Goal: Compare two things.
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepLimba compares city and countryside
This afternoon Ganbaatar asks me which I prefer: the city or the countryside. I think of Ulaanbaatar, its traffic jams and the noise of Peace Avenue. Here I hear only the wind, the dogs and the animals.
Then Ganbaatar compares everything: the air, the animals, even himself and his older brother Bat. Nomin rolls her eyes and challenges me to a race to the river.
I am taller than Nomin. Nomin is faster than me. I lose.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| агаар | air |
| цэвэр | clean |
| олон | many |
| цөөн | few |
| мал | livestock, the herd animals |
| хүчтэй | strong |
| илүү | more |
| залуу | young |
| өндөр | tall, high |
| хурдан | fast |
| дулаан | warm |
| бас | also, too |
| уралдах | to race |
Mongolian has no word for "than" and no "-er" ending on the adjective. To compare, put the thing you compare against into the ablative, the "from" case of lesson 36, and leave the adjective exactly as it is, at the end of the sentence.
Word for word: "the countryside, from the city, calm". Measured from the city, the countryside is calm. The order is always the same: the thing described, then the standard with –аас / –оос / –ээс / –өөс, then the adjective. The vowel of the ending follows the standard, never the adjective: хотоос, Батаас, Номиноос, хүнээс, хөдөөнөөс.
The pronouns have their own ablative forms, which you met in lesson 36: надаас (than me), чамаас (than you, familiar), танаас (than you, polite), түүнээс (than him, than her).
You can put илүү (more) between the standard and the adjective. It is optional, because the ablative already says "than", but it makes the "more" explicit and is very common in speech.
With олон (many) and цөөн (few), the same pattern counts things:
For "less", Mongolian normally uses the opposite adjective instead of a word for "less": цөөн (few), жижиг (small), хүйтэн (cold). "The city is less calm" becomes "the countryside is calmer": Хөдөө хотоос тайван.
The ending goes on the standard, so it is the standard that may change shape. A short vowel can drop out: өчигдөр → өчигдрөөс, үхэр → үхрээс. A long vowel can add н: хөдөө → хөдөөнөөс.
To ask about two things, put two yes/no questions side by side: Хот сайхан уу, хөдөө сайхан уу? "Is the city nicer, or the countryside?"
Go deeper in the grammar guide: The ablative case · Mongolian adjectives
Ganbaatar is right about the animals. Mongolia has many times more horses, cattle, camels, sheep and goats than people, and in the countryside you feel it: a herding family may have no neighbours in sight, but hundreds of animals around the ger.
The animals matter so much that herders greet each other with a question about them: Мал сүрэг тарган тавтай юу? "Are your animals fat and well?"
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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