Goal: Talk about habits.
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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 asks about the family's habits
Over dinner I interview the family about their everyday life, like a journalist with a notebook.
Bat gets up early and works at the power plant, Saraa works at the hospital, Nomin reads every evening, and Temuulen plays every day, which he announces very proudly.
For all these habits Mongolian uses one ending, –даг. It says what people usually do, not what they are doing right now.
| Mongolian | Letters | English |
|---|---|---|
| эрт | ert | early |
| өдөр бүр | ödör bür | every day |
| бүр | bür | every, each |
| ажиллах | ajillakh | to work |
| амьдрах | am'drakh | to live (stem амьдар–); амьдардаг = lives (it is one's home) |
| сүүтэй цай | süütei tsai | milk tea |
| кофе | kofye | coffee |
| заримдаа | zarimdaa | sometimes |
| үргэлж | ürgelj | always |
| болох | bolokh | to become |
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.
Add –даг (or –дог, –дэг, –дөг) to the stem to talk about habits, jobs and things that are generally true. This is the habitual form.
| Ending | Stem with | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| –даг | а, у | ажилладаг, явдаг, уудаг, уншдаг |
| –дог | о | босдог, тоглодог, очдог |
| –дэг | э, ү, or only и | ирдэг, иддэг, үздэг, хийдэг |
| –дөг | ө | өгдөг |
Some stems that end in two consonants take a linking vowel before –даг: тогл– → тоглодог, ажилл– → ажилладаг. Others take it directly: унш– → уншдаг. Learn each form with its verb.
You now have three ways to talk about the present, and Mongolian makes you choose:
| Mongolian | What it says |
|---|---|
| Би кофе уудаг. | I drink coffee (it is my habit). |
| Би кофе ууж байна. | I am drinking coffee (right now). |
| Би кофе ууна. | I will drink coffee (soon, as a plan). |
The same choice says where you really live. Амьдардаг says it is your home; амьдарч байна says you are there for now. (Амьдрах hides a vowel: its stem is амьдар–. The second а drops in the dictionary form амьдрах, but stays in амьдарна, амьдардаг and амьдарч байна.)
Та юу хийдэг вэ? asks about someone's work, not about this minute. Answer with your job (Би эмч.) or with –даг: Би эмнэлэгт ажилладаг.
Words of frequency go before the verb: өдөр бүр (every day), орой бүр (every evening), заримдаа (sometimes), үргэлж (always). Бүр after a time word means "every".
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Present and future: three forms · The four-form suffix table
Сүүтэй цай, milk tea, is the national drink. It is made by boiling water with tea leaves, adding plenty of milk and, usually, a pinch of salt. Many families drink it all day long.
The first time, the salt may surprise you. Accept the bowl with your right hand, or with both hands, and taste it before you judge: by the second week, most visitors ask for more.
Choose the right answer, then press Check my answers. Score 70% or more and the lesson is ticked on your course map.
Well done! Lesson 44 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