Saying What You Want and What You Need

Three constructions, not one verb

In English, I want to go, she wants to go and I need a pen are all built the same way: subject, verb, the rest. Want and need are ordinary transitive verbs and nothing about the sentence changes when the subject changes.

Mongolian splits this ground three ways, and the splits do not fall where an English speaker expects:

• –маар байна — the want you feel yourself, said of yourself or asked of the person in front of you.
• хүсэж байна — a wish, with the wanted action turned into a noun and put in the accusative. This is the form the method uses for the third person.
• хэрэгтэй — need, which is not a verb at all but a word in –тэй, and which puts the person who needs into the dative-locative.

Learn them as three separate things. Trying to treat them as three translations of one English word is what produces sentences that are grammatical but sound wrong.

–маар байна: the want you feel

Take the verb stem, add –маар, then байна. The suffix has four harmonic shapes, –маар / –моор / –мээр / –мөөр, picked by the vowels of the stem; the whole set of four-form suffixes is laid out once, on the four-form suffix table, and this page just uses it.

• Би хөдөө явмаар байна.
• I countryside go-want be-PRES-FUT
• "I want to go out to the countryside."

The stem decides the vowel, and nothing else does: авмаар байна (want to take), суумаар байна (want to stay sitting), заамаар байна (want to show), сурмаар байна (want to learn), сонгомоор байна (want to choose), солимоор байна (want to change), очмоор байна (want to visit), үйлчилмээр байна (want to serve), түрүүлмээр байна (want to win), хиймээр байна (want to do), ирмээр байна (want to come), идмээр байна (want to eat), үзмээр байна (want to see), өгмөөр байна (want to give).

In sentences: Би монгол хэл сурмаар байна. (I want to learn Mongolian.), Би гахайн мах авмаар байна. (I want to buy pork.), Би музейд чамтай очмоор байна. (I want to go to the museum with you.), Би одоо америк доллар солимоор байна. (I want to change some dollars now.), Бид маргааш хөдөө эрт явмаар байна. (We want to set off early for the countryside tomorrow.), Бид хоёр энэ гэрт байрламаар байна. (The two of us would like to stay in this ger.)

Four practical points.

байна is not optional. –маар on its own is not a sentence. The construction is the suffix plus the verb, and the verb is what carries tense and mood. Put it in the past and the wanting moves to the past: Бид тантай нэг шар айраг уумаар байсан. (We wanted to have a beer with you.)

Questions work normally. Add уу for yes or no: Чи өнөөдөр халуун хоол идмээр байна уу? (Do you want a hot meal today?) With a question word, the particle becomes вэ: Чи юу хиймээр байна? (What do you want to do?), Та хэзээ Монгол руу явмаар байна вэ? (When do you want to go to Mongolia?)

The negative goes on –маар, not on байна. This is the shape to memorise, because the English instinct is to negate the second word: Би архи уумааргүй байна. (I don't want to drink vodka.) Likewise уулзмааргүй байна (doesn't want to meet). Байна is left alone. The suffix –гүй never changes its own vowels, which is one of the exceptions to vowel harmony treated on its own page.

It stacks. A second verb can stand in front in the –ж converb: Бид нэг малчин айлд орж үзмээр байна. (We'd like to call in on a herding family and have a look.), тоолж сурмаар байна (want to learn to count). And the collective –цгаа– can go in before it: Та нар говь руу явцгаамаар байна уу? (Do you all want to go down to the Gobi?)

хүсэж байна: the wish, with the wanted thing as an object

Here Mongolian does something English never does. The action that is wanted is turned into a noun — the verb in –х — and then marked as the direct object of the wanting, with the accusative ending –ыг or –ийг:

• Энэ тэмээчин Улаанбаатар хотод ажиллахыг хүсэж байна.
• this camel.herder Ulaanbaatar city-DAT work-PART-ACC wish-CONV be-PRES-FUT
• "This camel herder wants to work in Ulaanbaatar."

In English want to work has no object; the working is not a thing. In Mongolian it is a thing, and it is the thing wanted, so it takes the object ending. Once you have accepted that, the construction is mechanical: ажиллахыг, захиалахыг, угтахыг, сурахыг, уухыг, тоглохыг, сонсохыг, асуухыг, явахыг, хооллохыг, and with front vowels үзэхийг, түрүүлэхийг. The choice between –ыг and –ийг is the accusative's own business and is settled on the pages for that case; here, note only that it is settled by the vowels of the word it lands on.

Sentences: Миний охин монгол дуу сонсохыг хүсэж байна. (My daughter wants to listen to Mongolian songs.), Миний эгч нэг асуулт асуухыг хүсэж байна. (My sister wants to ask a question.), Тэд Монгол руу явахыг хүсэж байна. (They want to go to Mongolia.), Энэ бөх наадамд түрүүлэхийг хүсэж байна. (This wrestler wants to win at the Naadam.), Хадам аав бидэнтэй хамт хооллохыг хүсэж байна. (My father-in-law wants to eat with us.), Тэр найзыгаа угтахыг хүсэж байна. (He wants to meet his friend.), Сурагчид монголоор тоолж сурахыг хүсэж байна. (The pupils want to learn to count in Mongolian.), Би хөдөө наадам үзэхийг хүсэж байна. (I want to see the Naadam out in the country.)

