ལག་པ་ཁྲུས། (lag pa ‘khrus): Say “wash your hands” and convey the 12 English verb tenses in Tibetan

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in December 2019 from Wuhan in China that has led to the global pandemic, we have been frequently hearing, “Wash your hands.”

How do we say this in Tibetan?

ལག་པ་ཁྲུས། is the correct way to say it.

In Tibetan, all verbs (action words) have three forms for the three tenses—present (ད་ལྟ་), past (འདས་) and future (མ་འོངས་). Verbs, such as “wash” (འཁྲུད་), however, have a fourth form, the imperative (སྐུལ་ཚིག་). སྐུལ་ཚིག་ (skul tshig), literally means, “a word to request, ask, or command”.

WASH (འཁྲུད་)
present: wash (འཁྲུད་)
past: washed (བཀྲུས་)
future: wash (བཀྲུ་)
imperative: wash! (ཁྲུས་)

In the following examples, based on the 12 verb tenses and imperative speech in English, you will see how the verb forms change in Tibetan:

1. Present tense

- Present simple: I wash my hands frequently.
- ངས་ལག་པ་ཡང་ཡང་འཁྲུད་ཀྱི་ཡོད།

- Present continuous: I am washing my hands now.
- ང་ད་ལྟ་ལག་པ་འཁྲུད་བཞིན་པ་ཡིན།

- Present perfect: I have washed my hands for 20 seconds.
- ངས་སྐར་ཆ་ཉི་ཤུའི་རིང་ལག་པ་བཀྲུས་པ་ཡིན།

- Present perfect continuous: I have been washing my hands frequently for two months now.
- ཟླ་བ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་རིང་ངས་ལག་པ་ཡང་ཡང་་འཁྲུད་བཞིན་དུ་ཡོད།

2. Past tense

- Past simple: I washed my hands.
- ངས་ལག་པ་བཀྲུས་ཡིན།

- Past continuous: I was washing my hands when you called this morning.
- དེ་རིང་ཞོགས་པ་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་ཁ་པར་བཏང་དུས། ང་ལག་པ་འཁྲུད་བཞིན་དུ་ཡོད།

- Past perfect: I had washed my hands when you arrived.
- ཁྱེད་རང་འབྱོར་སྐབས་ངས་ལག་པ་བཀྲུས་ཡོད།

- Past perfect continuous: I had been washing my hands well since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
- ཀོ་ཝིཌ་༡༩ ཡི་ནད་ཡམས་འགོ་ཚུགས་ནས་བཟུང་། ངས་ལག་པ་ཡག་པོར་འཁྲུད་བཞིན་དུ་ཡོད་།

3. Future tense

- Future simple: I will wash my hands at one o’clock
- ངས་ཆུ་ཚོད་དང་པོ་ལ་ལག་པ་བཀྲུ་ཡི་ཡིན།

- Future continuous: I will be washing my hands when I get home.
- ནང་ལ་འབྱོར་དུས་ངས་ལག་པ་བཀྲུ་ཡི་ཡོད་རེད།

- Future perfect: Before bedtime, I will have washed my hands 100 times.
- མ་ཉལ་གོང་ལ་ངས་ལག་པ་ཐེངས་༡༠༠ བཀྲུས་ཡོད་རེད།

- Future perfect continuous: At two o’clock, I will have been washing my hands for 30 minutes.
- ཆུ་ཚོད་གཉིས་པ་ལ་ངས་སྐར་མ་སུམ་ཅུའི་རིང་ལག་པ་འཁྲུད་བཞིན་དུ་ཡོད་རེད།

4. Imperative: Wash your hands for 20 seconds.
- སྐར་ཆ་ཉི་ཤུའི་རིང་ལག་པ་ཁྲུས།

The above examples can be applied to these three frequently used verbs:

SPEAK (ཤོད་)
present: speak (ཤོད་)
past: spoke (བཤད་)
future: speak (བཤད་)
imperative: speak! (ཤོད་)


READ (ཀློག་)
present: read (ཀློག་)
past: read (བཀླགས་)
future: read (བཀླག་)
imperative: read! (ཀློགས་)

WRITE (འབྲི་)
present: write (འབྲི་)
past: wrote (བྲིས་)
future: write (བྲི་)
imperative: write! (བྲིས་)


Image credits:
- All the images used in this video were obtained from Pixabay (

Suggested reading and resources:
- For a detailed discussion on Tibetan verbs and construction of sentences based on the 12 English tenses, read pages 157-197 from the book by Thupten Jinpa, published in 2010. Brda sprod gsar bsgrigs smra sgo’i lde mig (Modern Tibetan Grammar: A Key Opening the Gateway of Speech): Institute of Tibetan Classics. It is available for download from

- Gendun Rabsel has opened a discussion on ways Tibetan verbs may be classified using “valency” in 2012.

- Learn more about English verbs and tenses on the British Council’s website,

- Take English language courses on BBC,

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