Goal: Name colours.
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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 draws with felt pens
A rainy afternoon. Temuulen has a box of felt pens and covers sheet after sheet with gers, rivers and a big yellow sun.
He wants me to name every colour in Mongolian, and he corrects me without mercy. I learn that the sky has two blues.
And a surprise: the name of the city I live in hides a colour. Улаанбаатар begins with улаан, red.
| Mongolian | Letters | English |
|---|---|---|
| өнгө | öngö | colour |
| цагаан | tsagaan | white |
| хар | khar | black |
| улаан | ulaan | red |
| шар | shar | yellow |
| ногоон | nogoon | green |
| цэнхэр | tsenkher | light blue, sky blue |
| хөх | khökh | blue, dark blue |
| саарал | saaral | grey |
| тэнгэр | tenger | sky |
| нар | nar | sun |
| өвс | övs | grass |
| хаалга | khaalga | door |
| ямар | yamar | what kind of, which |
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.
A colour word is an adjective like том or шинэ (lesson 27). Before the noun it describes; at the end of the sentence it says something; and it never changes.
The question is Ямар өнгөтэй вэ?, literally "with what colour?". It uses the ending –тэй from lesson 26 on өнгө (colour). Өнгө has the vowel ө, and this ending has no form with ө, so it is өнгөтэй. You can also point and ask Энэ ямар өнгө вэ? "What colour is this?"
The short answer is just the colour: Цэнхэр. The longer answer repeats өнгөтэй, as in the second example.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| цагаан | white |
| хар | black |
| улаан | red |
| шар | yellow |
| ногоон | green |
| цэнхэр | light blue, sky blue |
| хөх | blue, dark blue |
| саарал | grey |
Mongolian has two everyday words for blue. Цэнхэр is a light, clear blue. Хөх is a deeper blue, and it is the old, traditional word: the Eternal Blue Sky of Mongolian tradition is Мөнх хөх тэнгэр. In everyday speech you will hear both words for the sky.
Many Mongolian names contain a colour. Улаанбаатар is улаан + баатар, "red hero". The Lunar New Year is Цагаан сар, "the white month". Once you know the colours, you will start to see them on maps and shop signs everywhere.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Mongolian adjectives · The comitative case
Colours also turn up on the table. Хар цай, "black tea", is tea without milk. Шар айраг, "yellow airag", is beer. And цагаан идээ, "white food", is the word for all dairy products: milk, yoghurt, cheese, dried curds.
White is the colour of milk, purity and good wishes. That is why a guest in a Mongolian home is usually offered milk tea and dairy food.
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Well done! Lesson 28 is ticked on your course map.
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