The past is хүсэж байсан, or the plain past хүссэн: Энэ саальчин цай уухыг хүсэж байсан. (This milkmaid wanted some tea.), Өчигдөр энэ зураач түрүүлэхийг хүсэж байсан. (Yesterday this painter wanted to win.), Энэ жуулчин хоолыг нь захиалахыг хүсэж байсан. (This tourist wanted to order his meal.), Энэ зураач дэлгүүрээс усан будаг худалдан авахыг хүссэн. (This painter wanted to buy watercolours at the shop.)

Put the two constructions side by side and the difference in register is audible. Би цай уумаар байна is what you say in a kitchen. Би цай уухыг хүсэж байна is heavier, more formal, more like I should like some tea — and it is the only option when the subject is somebody else.

хэрэгтэй: need is not a verb either

Хэрэгтэй is built like завтай and ажилтай: a noun plus the ending –тэй, so literally something like with-need, being-required. That matters, because adjectives do not take direct objects, and so the thing needed cannot be an object. It is the subject.

Needing a thing

The pattern is: person in the dative-locative, then the thing, then хэрэгтэй, often with байна:

• Надад хар харандаа хэрэгтэй байна.
• I-DAT black pencil required be-PRES-FUT
• "I need a black pencil."

So the English subject becomes a dative and the English object becomes the subject — the whole sentence turns around. The same inversion runs through the way Mongolian says having something, which is treated on the page for байна and the missing verb to have. The dative forms you will use here are надад, чамд, танд, түүнд, бидэнд, and they are irregular pronoun forms belonging to the pronouns page.

Examples: Түүнд их мөнгө хэрэгтэй байна. (He needs a lot of money.), Надад жорлонгийн цаас хэрэгтэй байна. (I need toilet paper.), Чамд хана, эсгий, унь, хаалга гэх мэт хэрэгтэй. (You need the lattice walls, the felts, the roof poles, the door and so on.), Тийм, канадчуудад виза хэрэгтэй. (Yes, Canadians need a visa.), and as a question, Танд халуун ус хэрэгтэй юү? (Do you need hot water?)

Needing to do something

Here the verb goes into the plain –х form in front of хэрэгтэй, and the subject can simply stay as it is:

• Сувилагч тэсвэртэй байх хэрэгтэй.
• nurse patient be-PART required
• "A nurse has to be patient."

Also Энэ тарган хүн бага идэх хэрэгтэй. (This heavy man needs to eat less.), Элчин сайд болгоомжлох хэрэгтэй. (An ambassador has to be careful.), Түүхч баталгаатай бичиг баримт цуглуулах хэрэгтэй. (A historian has to collect reliable documents.), Бидэнд монгол хэл сайн ярих хэрэгтэй. (We need to speak Mongolian well.), Та Орос руу явахын тулд виза авах хэрэгтэй юү? (Do you need a visa to go to Russia?), Хүүхэд харахын тулд эхлээд чи туршлагатай болох хэрэгтэй. (To look after a child you first need experience.) The same construction appears with the verb put into the dative, as in Гэр барихад юу юу хэрэгтэй байдаг вэ? (What do you need in order to put up a ger?) — that nominalised clause belongs to the page on complex sentences.

Not needing: хэрэггүй

The negative replaces –тэй with –гүй, giving хэрэггүй, and the rest of the sentence is unchanged. This is the ordinary way to say there is no need, no thanks, don't bother, as in Гадаа их хүйтрэхгүй бол гэрт гал түлээд хэрэггүй шүү! (No need to light the stove in the ger unless it turns really cold outside!) Note again that –гүй keeps its vowels whatever word it lands on; the system of Mongolian negations as a whole is on the negation page.

One contrast to keep straight. Хэрэгтэй is the practical need — this is required, you will want one of these. Ёстой is the categorical must, the rule imposed from outside, and it belongs to the page on the missing modal verbs, along with болох and чадах.

Which one do I say?

1. I feel like doing something, right now, and I am talking about myself or asking you: –маар байна.
2. Somebody else wants something, or I want to sound formal: verb in –х plus the accusative, then хүсэж байна.
3. I need an object: dative, then the object, then хэрэгтэй.
4. I have to do something: verb in –х, then хэрэгтэй.
5. There is no choice about it: verb in –х, then ёстой.

And one last warning about shape. Of the five, one puts the verb in –маар, one in –х plus an accusative, two in a bare –х, and the needed object in the third stands in no case at all while its owner stands in the dative. There is no common frame. If you memorise the five patterns as wholes, with one real sentence each, you will produce them correctly; if you memorise five words for want and need, you will put them into an English frame and they will not fit.