4Grammar and explanations
Two families of vowels
Mongolian vowels form two families. Grammars call them back vowels and front vowels; the labels are a teaching convenience rather than an exact description of the mouth, so this course simply names each family by its letters.
| а о у family | э ө ү family |
|---|
| хот (city) | гэр (ger, home) |
| мод (tree) | өрөө (room) |
| аав (father) | ээж (mother) |
| маргааш (tomorrow) | өнөөдөр (today) |
| баатар (hero) | цэцэг (flower) |
The rule: one word, one family
In a Mongolian word, the vowels come from one family only. This is called vowel harmony, and it goes further than spelling: the endings you will add to a word take their vowel from its family. Here is a preview with the ending that means "from":
хотоосcity-ABL"from the city"
гэрээсhome-ABL"from home"
Same ending, same meaning, but оо after an о word and ээ after an э word. You will use this from lesson 13 on.
и is neutral
и belongs to neither family. It can live in words of both: малчин (herder) and ажил (work) have а; шинэ (new) has э. So и never decides anything. And й is a consonant: it never counts either, so сайн is decided by its а.
One special case: a word whose only vowel is и, such as жил (year) or би (I), goes with the э ө ү family.
The three-second test
1. Cross out every и in the word. 2. Look at the first vowel that is left. 3. Its family is the family of the whole word. If nothing is left, the word goes with э ө ү.
малчин[malchin] herder: а, first family
хүүхэд[khüükhed] child: ү, second family
тийм[tiim] yes: only и, second family
Two small notes
е goes with the э ө ү family (ес, nine), but ё goes with the а о у family (ёс, custom). And long names are sometimes two words glued together, each keeping its own family: Сүхбаатар is Сүх + баатар.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Mongolian vowel harmony · Mongolian vowels
