Goal: Plan a trip with wishes, needs and requests.
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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 keepThe family plans a trip to Arkhangai
Visa extended, cough gone, bag half packed. Tonight the kitchen table disappears under a map of Mongolia, and the whole family plans our trip. Arkhangai is in the middle of the country, a long day's drive west of Ulaanbaatar.
Everybody gives orders, wishes and warnings at once, and I realise that I understand almost all of them. A month ago I would have understood none.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| хүсэх | to wish, to want |
| хэрэгтэй | needed |
| хэрэггүй | not needed |
| чадах | can, to be able to |
| болох | to be allowed |
| ёстой | must |
| авч явах | to take along |
| авч ирэх | to bring back |
| ороолт | scarf |
| завтай | free, not busy |
| гарах | to set off; to go out |
| долоо хоног | week |
| пүрэв гараг | Thursday |
| бэлэг | present |
| эм | medicine |
This unit gave you the words for what you want, need, can, may and must do, and five ways of asking someone to act. Here they are side by side.
| You want to say | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| I'd like to… | stem + –маар байна | Би хөдөө явмаар байна. |
| (someone) wants to… | –х + –ыг/–ийг + хүсэж байна | Номин явахыг хүсэж байна. |
| I need (a thing) | dative-locative + thing + хэрэгтэй | Надад малгай хэрэгтэй. |
| I need to… | –х хэрэгтэй | Бид эрт явах хэрэгтэй. |
| I can… | –ж чадна | Би морь унаж чадна. |
| May I…? | –ж болох уу? | Орж болох уу? |
| I must… | –х ёстой | Та маягт бөглөх ёстой. |
| Do it! (to a child) | bare stem | Нааш ир! |
| Please do… | –аарай / –оорой / –ээрэй / –өөрэй | Дулаан хувцас өмсөөрэй. |
| Do it for me, please | –аач / –ооч / –ээч / –өөч | Надад эм өгөөч. |
| Would you…? | –на уу / –нэ үү | Түр хүлээнэ үү. |
| Let's… | –ъя / –ъё / –ье | Кино үзье. |
With чадах, болох, хэрэгтэй and ёстой, the first verb only links (–ж or –х) and the last word carries the tense, the question and the negation: унаж чадахгүй, орж болох уу, явах ёстой вэ. The one exception is –маар байна, where the negative goes on –маар and байна stays as it is: явмааргүй байна.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Wanting and needing · Can, must, want, like · Mongolian imperatives
When someone sets off on a journey, the people who stay say Сайн яваарай! "Go well!", and the traveller answers Сайн сууж байгаарай! "Stay well!", literally "keep sitting well". You will hear this exchange at every door, at every bus station and beside every car leaving for the countryside.
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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