Goal: Say what is happening now.
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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 keepMorning in the flat: who is doing what
Early morning, and the flat is full of sounds. Saraa is making tea, Bat is reading the newspaper, Temuulen is eating at top speed, and Nomin is still asleep.
I stand in the kitchen doorway with my notebook and describe everything I see, in Mongolian, under my breath.
One form does it all: –ж байна, the Mongolian "is doing". By the time the tea is ready, my page is full.
| Mongolian | Letters | English |
|---|---|---|
| Өглөөний мэнд! | Öglöönii mend! | Good morning! |
| сонин | sonin | newspaper; news |
| хоол | khool | food, meal |
| босох | bosokh | to get up |
| яарах | yaarakh | to hurry; яарч байна = am in a hurry |
| өлсөх | ölsökh | to get hungry; өлсөж байна = am hungry |
| цангах | tsangakh | to get thirsty; цангаж байна = am thirsty |
| одоо | odoo | now |
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.
To say that something is going on at the moment of speaking, add –ж to the stem and put байна after it as a separate word. This is the Mongolian "is doing".
The verb in –ж carries the meaning; байна carries the time. It is the same for every person: би уншиж байна, тэр уншиж байна.
| Dictionary form | Stem | Happening now |
|---|---|---|
| хийх | хий– | хийж байна |
| уух | уу– | ууж байна |
| явах | яв– | явж байна |
| ирэх | ир– | ирж байна |
| идэх | ид– | идэж байна |
| унших | унш– | уншиж байна |
| унтах | унт– | унтаж байна |
| босох | бос– | босож байна |
After a vowel and after most single consonants such as в, р or л, –ж comes straight on: хийж, ууж, явж, ирж. After д, з, с, ш, ч or two consonants, a linking vowel comes first, chosen by vowel harmony: идэж, босож, унтаж, and и after ш or ч: уншиж, очиж (from очих).
Most verbs take –ж. A smaller group takes –ч: авах → авч байна, өгөх → өгч байна, сурах → сурч байна, яарах → яарч байна. Many of these stems end in в, г or р, but not all such stems do: явах gives явж, ирэх gives ирж. So learn each verb together with its form. When in doubt, –ж is the better guess.
English says "I am hungry" with an adjective. Mongolian treats hunger as something going on right now:
In the same way: Би цангаж байна. "I'm thirsty." Би яарч байна. "I'm in a hurry."
Ask Юу хийж байна вэ? "What is he doing? What are you doing?" The answer keeps the same form. For a yes/no question, add уу after байна: Чи цай ууж байна уу?
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Present and future: three forms · Converbs
In the family, the usual morning question is not Өглөөний мэнд! but Сайхан амарсан уу? "Did you rest well?" The answer is Сайхан амарсан. "I rested well."
Өглөөний мэнд! is perfectly correct too, and you will hear it every day in offices, in shops and on the morning radio.
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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