Health & Hospital

1. སྨན་ཁང་ག་ཏེ་ཡོད།

   Men-khang ga-te yoe

   Where is the hospital?

   Usage

   Essential phrase for finding the nearest hospital during illness or emergency

   Grammar Note

   The location question word is "ga-te" (where); it combines with the existential verb "yoe" to ask "where is it"

2. ང་ལུ་མགོ་ན་འདུག།

   Nga lu go na dug

   I have a headache

   Usage

   Headaches are common at Bhutan's high altitude due to altitude sickness. Used to describe symptoms to a doctor

   Grammar Note

   "Dug" is an evidential verb indicating direct experience. It shows the speaker personally experiences the symptom

3. ངེས་སྒར་གཏོར་རྒྱབ་ཡི།

   Nge sar-tor-gyab-yi

   I feel nauseous

   Usage

   Common symptom for altitude sickness, food poisoning, or motion sickness. Used when describing symptoms to medical staff

   Grammar Note

   "Gyab-yi" indicates an ongoing or present-continuous state. Tense in Dzongkha is marked by verb suffixes

4. ང་ལུ་ཚ་བ་འདུག།

   Nga lu tsha-wa dug

   I have a fever

   Usage

   Describes having a fever. Used during medical consultations at hospitals or clinics

   Grammar Note

   "Dug" signals direct experiential evidence. "Nga lu + symptom + dug" means "I have (this symptom)"

5. སྨན་གཅིག་ཐོབ་ཆོག་གི་ཡོདཔ།

   Men chig tob-chog gi yoe-pa

   Can I get some medicine?

   Usage

   Used at pharmacies or hospitals to request medicine. "Men" refers to medicine in general

   Grammar Note

   "Tob" means "to receive/get." "Chog" marks possibility, so "tob-chog" means "can receive"

6. ལས་རིམ་གྱི་ཕྱི་ལུ་སྨན་ཁང་ཡོདཔ་ཡོད།

   Le-rim gi phi-lu men-khang yoe-pa yoe

   Is there a 24-hour clinic?

   Usage

   Used to find emergency medical care at night or on holidays. Major Bhutanese cities have 24-hour clinics

   Grammar Note

   Repeating "yoe" forms a question about existence. Bhutan provides free public healthcare funded by the royal government

7. ང་ལུ་འགོག་རྐྱེན་ཡོད།

   Nga lu gok-kyen yoe

   I have an allergy

   Usage

   Important for communicating food or drug allergies to a doctor

   Grammar Note

   "Nga lu … yoe" means "I have …". "Gok-kyen" means "allergy". Travelers with allergies are advised to prepare a written note in Dzongkha

8. ཨམ་སྒྲོལ་ཀར་རི་གཅིག་གནང་།

   Am-drol ka-ri chig nang

   Please call an ambulance

   Usage

   Critical phrase for requesting an ambulance in an emergency. Bhutan's emergency number is 112

   Grammar Note

   "…chig nang" means "please give me one …". Emergency phrases should be memorized before traveling to Bhutan

9. ལྟས་ཅིག་ཡིན་ན་ཤེས་ཐོབ་ཆོག་གི་ཡོདཔ།

   Te-chig yin-na she-tob-chog gi yoe-pa

   Can you tell me the symptoms of altitude sickness?

   Usage

   Bhutan's high altitude makes altitude sickness a real risk. Used to ask guides or medical staff about symptoms

   Grammar Note

   "She-tob-chog" means "can be told/informed." Altitude sickness prevention is essential for Bhutan travel

10. ཁ་ལག་ནང་ག་ཅི་ཞུགས་ཡོདཔ།

    Kha-lag nang ga-chi zhug yoe-pa

    What ingredients are in this dish? (allergy check)

    Usage

    For travelers with food allergies or dietary restrictions, used to confirm ingredients before ordering

    Grammar Note

    "Zhug yoepa" means "is contained/included." Checking ingredients is essential for allergy-prone tourists

