Goal: Ask the price and understand it.
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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 keepAt the State Department Store
Everyone keeps warning me about the Mongolian winter, so today I go hat hunting at the State Department Store, the famous old shop on Peace Avenue.
Nomin comes with me. I learn the two questions every shopper needs, and one word I soon use about everything: үнэтэй, expensive.
Nomin laughs and teaches me the other one: хямд, cheap. Much more useful.
| Mongolian | Letters | English |
|---|---|---|
| үнэ | üne | price |
| үнэтэй | ünetei | expensive (literally: with a price) |
| хямд | khyamd | cheap |
| Ямар үнэтэй вэ? | Yamar ünetei ve? | How much is it? |
| хэд | khed | how much, how many (on its own) |
| малгай | malgai | hat |
| ноолуур | nooluur | cashmere |
| худалдагч | khudaldagch | shop assistant, seller |
| дэлгүүр | delgüür | shop |
| Улсын их дэлгүүр | Ulsyn ikh delgüür | the State Department Store |
| уучлаарай | uuchlaarai | excuse me; sorry |
| за | za | all right, OK |
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 polite, standard question is Ямар үнэтэй вэ? Word for word it means "with what price?": it is үнэ (price) with the ending –тэй from lesson 26. The short, everyday question is Хэд вэ? "How much?"
Both end in вэ, because they contain a question word (ямар, хэд) and the last word does not end in в, л, м or н.
The answer is simply the amount. Sellers often drop төгрөг, and then the last number word stays in its plain form, because no noun follows it.
Be careful: үнэтэй on its own means "expensive". It is the question word ямар that turns it into "how much?".
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| Энэ ямар үнэтэй вэ? | How much is this? |
| Энэ үнэтэй. | This is expensive. |
| Энэ их үнэтэй байна. | This is very expensive. |
| Энэ хямд. | This is cheap. |
With байна at the end you react to the price right now: Их үнэтэй байна! "That's very expensive!"
Point with энэ (this, near me) and тэр (that, over there), as in lesson 17. They stand in front of the noun like an adjective: энэ малгай "this hat", тэр саарал малгай "that grey hat". Several words can stand in front of one noun, and none of them changes.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Everyday phrases · Mongolian numbers
In a shop with price tags, such as the State Department Store, prices are fixed. At the big open markets, some friendly bargaining is normal, and a smile works better than an argument.
Үнэтэй can also mean "precious, valuable": үнэтэй бэлэг is a valuable gift. So a Mongolian friend who says your present is үнэтэй is paying you a compliment, not complaining.
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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