Lesson 2

 

Key Sentences

L2-K

tɑːnæː bəj ʧin sæːn ʊː? How is your health?
bɑjə̌rllɑː Thank you
bɑjirtæː Goodbye

 

Dialogs

One

L2-D1

A: tɑːnæː bəj ʧin sæːn ʊː?
B: sæːn bænɑː    bɑjə̌rllɑː

 

Two

L2-D2

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

L2-S1

________  sæːn ʊː?

  • tɑːnæː bəj ʧin
  • tɑːnə̌r iːn bəj ʧin
  • tədnæː bəj
  • bɑtʊː bɑgʧ iːn bəj
  • tərgə̌l bɑgʧ iːn bəj
  • tɑːnæː ɑːb iːn ʧin bəj
  • tɑːnæː əːʤ iːn ʧin bəj
  • tɑːnæː ɑːb əːʤ iːn ʧin bəj

 

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

L2-E1

  • tɑbnæː odə̌r
  • jisnæː odə̌r
  • ɑrbə̌n dorbə̌næː odə̌r
  • xœrə̌n dɔlɔːnæː odə̌r
  • gʊʧə̌næː odə̌r
  • gʊʧə̌n nəgnæː odə̌r

 

Two

L2-E2


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

L2-V

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.

L2-G1

 

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:

L2-G2

 

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”:

L2-G3

 

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.

Main lesson 2

heading-logo.png
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.

8 Comments on “Lesson 2

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*