Spelling
It might not seem very important to learn how to spell in Tibetan, but it can come in handy, especially if you have a teacher. You will frequently find yourself asking your teacher how a word is spelled and then you must know the Tibetan way of spelling.
Spelling is done by syllable. If a letter is a vowel or a part of a stack of letters, you must give the overall sound of all letters spelled up to that point. This process is repeated until all letters have been accounted for in the syllable. If a word consists of more than one syllable you must first fully spell the first syllable, and give the final sound for it, before moving onto the next one. Letter stacks are pronounced from top down, e.g. first the superscribed letter and then the initial letter. Vowels are spelled last.
To spell properly you have to memorize the alphabet , as well as names of vowels, prefixes, and the words for subscribed and reversed letters.
| How to Pronounce Various Letters When Spelling | |||
| Type | Letter | Tibetan Name | Pronunciation |
| Vowels |  |
གི་གུ་ | gi-gu |
 |
ཕབས་ཀྱུ་ | zhap-kyu | |
 |
འགྲེང་བུ་ | dreng-pu | |
 |
ན་རོ་ | na-ro | |
| Prefixes | ག་ | ག་འོད་ | ga-ö |
| ད་ | ད་འོད་ | da-ö | |
| བ་ | བ་འོད་ | pa-ö | |
| མ་ | མ་འོད་ | ma-ö | |
| འ་ | འ་འོད་ | a-ö | |
| Superscribed | ར་ | ར་མགོ་ | ra letter + ta |
| ལ་ | ལ་མགོ་ | la letter + ta | |
| ས་ | ས་མགོ་ | sa letter + ta | |
| Subscribed | ཡ་ | ཡ་བཏགས་ | ya-ta |
| ར་ | ར་བཏགས་ | ra-ta | |
| ལ་ | ལ་བཏགས་ | la-ta | |
| ཝ་ | ཝ་ཟུར་ | wa-zur | |
| Reversed Letters | ཊ་ | ཏ་ལོག་ | ta-log |
| ཋ་ | ཐ་ལོག་ | tha-log | |
| ཌ་ | ད་ལོག་ | da-log | |
| ཎ་ | ན་ལོག་ | na-log | |
| ཥ་ | ཤ་ལོག་ | sha-log | |
| ཀྵ་ | ཀྵ་ལོག་ | ka-sha-log | |
In the following spelling examples the yellow letters represent the accumulated sound as it is after a vowel or a stack. The green letters are the final sound of a syllable.
| Spelling Examples | |
| ལག་པ་ | Hand |
| la ga lag / pa = lag-pa | |
| སྐད་ཅོར་ | Noise |
| sa ka-ta ka da kë / cha na-ro cho ra chor = kë-chor | |
| གསུང་བཤད་ | Talk, Speech |
| ga-ö sa zhap-kyu su nga sung / pa sha da shë = sung-shë | |
| སྨྱུག་གུ་ | Pen |
| sa ma-ta ma ya-ta nya zhab-kyu nyu ga nyug / ga zhap-kyu gu = nyu-gu | |
| མོ་ཊ་ | Car |
| ma na-ro mo / ta-log ta = mo-ta | |
| སྡུག་བསྔལ་ | Suffering, Unsatisfactory, Misery |
| sa da-ta da zhap-kyu du ga dug / pa-ö sa nga-ta nga la ngël = dug-ngël | |
| སྙིང་རྗེ་í | Compassion |
| sa nya-ta nya gi-gu nyi nga nying / ra ja-ta ja dreng-pu je = nying-je | |