Goal: Count to ten.
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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 keepTemuulen teaches counting with toys
Temuulen has decided that I need maths lessons. He lines up his toy cars on the carpet, counts them aloud very fast, and then waits for me to do the same.
Some numbers are easy: I know тав, five, from Nomin's word game in the taxi. Others are tongue-twisters, like зургаа and долоо, with their long vowels at the end.
After ten minutes, Temuulen gives me a mark: seven out of ten. I think he is a generous teacher.
| Mongolian | Letters | English |
|---|---|---|
| тоо | too | number |
| тэг | teg | zero |
| нэг | neg | one |
| хоёр | khoyor | two |
| гурав | gurav | three |
| дөрөв | döröv | four |
| тав | tav | five |
| зургаа | zurgaa | six |
| долоо | doloo | seven |
| найм | naim | eight |
| ес | yes | nine |
| арав | arav | ten |
| зөв | zöv | right, correct |
The “Letters” column is a letter-by-letter guide to the Cyrillic, not exact pronunciation. It disappears after level A1: by then you read Cyrillic directly.
The Mongolian word for "number" is тоо. Here are the first eleven:
| Number | Mongolian | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | тэг | |
| 1 | нэг | |
| 2 | хоёр | ё, the rare letter of lesson 7 |
| 3 | гурав | the throat г before у |
| 4 | дөрөв | two ө, never о |
| 5 | тав | not тавь, which is fifty |
| 6 | зургаа | з is dz; long аа at the end |
| 7 | долоо | long оо at the end |
| 8 | найм | the diphthong ай |
| 9 | ес | not ер, which is ninety |
| 10 | арав |
When you count, or when a number stands on its own, use the forms in the table:
In English, "two" is followed by a plural: two cars. In Mongolian, the number has already said how many, so the noun does not change at all:
There is no plural ending after a number, ever. The number also comes first, before the noun, like every word that describes a noun.
нэг and хоёр never change. The numbers from гурав to арав, on the other hand, take a slightly different shape when a noun follows them. That is the subject of lesson 23. For now, count with the forms of the table, and use нэг and хоёр in front of nouns.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Mongolian numbers
Nine, ес, is a special number in Mongolian tradition. The white banners of Chinggis Khaan come in a set of nine, and the coldest part of winter is traditionally counted in "nines": nine periods of nine days, starting at the winter solstice. When the last "nine" is over, spring is not far away.
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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