Standard Tibetan→English

Translate Standard Tibetan to English the way locals mean it.

Standard Tibetan speakers often use rhetorical questions, social formulas, and honorific auxiliaries to soften what a textbook reader might mistake for a literal question, command, or statement.

Going the other way? English to Standard Tibetan

474 local dialects

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What locals actually say

ཁྱེད་རང་གིས་དཀའ་ལས་ཁག་པོ་བྱས་སོང་།

Thanks, you’ve really gone to a lot of trouble.

དཀའ་ལས་ཁག་པོ་བྱས་སོང་ literally says that someone did difficult work, but it is a set social formula acknowledging their effort and often expressing thanks.

ད་ག་རེ་བྱེད་དགོས་རེད།

Well, what else can we do now?

ད་ག་རེ་བྱེད་དགོས་རེད literally asks what must be done now, but as a rhetorical question it usually signals resignation rather than a request for instructions.

བྲེལ་བ་མེད་པར་གནང་རོགས།

No rush, take your time.

གནང་རོགས is an honorific request form, while བྲེལ་བ་མེད་པར means without being hurried, so the phrase is a gentle softener rather than a literal instruction to stop being busy.

དངུལ་ལྷག་མ་ཡོད་དམ།

Do you have change?

ལྷག་མ་ means change or the remainder of a payment, while ཡོད་དམ་ forms a polite yes-or-no question.

འདི་ནས་གཡས་ལ་འཁྱོག་དགོས་རེད།

Turn right here.

གཡས་ལ་འཁྱོག་ is the everyday directional construction for turning right, and དགོས་རེད་ presents the turn as a necessary instruction.

ཁ་ལ་ཚ་དྲགས་འདུག།

This is way too spicy for me.

ཁ་ལ་ཚ་ literally signals heat in the mouth, while དྲགས་འདུག་ marks an excessive degree noticed by the speaker.

ཨ་མ་ལགས་ད་ལྟ་གཟིམས་ཀྱི་འདུག།

Mom is asleep right now.

གཟིམས་ is the honorific form of sleep, and ལགས་ marks respectful reference to the mother.

སང་ཉིན་ང་ཚོ་མཉམ་དུ་འགྲོ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན།

We're going together tomorrow.

འགྲོ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ is the colloquial future-intention construction, signaling a settled plan rather than a current action.

Notes like these come with every AIRTranslate translation, so you learn why locals phrase it that way as you go.

How Standard Tibetan differs

Standard Tibetan (Lhasa); honorific registers used correctly.

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Localization Notes explaining why locals say it that way