Goal: Form abstract nouns.
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My notebook is full of long words copied from museum labels and newspapers: хөгжил, боловсрол, уламжлал, өөрчлөлт… Strangely, most of them end in –л, –лт or –мж.
Tomorrow we have a test, so today I bring my list to Oyuunaa's class. She smiles: these are not hundreds of separate words, she says, but a few verbs I already know and three small endings. By the end of the lesson I can guess half of my list.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| хөгжил | development |
| боловсрол | education |
| уламжлал | tradition |
| шинэчлэл | reform, renewal |
| соёл | culture |
| шалгалт | examination, test |
| өөрчлөлт | change |
| амжилт | success |
| зөвлөмж | recommendation, advice |
| мэдрэмж | feeling, sense |
| дурсамж | memory, recollection |
| үйл үг | verb |
| нэр үг | noun |
| цуглуулах | to collect |
English has develop → development, educate → education. Mongolian does the same with three endings. Take the dictionary form of the verb, remove the final –х, and add –л, –лт or –мж. The vowel in front of the –х stays where it is, so vowel harmony has already been settled for you.
| Verb | Noun | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| хөгжих (to develop) | хөгжил | development |
| боловсрох (to become educated, to mature) | боловсрол | education |
| амьдрах (to live) | амьдрал | life |
| бохирдох (to get dirty) | бохирдол | pollution |
Many verbs already end in –лах/–лэх. When such a verb takes –л, the noun ends in –лал/–лэл, which is why that ending looks like a suffix of its own: уламжлах (to hand down) → уламжлал (tradition), шинэчлэх (to renew) → шинэчлэл (reform), үйлдвэрлэх (to produce) → үйлдвэрлэл (production).
| Verb | Noun | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| шалгах (to check) | шалгалт | examination |
| сургах (to teach, to train) | сургалт | training, course |
| уулзах (to meet) | уулзалт | meeting |
| өөрчлөх (to change) | өөрчлөлт | change |
| Verb | Noun | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| зөвлөх (to advise) | зөвлөмж | recommendation |
| хадгалах (to keep) | хадгаламж | savings |
| мэдрэх (to feel) | мэдрэмж | feeling, sense |
| дурсах (to recall) | дурсамж | memory |
Once built, these words take case endings and the –тай/–гүй endings like any other noun: амжилттай (successful, successfully), мэдрэмжтэй (sensitive), уламжлалын тухай (about tradition).
соёл (culture) is different: it is a root word, with no verb behind it. It still takes the same endings: соёлын (of culture), соёлтой хүн (a cultured person).
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Building new words · How a word is built
These three endings unlock a large part of newspaper vocabulary. When you meet a long noun, try taking off the –л, –лт or –мж and putting –х back: шалгалт → шалгах, мэдрэмж → мэдрэх. Very often a verb you already know appears.
One caution: the trick works for reading, not for writing. Many verbs have only one of the three nouns, some have none, and a few nouns have drifted in meaning. Check a dictionary before you build one yourself.
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Lesson done? Train your ear
This written course teaches you to read and write. The LIMBA audio course makes you speak: 24 lessons of 12 to 15 minutes, recorded with a native speaker. You listen, you repeat, you answer — the perfect partner for these pages.
Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keep