There are three registers of personal pronouns: ordinary, honorific, and high honorific. In Literary Tibetan, as well as in some dialects (Tsang), a humilific form (བདག་) is used for the first person. This form is not used in Standard Spoken Tibetan.

In Literary Tibetan and in certain dialects (including Kham and Mustang), there are distinct forms for the exclusive and inclusive first person plural. This opposition, too, is absent in Standard Tibetan.

For the second person, it is safest to use the honorific form ཁྱེད་རང་ / ཁྱེད་རང་ཚོ་; for the third person, ཁོང་ / ཁོང་ཚོ་. The ordinary forms རང་ “you,” ཁོ་ “he,” ཁོ་རང་ “he” and མོ་ or མོ་རང་ “she” imply familiarity. The forms ཁྱོད་ and ཁྱོད་རང་ཚོ་ “you” carry pejorative connotations in Standard Tibetan, whereas they are the normal terms in Literary Tibetan and certain dialects (Kham, Hor, Amdo).

In Standard Tibetan and many other dialects, as well as in Literary Tibetan, there is a special dual form for both personal pronouns and demonstratives: ང་གཉིས་ “we two,” ཁྱེད་རང་གཉིས་ “you two,” ཁོ་གཉིས་ “the two of them” དེ་གཉིས་ “those two.”

Table: The Personal Pronouns