This suffix may be used with adjectives (in their short form) as well as with substantives, numbers, and verbs. In the conversational register, the suffix ཙམ་ is usually pronounced -ts. Its meaning varies according to context:

After an adjective, it means “a little,” or “a little more”:

• མང་ཙམ་ “A little more”
• གོང་ཁེ་ཙམ་ “A little cheaper”
• མགྱོགས་ཙམ་ “A little faster”
• དམར་ཙམ་ “A little red”
• ལྷག་ཙམ་ “A few more”
• སྔ་ཙམ་ “A little earlier (or early)”

After a number, it means “about”:

• མི་བརྒྱ་ཙམ་ “About 100 people”
• སྒོར་མོ་འབུམ་གཉིས་ཙམ་ “About two hundred thousand gormo (yuan)”
• སྐར་མ་བཅོ་ལྔ་ཙམ་ “About a quarter of an hour”

After a noun, a verb, or a nominalized verb, depending on context this suffix may mean “only,” “simply,” “mere,” “just,” or “almost”:

• མིང་ཙམ། “Only the name, purely nominal”
• ཁོང་ཕེབས་པ་ཙམ་གྱིས་རྙོག་ཁྲ་བཟོས་སོང་། “The mere fact that he came created problems.”
• ལག་པ་ཐུག་པ་ཙམ་གྱིས་ན་ཚ་གཏང་གིས། “Just touching it with my hand makes it hurt.”
• ཁོ་རང་མ་ཤི་ཙམ་བརྡུངས་པ་རེད། “He was beaten almost to death.”
• མགོ་ནས་རྟིང་པར་མ་སླེབས་ཙམ་བར་དུ། “Almost from head to foot”
• The suffix also appears in certain adverbial formulations such as:
• ཨའོ་ཙ་ “Quite, not bad”
• ཕར་ཙ་ད་གར་ “Just there”