Lesson 2
Key Sentences
| tɑːnæː bəj ʧin sæːn ʊː? | How is your health? | |
| bɑjə̌rllɑː | Thank you | |
| bɑjirtæː | Goodbye |
Dialogs
One
A: tɑːnæː bəj ʧin sæːn ʊː?
B: sæːn bænɑː bɑjə̌rllɑː
Two
A: tɑːnə̌r sæːn ʊ?
B: bid bugdəːr sæːn bæːnɑː tɑːnæː bəj ʧin sæːn bæːn ʊː?
A: bɑs sæːn bæːnɑː bɑjirtæː
B: bɑjirtæː
| Notes |
| “tɑːnæː bəj ʧin sæːn ʊː?” literally means “Is your body well?” The meaning is your health and general well-being, though. |
| The root word for both “thank you” and “goodbye” is bɑyə̌r, which means happiness. |
Substitution
________ sæːn ʊː?
|
| Notes: |
| Both /iːn/ and /næː/ endings make a word possessive. Which one is used depends on the word it follows. |
| Remember that the /ʧin/ emphasizes the meaning of “your”. |
Expansion
One
- tɑbnæː odə̌r
- jisnæː odə̌r
- ɑrbə̌n dorbə̌næː odə̌r
- xœrə̌n dɔlɔːnæː odə̌r
- gʊʧə̌næː odə̌r
- gʊʧə̌n nəgnæː odə̌r
Two
A: onoːdə̌r ʤʊrgɑːn tərgə̌l bɑgʧ irn uː
B: irnəː
| Notes: |
| Expansion one tells how to make the days of the month. The /næː/ sound is put between the number and “day” to refer to the day of the month. However, in spoken Mongolian a simple /n/ sound after the number can also be used to mean the day (as in Expansion 2). |
Vocabulary
| bəj | body | |
| bɑjə̌rllɑː | thank you | |
| bɑjirtæː | goodbye | |
| bid | we | |
| bugdəːr | everybody | |
| bɑs | also | |
| tədnæː | their | |
| bɑgʃ | teacher | |
| bɑt | Batu (a common boy’s name) | |
| tərgə̌l | Tergel (a common girl’s name) | |
| iːn | possessive particle (like “apostrophe s” in English) | |
| næː | possessive particle (like “apostrophe s” in English) | |
| nəg | one | |
| xɔjə̌r | two | |
| gʊrə̌b | three | |
| dorə̌b | four | |
| tɑb | five | |
| ʤʊrgɑː | six | |
| dɔlɔː | seven | |
| næːm | eight | |
| jis | nine | |
| ɑrə̌b | ten | |
| xœr | twenty | |
| gʊʧ | thirty | |
| oːdə̌r | day | |
| onoːdə̌r | today |
Grammar
Numbers
An /n/ sound is often added between words that are related. Thus, in the word eleven, which is “ten one”, the /ɑrə̌b/ (ten) becomes /ɑrə̌bə̌n/ or just /ɑrbə̌n/.
Listen to the differences:
| 10 | ɑrə̌b |
| 11 | ɑrbə̌n nəg |
| 20 | xœr |
| 21 | xœrə̌n nəg |
| 30 | gʊʧ |
| 31 | gʊʧə̌n nəg |
Listen to all the numbers from one to thirty-one.
When talking about a day of the month, the number and the word “day” are connected by making the number possessive. The 11th day (of the month) is literally said like “eleven’s day” or “the day of eleven”. Listen to the days of the month:
As mentioned in the note above, the word “day” is optional in spoken Mongolian. However, there is still an /n/ sound at the end of the number. Listen to the days of the month when said without the word “day”:
Practice
How do you say the following words:
- goodbye
- all
- thank you
- their
- also
- today
- we
- body
- the numbers 1 through 31
- the days of the month 1 through 31
How do you say the following sentences:
- How is your health?
- How is your parents’ health?
- How Teacher Smith’s health?
- Today is the 3rd.
- Today is the 15th.
- Today is the 30th.
- Today is the 31st.
- Thank you.
- Goodbye.
If you were able to say most of these things correctly then you are ready to go on to lesson three. If not, then keep practicing! You can also download the audio for the whole lesson so that you can practice listening while washing the dishes. Just right-click the link below and choose “Save Link As…” to download.
If you have any questions about this lesson or if you notice a mistake, then please leave a comment below. If I don’t know the answer myself, then I will ask our teachers.
Sain uu,
What a lot of work! Ene site chin ih taalagdlaa. Bi ch bas huuchin mongol bichig sergeej surahad duhum yum, Bayarlalaa
Bayarlalaa. I wish I could reply to you properly in Mongolian but my Mongolian is still pretty bad. If you find any mistakes then please let me know.
kewl, its so amazing . When i was high school i learned Mongolian script. i will suggest this site to my friends who wanna learn Mongolian script.
Маргааш би Монгол бичиг хэл соёлын талаар гадаад хүүхдүүдэд хичээл заах юм. Мартсанаа эргэж санахад их тус боллоо. Баярлалаа
Dear Suragch,
I have some complaint about the spelling used in these lessons, say [bɑjə̌rllɑː] and [bɑjirtæː]. In Mongolian there’s no real difference between [ɑ̯] and [ə̯] as those vowels are supposed to be very weak but according to the vowel harmony [ɑ̯] should be used here. Using of extraordinary [ə̯] may bring extra difficulty to the learner.
Also, I cannot hear any difference between the sound [bɑjə̯r-] and [bɑji̯r-] used in the article. Is there any point to artificially make the already distinct written and spoken Mongolian more distinct?
What’s more, even if they are distinct, should [bɑjɪ̯r-] be used instead of [bɑji̯r-]? I assume this tutorial is based on the standard pronunciation of Mongolian.
Either way thank you again for your effort on promoting Mongolian learning.
Weird enough the pronunciations depicted in those symbol looks like Khorchin-influenced Chakhar one.
Hello! I’m in a problem…
in the Expansion 2 say:
A: tərgə̌l bɑgʧ irn uː
B: irnəː
what’s the meaning of “irn u:” and “irnəː”
I’m really grateful with the website, and I’d like to receive an answer! thanks
“tərgə̌l bɑgʧ irn uː” means “Is Teacher Tergel going to come?”
“irnəː” means “Yes, he/she will come.
The verb root “ir-” means “to come” and the “n” (or “nəː”) suffix indicates that it is the future tense. The “uː” particle makes it a question.
I agree with the first comment above, ‘what a lot of work!’ Thanks so much my friend. This is helping me so much. I can’t wait to impress my Mongolian script teacher in Ulaanbaatar next lesson! This will make homework much more enjoyable and fruitful.