Markets & Souvenirs

1. འདི་གོང་ག་ཚད་ཨིན་ན་ལགས།

   Di gong ga-tse in-na la

   How much does this cost?

   Usage

   Essential phrase for asking prices at markets and souvenir shops

   Grammar Note

   "Ga-tse" is a question word for amount/price. "La" at the end is a polite sentence particle

2. གོང་ཕབ་ཞུ་ཆོག་གམ།

   Gong phab zhu chog-gam

   Can I get a discount / Can we negotiate?

   Usage

   Used when bargaining at markets

   Grammar Note

   "Zhu" is a humble verb. "Chog-gam" forms a permission question

3. གོང་ལས་ཡང་གོང་ཕབ་གནང་།

   gong le yang gong phab nang

   Please lower the price below [price]

   Usage

   Phrase for offering a specific lower price during negotiation

   Grammar Note

   "…le yang" means "even more than …" and "nang" makes a polite request. The quoted price goes in the "gong" slot

4. གོང་ཉུང་ཤོས་ག་དེམ་ཅིག་སྨོ།

   Gong nyung-sho ga-dem-chig mo?

   What is the best / lowest price?

   Usage

   Used when buying in bulk or purchasing the last item

   Grammar Note

   "-sho" forms superlatives. "Nyung-sho" means "the least/lowest"

5. འདི་ལགཔ་གིས་བཟོ་བཟོཝ་ཨིན་ན།

   Di lap gi zo-zow in-na

   Is this handmade / locally made?

   Usage

   Used to verify if a craft or souvenir is authentic and handmade

   Grammar Note

   Handmade is lag-zo or lap gi zo-zow "made by hand"; gi is the instrumental case marker

6. འདི་རྒྱུ་ཆ་ག་ཅི་གིས་བཟོ་བཟོཝ་ཨིན་ན།

   Di gyu-cha ga-chi gi zo-zow in-na

   What material is this made of?

   Usage

   Used to ask about materials in cloth, woodwork, or ceramics

   Grammar Note

   Material is gyu-cha "stuff something is made from"; ga-chi "what" follows it and gi marks instrument

7. འདི་ཁྱོསམ་སྦེ་བསྒྲིལ་གནང་ཆོག་གམ།

   Di khyoem be dril nang chog-gam

   Can you gift-wrap this?

   Usage

   Used when requesting gift wrapping for a purchase

   Grammar Note

   "Nang" is an honorific imperative "please do." Used for polite requests

8. མཚན་མོའི་ཁྲོམ་ག་ཏེ་འདུག།

   Tshen-moi throm ga te du

   Where is the night market?

   Usage

   Used when looking for a night market

   Grammar Note

   Market/bazaar is throm. "Ga te" is the interrogative "where" and du is the existential with direct evidence

9. འབྱོར་རྟགས་ཅིག་གནང་ཆོག་གམ།

   Jor-tag chig nang chog-gam

   Can I have a receipt?

   Usage

   Used when requesting a receipt after a purchase

   Grammar Note

   "Chig" functions like the indefinite article "a/one"

10. ཁྲོམ་འདི་ཆུ་ཚོད་ག་དེམ་ཅིག་ལུ་ཁ་ཕྱེཝ་ཨིན་ན།

    Throm di chu-tshoe ga-dem-chig lu kha che in-na

    What are the market opening hours?

    Usage

    Used to check market operating hours

    Grammar Note

    "Chu-tshoe ga-dem-chig lu" means "at what hour". The verb open is kha che ni

11. ང་བལྟ་ནི་ཙམ་ཨིན། ཀདྲིན་ཆེ་ལགས།

    Nga ta ni tsam in. Ka-drin-che-la

    I'm just looking, thank you

    Usage

    Polite response to shopkeepers when you're just browsing

    Grammar Note

    "Tsam" is a limiting particle meaning "only/just"

12. ཤོག་བྱང་གི་ཐོག་ལས་སྤྲོད་ཆོག་གམ།

    Shog-jang gi thog le troe chog-gam

    Do you accept card payment?

    Usage

    Used to ask whether card payment is accepted

    Grammar Note

    "Chog-gam" is a permission question "is it okay to...?"

13. འདི་དྲན་རྟེན་དུ་ཉོ་གི་ཡིན།

    Di dren-ten du nyo-gi yin

    I'm buying this as a souvenir

    Usage

    Phrase for telling the seller you are buying something as a souvenir

    Grammar Note

    "Du" is a directional/purpose case marker meaning "for/to"

14. འདི་ཕྱི་རྒྱལ་ལུ་གཏང་ཆོག་གམ།

    Di chi-gyel lu tang chog-gam

    Can this be shipped internationally?

    Usage

    Used when asking if a purchase can be shipped abroad

    Grammar Note

    Abroad is chi-gyel lu; lu marks direction

15. འདི་གོང་ཧ་ཅང་ཆེ་བས།

    Di gong ha-chang che-bay

    This is too expensive

    Usage

    Used to express that the price is too high and request a reduction

    Grammar Note

    Expensive is gong che bai "price is high" and too is ha-chang; the final bay marks the speaker's immediate observation

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