11. ཚ་བ།

    Tsha wa

    Fever

    Usage

    Show it to report a fever; pair it with a gesture toward a thermometer

12. ན་ཟུག།

    Na zug

    Pain

    Usage

    Show it next to a body-part card to say "it hurts here"

13. ཁྲག།

    Thra

    Blood

    Usage

    For showing that you are bleeding

14. ཨ་ལུ་ཆགས་པ།

    A lu chag pa

    Pregnant

    Usage

    Show it first at any consultation; it decides what medicine or X-ray is allowed

15. སྨན་པ་གཅིག་གནང་།

    Men-pa chig nang

    Please call a doctor

    Usage

    Ask a bystander to fetch a doctor when someone is suddenly ill or injured

    Grammar Note

    The "one X, please" pattern ("please call a …"), with སྨན་པ (doctor) in the slot

16. ནཱ་ལུ་ན་ཟུག་ཡོད།

    Na-lu na-zug yoe

    It hurts here

    Usage

    Show it to a doctor while pointing at the spot; it works even when you cannot name the body part

    Grammar Note

    "ནཱ་ལུ" means "here", "ན་ཟུག" means "pain", and "ཡོད།" is the existential form

17. ངལ་གསོ་འབད་དགོ་གམ།

    Ngal-so bay go-gam

    Do I need to rest?

    Usage

    Ask the doctor after an examination whether you may carry on as usual

    Grammar Note

    The "do I need to ...?" question frame, filled with the verb phrase ངལ་གསོ་འབད (to rest)

18. བཤལ་ནད།

    Shel ne

    Diarrhea

    Usage

    The symptom name (diarrhoea); show it at a pharmacy or clinic

19. ཆབ་གསང་བཀག་ནད།

    Chap-sang kak ne

    Constipation

    Usage

    The symptom name (constipation). Show it at a pharmacy

20. ཨ་ཝ།

    A wa

    Poop

    Usage

    The everyday word for stool, not vulgar. It also means animal dung, so use it where it is clear you mean a person's stool. The formal word is ཆབ་གསང་རྒྱསཔ

21. ཆབ་གསང་བསྡུསཔ།

    Chap-sang du-pa

    Pee

    Usage

    The word for urine, not vulgar. The everyday ཆུ also means "water", so this unambiguous form suits a card you point at. ཆབ་གསང་ alone means "toilet"

22. ང་ལུ་བཤལ་ནད་འདུག།

    Nga lu shel ne dug

    I have diarrhea

    Usage

    Tell a doctor or pharmacist that you have diarrhea

    Grammar Note

    The "symptom + འདུག།" frame (e.g. "ང་ལུ་ཚ་བ་འདུག།", I have a fever), filled with བཤལ་ནད (diarrhea). ང་ལུ marks the person who has the symptom

23. ང་ལུ་ཆབ་གསང་བཀག་ནད་འདུག།

    Nga lu chap-sang kak ne dug

    I'm constipated

    Usage

    Tell a doctor or pharmacist that you are constipated

    Grammar Note

    "ང་ལུ་བཤལ་ནད་འདུག།" (I have diarrhea) with བཤལ་ནད replaced by ཆབ་གསང་བཀག་ནད (constipation)

24. ང་ཆབ་གསང་བསྡུསཔ་གཏང་དགོ།

    Nga chap-sang du-pa tang go

    I need to pee

    Usage

    With a companion or a child: says you need the toilet, neither stiff nor crude

    Grammar Note

    Urinate is ཆུ་གཏང་ནི or ཆབ་གསང་བསྡུསཔ་གཏང་ནི. This puts the latter verb phrase into the "ང + verb phrase + དགོ།" frame ("I need to …")

25. ང་ཨ་ཝ་གཏང་དགོ།

    Nga a-wa tang go

    I need to poop

    Usage

    With a companion or a child: says you need the toilet, neither stiff nor crude

    Grammar Note

    Defecate is ཨ་ཝ་གཏང་ནི or ཆབ་གསང་རྒྱསཔ་འབད་ནི. This puts the former verb phrase into the "ང + verb phrase + དགོ།" frame ("I need to …")

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