In the sentence "Таны нэр хэн бэ?", You observe how the name asked of your interlocutor. Some will be surprised at the use of the interrogative pronoun хэн "who." In English, we ask, "what's your name?" In Mongolian, the common question is, "Who is your name?" This different way of asking the question refers to the concept of the name among the Mongols.
For this nomadic people, the name embodies the identity. This particular vision is very noticeable in the word meaning "be known" or "to be famous." To express this concept, it will say Тэр хүн нэртэй which translates to "that person is with the name."
The interrogative pronouns can also take the mark of cases of declensions.
The question word “who”
- хэн (who?) at the nominative case will become
- хэний (of who?) in the genitive
- хэнээс (from who?) at the ablative case,
- хэнд (at who? or in who?) in dative-locative
- хэнтэй (with who?) in comitative
- хэнээр (by who?) at instrumental