Essential Assamese Phrases for Beginners and Travelers

You land in Guwahati, or you're meeting your partner's family for the first time, or a coworker from Jorhat just switched to Assamese mid-sentence because it's easier for her. In all three situations, you don't need fluency. You need about thirty phrases that cover greeting people, asking for what you want, and getting help when something goes wrong. This is that list, built around the situations where a traveler or new learner actually opens their mouth.

Survival basics: yes, no, please, thank you, sorry

These are the words that carry the most weight per syllable. Get them right and you sound considerate even when your grammar elsewhere is shaky.

Assamese	Romanized	English
হয়	hoi	yes
নহয়	nohoi	no
অনুগ্ৰহ কৰি	anugroh kori	please
ধন্যবাদ	dhonyobad	thank you
মাফ কৰিব	maph koribo	sorry / excuse me

ধন্যবাদ (dhonyobad) is the word you'll reach for constantly, and it doubles as a light "excuse me" in some contexts too, alongside মাফ কৰিব, which leans more toward an actual apology. Assamese doesn't have a single rigid word for "please" the way English does either. অনুগ্ৰহ কৰি works, but you'll also hear please-like softness built directly into how a request is phrased, something you'll notice more once you're forming full sentences rather than single words.

One thing that trips up learners early: হয় and নহয় sound like near-opposites but share that "hoi" root, so listen for the "no-" prefix rather than guessing from rhythm alone.

Introducing yourself and asking someone's name

Assamese introductions are short and direct once you know the pattern. Start with your name, then flip it into a question.

মোৰ নাম John। আপোনাৰ নাম কি? (Mor naam John. Apunar naam ki?) "My name is John. What is your name?"

Break that down. মোৰ (mor) means "my," নাম (naam) means "name," so মোৰ নাম is simply "my name." আপোনাৰ (apunar) is the formal "your," built from আপুনি (apuni), the respectful word for "you" that you'd use with someone older, a stranger, or anyone you want to address politely. কি (ki) means "what," so আপোনাৰ নাম কি? reads literally as "your name what?", which is the normal Assamese question order, not a translation shortcut.

If you're talking to someone clearly younger than you or a close peer, you can soften আপোনাৰ to তোমাৰ (tumar), from the less formal তুমি (tumi). When genuinely unsure which to use, default to the formal আপোনাৰ. Assamese speakers forgive a learner erring toward respect far more easily than the reverse.

Names alone won't tell you much about someone, and Assamese small talk tends to move quickly into where you're from and what brings you to Assam. আপুনি ক'ৰ পৰা আহিছে? (apuni k'ror pora ahise?), "where are you from?", is asked almost reflexively once names are exchanged, and answering with your country or city plus মই আহিছোঁ (moi ahiso, "I have come") covers most of what's expected. Don't feel pressure to say much more than that at first. A short, correctly pronounced answer lands better than a longer one stumbled through.

Once you've traded names, "nice to meet you" rounds off the exchange:

Assamese	Romanized	English
মোৰ নাম...	mor naam...	my name is...
আপোনাৰ নাম কি?	apunar naam ki?	what is your name?
আপুনি ক'ৰ পৰা আহিছে?	apuni k'ror pora ahise?	where are you from?

Getting around: asking where something is and how much it costs

Two question words do most of the work here: ক'ত (kot), "where," and কিমান (kiman), "how much."

ৰেল ষ্টেচন ক'ত? (Rel station kot?) "Where is the train station?"

Swap in any destination: হোটেল (hotel), বজাৰ (bojar, "market"), or টয়লেট (toilet, borrowed straight from English with Assamese pronunciation) all slot into the same ক'ত frame. For price, কিমান works the same way:

ইয়াৰ দাম কিমান? (Iyar daam kiman?) "How much does this cost?"

ইয়াৰ (iyar) means "of this," দাম (daam) is "price," and কিমান closes the question. You'll hear the answer as a number followed by টকা (toka), rupees. If you don't catch the number the first time, লিখি দিয়ক (likhi diyok), "please write it down," is a fair request almost anyone will honor, especially at a market stall where noise makes numbers hard to catch by ear.

Assamese	Romanized	English
ক'ত?	kot?	where?
কিমান?	kiman?	how much?
সোঁফালে / বাঁওফালে	sonphale / bawophale	right / left
ইয়াৰ পৰা কিমান দূৰ?	iyar pora kiman door?	how far is it from here?

Getting somewhere in Assam often means a shared auto or a local bus rather than a metered taxi, so it helps to know how to state a destination plainly rather than ask a full question. মোক ৰেল ষ্টেচনলৈ লৈ যাওক (mok rel stationloi loi jaok), "take me to the train station," uses লৈ যাওক (loi jaok), a polite command meaning "please take," attached to the destination with -লৈ (-loi), a suffix that marks direction, roughly "to" or "toward." Swap the destination and the sentence still works: মোক বজাৰলৈ লৈ যাওক (mok bojarloi loi jaok), "take me to the market." If the fare feels off, এইটো বেছি (eito besi), "this is too much," said with a smile rather than an edge, is a normal opening move in a negotiation, not an insult.

