང་འཁོར།

    Lung khor

    Electric fan

    Usage

    Needed in the southern lowlands; Thimphu and Paro are cool and air conditioning is rare

    Grammar Note

    རླུང (wind) + འཁོར (wheel)

18. དྲོད་རྫ།

    Droe dza

    Heater

    Usage

    The word that matters most in a highland guesthouse in winter — ask whether the room has one and whether you may use it

    Grammar Note

    A heat-producing appliance; it can also mean a water geyser

19. འཁྱུ་བཤལ་འཕྲུལ་ཆས།

    Khyu shel thrul che

    Washing machine

    Usage

    Show it when asking whether laundry can be done; often it is still washed by hand

    Grammar Note

    འཁྱུ་བཤལ (to wash out) + འཕྲུལ་ཆས (machine)

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