Goal: Master the grammar system.
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Now hear it and say it
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 keepLast lesson with Oyuunaa
My last lesson with Oyuunaa. No new grammar today: she drew the whole system on the board, the cases on the left, the verb on the right, and asked me to fill in every gap.
A year ago those tables would have frightened me. Today I filled them in almost without thinking, and then she asked me to make one sentence that used as much of the board as possible. I think I made her proud.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| дүрэм | grammar; rule |
| давтах | to revise, to go over again |
| тийн ялгал | grammatical case |
| үйл үг | verb |
| өнгөрсөн цаг | the past tense |
| хэлбэр | form |
| нөхцөл үйл үг | converb |
| өгүүлбэр | sentence |
| зохиох | to compose, to make up |
| доошгүй | not less than, at least |
| бүхэлд нь | as a whole, entirely |
| Case | Mongolian name | Ending | гэр | хот |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | нэрлэх | — | гэр | хот |
| genitive | харьяалах | –ын, –ийн, –ы, –ий, –н | гэрийн | хотын |
| dative-locative | өгөх орших | –д, –т | гэрт | хотод |
| accusative | заах | –ыг, –ийг, –г | гэрийг | хотыг |
| ablative | гарах | –аас / –оос / –ээс / –өөс | гэрээс | хотоос |
| instrumental | үйлдэх | –аар / –оор / –ээр / –өөр | гэрээр | хотоор |
| comitative | хамтрах | –тай / –той / –тэй | гэртэй | хоттой |
| direction | чиглэх | руу / рүү, луу / лүү | гэр лүү | хот руу |
Three reminders sum up a year of case endings: the genitive and the accusative choose between two vowels, not four; the comitative has no form in ө; and a few nouns hide an н (номонд, байранд, автобусны), to be learnt word by word. One sentence can hold several cases at once:
| Layer | What it does | Forms |
|---|---|---|
| finite indicatives | close a sentence and fix its time | явна, явлаа, явав, явжээ |
| participles | close a sentence or stand before a noun | явсан, явах, явдаг, яваа ; –гч: уралдагч |
| converbs | link a clause to the next | явж, яваад, явбал, явсаар, явтал, явмагц, явангаа |
Around them stand the imperatives (яв, яваарай, явна уу, явъя, явцгаая) and the voices (явуулах, to send). Every Mongolian verb form you meet belongs somewhere on this board.
Find the last verb first: it tells you what the sentence does. Then work backwards from verb form to verb form, because every converb or participle with a case ending closes an inner clause. Lesson 1 taught you the letters; this is the skill that lets you read everything else.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: All seven cases on one page · Mongolian verbs · Mongolian converbs
If you ever take a class in Mongolia, teachers will use the Mongolian names in the table: харьяалах тийн ялгал for the genitive, гарах тийн ялгал for the ablative, and so on. Knowing them lets you use Mongolian grammar books written for Mongolians.
Keep this lesson's two tables where you study. When a form puzzles you in a text, find its row first, and the meaning usually follows.
Choose the right answer, then press Check my answers. Score 70% or more and the lesson is ticked on your course map.
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Write your answer on paper or in your head first, then reveal the model answer.
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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