Ordering food and drink, and saying what you like or can't eat

Assam's food culture runs on rice, fish, and a fairly restrained use of spice compared to some other Indian regional cuisines, so knowing how to state a preference matters more here than memorizing dish names.

মই এইটো খাব বিচাৰো। (Moi eito khabo bisaro.) "I want to eat this."

মই (moi) is the plain first-person "I," used in everyday speech regardless of formality (the formality distinction lives in your pronoun for "you," not for "I"). এইটো (eito) means "this one," খাব (khabo) is the infinitive-leaning form of "to eat," and বিচাৰো (bisaro) means "I want." The same frame covers drinking. Just swap the object and drop the verb: মই পানী বিচাৰো (moi paani bisaro), "I want water."

Dietary restrictions matter enough to get exactly right:

মই মাংস নাখাওঁ। (Moi mangxo nakhau.) "I don't eat meat."

মাংস (mangxo) is "meat," and নাখাওঁ (nakhau) is the negative form of "I eat," খাওঁ (khau). That না- prefix is the general way Assamese negates a verb, and you'll see the same pattern reused constantly once you notice it. For allergies specifically, মোৰ এলাৰ্জী আছে (mor allergy aase, "I have an allergy") gets the point across even before you've named the specific ingredient.

Assamese	Romanized	English
মই ভোকত আছোঁ	moi bhokot aaso	I'm hungry
ইয়াত কি আছে?	iyat ki aase?	what do you have here?
মই মাংস নাখাওঁ	moi mangxo nakhau	I don't eat meat
অলপ জাল নিদিব	olop jal nidibo	please don't make it too spicy
সোৱাদ!	suwad!	delicious!

That last one, সোৱাদ, is less a phrase and more a reaction. Say it after a bite and you'll usually get a pleased look from whoever cooked the meal.

Emergencies and help: lost, needing a doctor, finding a toilet

Nobody wants to need this section, but it's the one worth memorizing cold, because in a real emergency you won't have time to flip through a phrasebook.

মই হেৰাই গৈছোঁ। (Moi herai goiso.) "I am lost."

হেৰাই গৈছোঁ combines হেৰাই (herai, "lost") with গৈছোঁ (goiso), a completed-action form roughly meaning "have gone," so the phrase literally reads close to "I have gone lost." That's a normal way Assamese builds this kind of statement, not a mistranslation.

For medical help:

এজন ডাক্তৰক মাতক। (Ejon daktorok matok.) "Call a doctor."

ডাক্তৰ (daktor) is simply "doctor," borrowed and adapted, এজন (ejon) is the counting word for one person, and মাতক (matok) is the command form of "call." The same pattern covers police: পুলিচক মাতক (pulisok matok), "call the police."

And the question every traveler eventually needs:

টয়লেট ক'ত? (Toilet kot?) "Where is the toilet?"

Assamese	Romanized	English
সহায় কৰক!	xohay korok!	help!
মই হেৰাই গৈছোঁ	moi herai goiso	I am lost
এজন ডাক্তৰক মাতক	ejon daktorok matok	call a doctor
টয়লেট ক'ত?	toilet kot?	where is the toilet?
মোক সহায় লাগে	mok xohay lage	I need help

A pronunciation and politeness note so these phrases land correctly

Two things will do more for how you sound than any amount of vocabulary. First, that স sound at the start of words like সহায় (xohay, "help") and সোৱাদ (suwad, "delicious") is often closer to a breathy "h" or "x" sound than a hard English "s" in casual Assamese speech, a fricative that's one of the clearest markers of spoken Assamese. If you want the mechanics of that sound and others like it, the Assamese pronunciation guide covers it phrase by phrase.

Second: formality is not optional decoration in Assamese, it's built into which pronoun you choose. আপুনি (apuni) for someone older or a stranger, তুমি (tumi) for peers and friends. Use আপোনাৰ where this post shows তোমাৰ and you will never sound rude. Reverse it with an elder and you might. When you're not sure, formal is the safer default, and most people will invite you to switch to তুমি once they know you better.

If you want to see how these words are actually built from the script, letter by letter, rather than just memorized as romanized chunks, the Assamese alphabet guide is the place to start; recognizing ৰ and the conjuncts in words like ধন্যবাদ makes the whole list above easier to read on a sign or a menu, not just repeat from memory.

Thirty phrases won't make you fluent, but they will get you through a greeting, a meal, a taxi ride, and a genuine emergency without reaching for a translation app. Our Learn Assamese app builds on exactly this foundation, with native-speaker audio for phrases like these across its first several units, so you can hear the fricative and the vowel length correctly instead of guessing from romanization alone.