Goal: Mark a definite object.
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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 looks for the house keys
Disaster: I can't find the house key. I look in my bag, in my coat pockets, under the bed. Saraa joins the search.
Then she notices Temuulen holding something small and shiny. It turns out he collects keys, any keys at all, and mine was simply the newest in his collection.
Today's ending marks "the" object, the particular one: түлхүүрийг, my key, not just any key.
| Mongolian | Letters | English |
|---|---|---|
| түлхүүр | tülkhüür | key |
| гэрийн түлхүүр | geriin tülkhüür | house key |
| хайх | khaikh | to look for |
| барих | barikh | to hold |
| цуглуулах | tsugluulakh | to collect |
| хадгалах | khadgalakh | to keep, to look after |
| хүлээх | khüleekh | to wait (for) |
| намайг | namaig | me (as an object) |
| чамайг | chamaig | you (as an object, familiar) |
| таныг | tanyg | you (as an object, polite) |
| түүнийг | tüüniig | him, her (as an object) |
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 direct object is the thing an action is done to: the key you look for, the book you read. When that object is a particular one, Mongolian marks it with an ending: –ыг, –ийг or –г. This case is called the accusative. When the object is "a key, keys, any key", it stays bare.
| Ending | When | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| –ыг | after a consonant, in words with а, о, у | номыг, махыг, хотыг |
| –ийг | after a consonant, in words with э, ө, ү (or only и), and after ж, ч, ш | түлхүүрийг, гэрийг, ээжийг, багшийг |
| –г | after a long vowel, a diphthong, or the final vowel of a loanword | ширээг, цайг, киног |
Like the genitive (lesson 37), the accusative knows only two vowels: ном gives номыг, with no form in о.
Use it when the object has been pinned down:
Leave the object bare when it is general or new: Би цай ууж байна. "I'm drinking tea." Би ном уншдаг. "I read (books)."
Pronouns have their own object forms, to learn as words: намайг (me), чамайг (you, familiar), таныг (you, polite), түүнийг (him, her).
The sentence keeps its usual order: subject, then object, then the verb at the end. The ending, not the position, shows which noun is the object.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: The accusative case · No "a" and no "the"
Two endings look alike, so listen to the last letter. The genitive ends in –н: номын "of the book". The accusative ends in –г: номыг "the book" as an object.
Номын сан is a library; Номыг өгөөч! is "Give me the book!" One letter, two very different jobs.
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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