Goal: Say 'mine', 'yours'.
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Now hear it and say it
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepWhose cup is this?
In Dulmaa's ger there are more bowls than people, and each one belongs to someone. This morning I took the first bowl I saw, and three voices shouted at once.
The blue one is Ganbaatar's, the one with flowers is Dulmaa's, and the old wooden one belonged to Nomin's grandfather. Mine, I learnt, is the yellow one: the guest bowl. By lunchtime I could say "mine", "yours" and "whose?" in Mongolian.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| минийх | mine |
| чинийх | yours (familiar) |
| таных | yours (polite, one person) |
| түүнийх | his, hers |
| манайх | ours; our home, our family |
| танайх | yours (several people); your home, your family |
| хэнийх | whose |
| зочин | guest |
In lesson 19 you learnt the possessives миний, чиний, таны, which stand in front of a noun: миний аяга, my bowl. To say "mine", with no noun after it, add –х.
| In front of a noun | Standing alone | English |
|---|---|---|
| миний | минийх | mine |
| чиний | чинийх | yours (familiar) |
| таны | таных | yours (polite, one person) |
| түүний | түүнийх | his, hers |
| манай | манайх | ours |
| танай | танайх | yours (several people) |
| хэний | хэнийх | whose |
Compare Энэ миний аяга "This is my bowl" with Энэ аяга минийх "This bowl is mine". In the first, the possessive leans on a noun; in the second, no noun follows, so it takes –х.
The question word is хэнийх, and the sentence ends in вэ:
Yes/no questions follow the usual rule: таных уу (back vowel а), чинийх үү, минийх үү (front vowel).
The same –х goes on any noun in the genitive. It means "the one of…", English "'s" with nothing after it.
To deny, use биш after the word, as with any noun (lesson 16): Минийх биш. "It's not mine." Энэ ном минийх биш. "This book is not mine."
These two often mean a whole household or home: Танайх хаана вэ? "Where is your home?" Манайх Улаанбаатарт. "Our home is in Ulaanbaatar." Do not confuse them with манайд, "at our place, to our place": Манайд зочин их ирдэг. "We get a lot of guests."
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Personal pronouns and possessives · The genitive case
From танайх and манайх come two warm words for a whole family: танайхан, your people, and манайхан, my people. After Сайн байна уу?, a polite visitor asks Танайхан сайн уу? "Are your people well?" and the answer is Манайхан сайн! "My people are well!" You will hear this exchange in every ger.
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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