4Grammar and explanations
Six words for the land
Mongolian has short, everyday words for the main features of the countryside. Learn each one with an adjective that often goes with it.
| Mongolian | English | With an adjective |
|---|
| уул | mountain | өндөр уул (a high mountain) |
| толгод | hills | ногоон толгод (green hills) |
| гол | river | урт гол (a long river) |
| нуур | lake | том нуур (a big lake) |
| тал | steppe, plain | өргөн тал (the wide steppe) |
| ой | forest | том ой (a big forest) |
One hill, many hills
толгод is the plural of толгой, a hill. A single hill is толгой; the rolling hills you see everywhere on the steppe are толгод. The two words for high ground are often said together: уул толгод (mountains and hills). Learn толгод as a word of its own: it does not use the plural endings of lesson 29.
Describing what you see
Lesson 27 still holds: in a phrase the adjective comes first, and in a sentence it comes last, with no verb.
өргөн талwide steppe"the wide steppe"
Тал өргөн.steppe wide"The steppe is wide."
Голын хажууд ой байна.river-GEN beside forest be-PRES-FUT"There is a forest next to the river."
The parts of a landscape: the genitive
To name a part of a mountain, a river or a lake, put the landscape word in the genitive and the part after it. These are the same genitive endings as in Номины ном (lesson 37).
- уулын орой (the top of the mountain)
- толгойн орой (the top of the hill): after –ой the genitive is a bare –н, as in оройн хоол
- голын эрэг (the river bank)
- нуурын эрэг (the shore of the lake)
уулын оройmountain-GEN top"the top of the mountain"
Going up, going towards
To climb a mountain is ууланд гарах, literally "to go up onto the mountain". Look at the н in ууланд: уул is one of the nouns that add an н before the dative-locative ending, so learn ууланд as it stands. For movement towards a place, use руу or рүү from lesson 38, and remember that after a word ending in р it becomes луу or лүү: гол руу but нуур луу.
Бид ууланд гарлаа.we mountain-DAT climb-PAST"We climbed the mountain."
Бид нуур луу явлаа.we lake towards go-PAST"We went towards the lake."
Names of rivers and lakes
A name comes first and the common noun after it, with no ending on the name: Туул гол (the Tuul River, which flows through Ulaanbaatar), Хөвсгөл нуур (Lake Khövsgöl).
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Mongolian adjectives · The genitive case · Movement towards a place: руу and рүү
5Good to know
The word орой has two meanings: the top of something, and the evening. The phrase around it always decides: уулын орой is the top of the mountain, оройн хоол is the evening meal, and өнөө орой is this evening.
толгой is double too: a hill on the steppe, and the head on your shoulders. You will meet the second meaning in lesson 97.
