Goal: Say what you need.
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Now hear it and say it
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepPreparing the trip: what to take
The trip is decided: next week, by car, to Grandma Dulmaa's camp in Arkhangai. Tonight my bed is covered with clothes, and Saraa inspects them one by one like a doctor, which she is.
My Canadian jacket passes the test. My city boots do not. Nomin brings her own winter boots, and Saraa reminds me that a guest never arrives at a herder's ger with empty hands.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| хэрэгтэй | needed; to need |
| дулаан | warm |
| хувцас | clothes |
| хүрэм | jacket |
| малгай | hat |
| бээлий | gloves, mittens |
| гутал | boots, shoes |
| нимгэн | thin |
| бэлэг | present, gift |
| чихэр | sweets |
| хол | far |
| цүнх | bag |
| манайд | at our place, at home |
хэрэгтэй is not a verb: it is a word in –тэй, built like ахтай (lesson 26), and it means roughly "required". The person who needs stands in the dative-locative, the thing needed stands bare, and хэрэгтэй comes last, often followed by байна.
The sentence is turned round compared with English, exactly like Надад … байна "I have…" (lesson 26). Here are the dative-locative forms of the pronouns:
| Pronoun | Dative-locative |
|---|---|
| би | надад |
| чи | чамд |
| та | танд |
| тэр | түүнд |
| бид | бидэнд |
Put the verb in its –х form before хэрэгтэй. In this pattern the subject can stay as it is.
After –тэй the yes/no particle is юү: Малгай хэрэгтэй юү? "Do I need a hat?" With a question word, the particle is вэ: Юу хэрэгтэй вэ? "What do you need?"
Swap –тэй for –гүй: Танд малгай хэрэггүй. "You don't need a hat." Явах хэрэггүй. "There's no need to go."
хэрэгтэй itself never changes. When you add байна, it is байна that changes for the time: Надад мөнгө хэрэгтэй байсан. "I needed money." In a shop or an office you will often hear the open question Танд юу хэрэгтэй вэ? "What do you need?", which is the Mongolian way of saying "Can I help you?".
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Wanting and needing · Mongolian personal pronouns
A guest never arrives at a herder's ger empty-handed. City visitors bring things that are hard to find on the steppe: sweets, biscuits, bread, fruit, a brick of tea (шахмал цай). Hand the present over with your right hand, or with both hands, never with the left alone. Lesson 92 tells you more about gifts.
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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