Basic Nouns

1. ཆུ།

   Chu

   Water

   Usage

   The basic word for drinking water; works with a gesture

2. ཟ་ཆས།

   Za che

   Food

   Usage

   The general word to use when you are looking for something to eat

3. ཏི་རུ།

   Ti ru

   Money

   Usage

   The basic word when talking about paying or changing money

   Grammar Note

   In Dzongkha money is tiru

4. ཆབ་གསང་།

   Chap sang

   Toilet

   Usage

   This single word is usually enough for someone to point the way

5. ཤོག་གུ།

   Shog gu

   Tissue

   Usage

   For asking for paper at an eatery or a public toilet

   Grammar Note

   Paper; also used for tissue

6. སྨན།

   Men

   Medicine

   Usage

   The general word to lead with at a pharmacy

7. ཅ་ཆས།

   Cha che

   Luggage

   Usage

   For storing, carrying, or collecting your bags

8. ལྡེ་མིག།

   De mig

   Key

   Usage

   At a hotel front desk when handing over or collecting a key

9. ཤོག་འཛིན།

   Shog dzin

   Ticket

   Usage

   Covers both travel tickets and entry tickets

10. ལག་ཁྱེར།

    Lag khyer

    Passport

    Usage

    Comes up at check-in, money changers, and immigration

11. བརྒྱུད་འཕྲིན།

    Gyue thrin

    Phone

    Usage

    Used both for the device and for making a call

12. གློག་ནུས་གསོ་ཆས།

    Log nue so che

    Charger

    Usage

    When you want to borrow one at a hotel or café, or buy one

13. འབབ་ཚུགས།

    Bab tshug

    Station

    Usage

    The most common landmark word when asking for directions

14. སྨན་ཁང་།

    Men khang

    Hospital

    Usage

    The first word to say when you feel seriously unwell

15. ཉེན་རྟོག་པ།

    Nyen tog pa

    Police

    Usage

    Who to ask for after a theft or an accident

16. ཚོང་ཁང་།

    Tshong khang

    Shop

    Usage

    The general word when asking where you can buy something

17. ཁང་མིག།

    Khang mig

    Room

    Usage

    For booking, changing, or checking availability at a hotel

18. ལམ།

    Lam

    Road

    Usage

    For asking the way, usually while showing a map

19. ནང་མི།

    Nang mi

    Family

    Usage

    Comes up constantly in introductions and small talk

20. མིང་།

    Ming

    Name

    Usage

    For confirming a booking or introducing yourself

21. མགུ་ཏོ།

    Gu to

    Head

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

22. མིག་ཏོ།

    Mig to

    Eye

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

23. སོ།

    So

    Tooth

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

24. ཨོལ་ལྐོག།

    Oel kog

    Throat

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

25. ཕོཝ།

    Phow

    Stomach / Belly

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

26. རྒྱབ།

    Gyab

    Back

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

27. སྐེདཔ།

    Kep

    Waist / Lower back

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

28. རྐངམ།

    Kangm

    Leg / Foot

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

29. ལགཔ།

    Lagp

    Hand

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

30. བྱང་ཁོག།

    Jang khog

    Chest

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

31. རྣམ་ཅོ།

    Nam cho

    Ear

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

32. མཛུབ་མོ།

    Dzub mo

    Finger

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

33. དཔུངམ།

    Pungm

    Shoulder

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

34. ལྷ་པ།

    Lha pa

    Nose

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

35. པུས་མོ།

    Pue mo

    Knee

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

36. ལག་ངར།

    Lag ngar

    Arm

    Usage

    Point at the spot on your own body while showing it

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