Goal: Say what you did.
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Now hear it and say it
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepLimba tells Nomin about the day
Today was a full day. In the morning I had my lesson with Oyuunaa, my Mongolian teacher. Then I walked to the National Museum and spent two hours with old deels and saddles. For lunch I ate khuushuur at the market, standing up, like everybody else.
In the evening Nomin knocks on my door with two bowls of milk tea. She has just sat an exam and wants to hear about my day. To tell her, I need a new ending: the past.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| хийх | to do, to make |
| хичээл | lesson, class |
| суух | to sit; хичээлд суух to attend a class |
| заах | to teach; to show |
| үг | word |
| шинэ | new |
| сурах | to learn |
| музей | museum |
| хуучин | old (of things) |
| дээл | deel, the traditional Mongolian robe |
| эмээл | saddle |
| шалгалт | exam, test |
| өгөх | to give; шалгалт өгөх to sit an exam |
| тийм үү? | really? |
To say what you did, take the stem of the verb (the dictionary form without –х) and add –сан. Like the ablative –аас/–оос/–ээс/–өөс, this ending has four shapes, chosen by the vowels of the stem: –сан / –сон / –сэн / –сөн.
| Stem vowels | Ending | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| а, у | –сан | ав– → авсан (took, bought); суу– → суусан (sat) |
| о | –сон | оч– → очсон (went to, visited) |
| э, и, ү | –сэн | ир– → ирсэн (came); үз– → үзсэн (saw) |
| ө | –сөн | өг– → өгсөн (gave) |
The ending is the same for every person: би очсон, чи очсон, тэр очсон, бид очсон.
Grammars call –сан a participle: a verb form that can also stand in front of a noun and describe it, like "bought" in "the book I bought". You will meet that second job in lesson 102. For now, put it at the end of the sentence, where it simply means "did" or "has done". One form covers both: Би Говьд очсон is "I went to the Gobi" or "I have been to the Gobi".
Some stems end in a vowel: суух → суу–, уух → уу–, хийх → хий–, заах → заа–. Keep the stem exactly as it is and add the ending: суусан, уусан, хийсэн, заасан.
The verb байх "to be" gives байсан "was, were".
A yes/no question adds уу or үү, chosen by the vowels of the verb: очсон уу? авсан уу? but идсэн үү? өгсөн үү? The –сан form always ends in a consonant, so the particle is never юу. The short answer simply repeats the verb.
With a question word the particle is бэ, because –сан ends in н: Юу хийсэн бэ? "What did you do?" Lesson 58 is all about these questions.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: The four Mongolian pasts · The four-form suffix table
English says "Where are you from?" in the present, but you learnt the Mongolian as Та хаанаас ирсэн бэ?, literally "Where did you come from?". ирсэн is this lesson's past. Mongolian uses the past for anything that is over, even when English uses the present. Two everyday examples: Ойлгосон. "I understood", which is how you say "I see, got it"; and Би мартсан. "I forgot", which is how you say "I don't remember".
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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