Goal: Say where you come from.
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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 keepLimba comes back from the market
I come back from the market with Tsetseg's apples, and within ten minutes the whole family is home: Temuulen from school, Bat from work.
Everyone asks the same question at the door: Хаанаас ирсэн бэ? The answer always ends in a long vowel and с.
Choosing between –аас, –оос, –ээс and –өөс is vowel harmony in action, and tonight I finally see how it works.
| Mongolian | Letters | English |
|---|---|---|
| хаанаас | khaanaas | from where (хаана + –аас) |
| захаас | zakhaas | from the market |
| сургуулиас | surguulias | from school |
| ажлаас | ajlaas | from work |
| хотоос | khotoos | from the city |
| гэрээс | gerees | from home |
| хөдөө | khödöö | the countryside |
| хөдөөнөөс | khödöönöös | from the countryside |
| ээжээс | eejees | from mother |
| сүү | süü | milk |
| ажилтай | ajiltai | busy, having work (ажил + –тай) |
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.
English puts from in front of the noun. Mongolian puts an ending on the back of it: –аас, –оос, –ээс or –өөс. This case is called the ablative, and its first job is to say where someone or something comes from.
The vowels of the word choose the ending. Strike out и, then look at what is left.
| Ending | for a word with | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| –аас | а or у (anywhere in the word) | захаас, Канадаас, сургуулиас |
| –оос | о only | хотоос, Монголоос |
| –ээс | э or ү (or only и) | гэрээс, Цэцэгээс, ээжээс |
| –өөс | ө only | хөдөөнөөс |
Most suffixes with four forms work exactly like this one, so this table is worth learning well.
The ending itself never changes its rules, but the word in front can change a little:
In all three cases, the vowel of the ending is still chosen by the original word.
Add the same ending to хаана (where): хаанаас, "from where". You know the question from lesson 13: Та хаанаас ирсэн бэ?
The answer needs no verb at all: Захаас. "From the market."
The same ending says who gave or sent something: Энэ сүү ээжээс. "This milk is from (my) mother." English says "from" here too, so this one is easy.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: The ablative case · The four-form suffix table
The first question a Mongolian asks a foreigner is very often Та хаанаас ирсэн бэ? Learn the answer for your own country, and a few others: Канадаас, Америкаас, Францаас, Германаас, Оросоос, Хятадаас.
Bat's milk tells a real story: many city families receive milk, meat and dried curds from relatives in the countryside, and a parcel from хөдөө is always good news.
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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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