Lesson 6

 

Key Sentences

L6-K

onoːdə̌r xədə̌n be? What is the date today?
onoːdə̌r ɑrbə̌n sɑr iːn gʊʧə̌n nəg næː odə̌r Today is October 31.
onoːdə̌r gærə̌g iːn dorbə̌n biʃəː    oʧə̌gdə̌r gærə̌g iːn dorbə̌n Today isn’t Thursday. Yesterday was Thursday.
œrœː tɑː juː xiːx be? What are you going to do this evening?
tɑnæː torsə̌n odə̌r ʧin xədə̌n sɑr iːn xədnæː odə̌r be? What month and day is your birthday?
bid ud iːn omə̌n tədnæːd ɔʧjɔː    bɔln ʊː? Let’s go to their place in the morning, okay?

 

Dialogs

One

L6-D1

A:  onoːdə̌r xədə̌n be?
B:  onoːdə̌r ɑrbə̌n sɑr iːn gʊʧə̌n nəg næː odə̌r
A:  onoːdə̌r gærə̌g iːn dorbə̌n uː?
B:  onoːdə̌r gærə̌g iːn dorbə̌n biʃəː    oʧə̌gdə̌r gærə̌g iːn dorbə̌n    mɑrgɑːʃ gærə̌g iːn ʤʊrgɑːn
A:  œrœː tɑː juː xiːx be?
B:  biː sulʤəːnt gɑrnɑː    tɑː?
A:  biː təlwə̌s uʤnəː

 

Two

L6-D2

A:  tɑnæː torsə̌n odə̌r ʧin xədə̌n sɑr iːn xədnæː odə̌r be?
B:  gurbə̌n sɑr iːn ɑrbə̌n dɔlɔː næː odə̌r    tɑː?
A:  tɑbə̌n sɑr iːn jus næː odə̌r
B:  dorbə̌nt ʧiʧig iːn torsə̌n odə̌r
A:  dorə̌b næː odə̌r gærə̌g iːn xədə̌n be?
B:  gærə̌g iːn odə̌r
A:  tɑː tədnæːd ɔʧn ʊː?
B:  ɔʧə̌n    tɑː?
A:  biː bɑs ɔʧnɔː
B:  bid ud iːn omə̌n ɔʧjɔː    bɔln ʊː?
A:  bɔlnɔː

 

 

Notes
/xədə̌n/ (or /xədnæː/ or /xəd/) is the word for “how many”. It is used with questions about numbers.
Like the months, the days of the week are easy in Mongolian. Monday is “week + 1”, Tuesday is “week + 2”, and so on. Sunday is the exception. It can be said “week + 7” but is usually said “week + day”.

Substitution

One

L6-S1

_________ xədə̌n be?

  • onoːdə̌r
  • oʧə̌gdə̌r
  • mɑrgɑːʃ

 

Two

L6-S2

_________ xədnæː odə̌r be?

  • ən gærə̌g iːn ʤʊrgɑːn
  • ən gærə̌g iːn odə̌r

Three

L6-S3

A:  œrœː tɑː juː xiːx be?
B:  biː _________

  • sulʤəːn gɑrə̌n
  • təlwə̌s uʤə̌n
  • nɔm ʊŋʃə̌n
  • dʊː sɔnsə̌n
  • ʤæxtə̌l biʧə̌n

 

Four

L6-S4

bid _________    bɔln ʊː?

  • ud iːn omə̌n tədnæːd ɔʧjɔː
  • œrœː ærxə̌n bɑːrt ɔʧjɔː
  • ud iːn xœːn tədnæːd ɔʧjɔː
  • gærə̌g iːn odə̌r dʊː sɔnsjɔː

 

Notes:
As you can see in Substitution 3, the /-n/ verb ending can be used to say what you are going to do in the future.
The /-jɔː/ ending (or /-jɑ, -jə, -ju, etc. as the case may be) can be used to make a suggestion, as in “Let’s do something.” We can see this in Substitution 4.

Expansion

One

L6-E1

A:  mɑrgɑːʃ xədə̌n sɑr iːn xədnæː odə̌r gɑrə̌g iːn xədə̌n be?
B:  mɑrgɑːʃ ɑrbə̌n nəgə̌n sɑr iːn xœrə̌n næːm næː odə̌r  gærə̌g iːn odə̌r

 

Two

L6-E2

miniː næːʤ iːn torsə̌n odə̌r ən gærə̌g iːn tɑbə̌n    tər ən jil xœrə̌n nɑs tæː    ud iːn xœːn gər təːn uʤə̌x ər ɔʧnɔː

 

Notes:
/ər/ is another grammar word. Let’s not worry about it now. It will come up again later. (Besides, I don’t understand it enough yet to explain it well anyway. )

Vocabulary

xədə̌n
how many
gærə̌g
week
gærə̌g iːn nəgə̌n
Monday
gærə̌g iːn xɔjə̌rə̌n
Tuesday
gærə̌g iːn gʊrbə̌n
Wednesday
gærə̌g iːn dorbə̌n
Thursday
gærə̌g iːn tɑbə̌n
Friday
gærə̌g iːn ʤʊrgɑːn
Saturday
gærə̌g iːn odə̌r
Sunday
oʧə̌gdə̌r
yesterday
œrœː
evening
juː
what
xiː-
to do
torsə̌n odə̌r
birthday
ud iːn omə̌n
morning
ud iːn xœːn
afternoon
tədnæːd
their place (house)
bɔl-
to be okay
sulʤəːnt gɑr-
get online
təlwə̌s
TV
uʤ-
see, watch, look, visit
ʧiʧigə
QIqige (a common girl’s name meaning “flower”)
nɔm
book
ʊŋʃ-
read
dʊː
song
sɔnə̌s-
listen
ʤæxtə̌l
letter
biʧ-
write
ærxə̌n bɑːr
bar, tavern
nɑstæː
age, years old, old
ər
grammar particle

L6-V

Grammar

Word Order

By now you have probably already noticed that the verbs come last in the sentence. If the verb has an object then the object goes in front of the verb. If we were to use the same order in English then we would get sentences like

  • I food eat.
  • I book read.
  • I letter write.
  • I friend visit.

Of course, in English this is poor grammar, but in Mongolian it is perfectly fine. In fact, to use the English grammatical order in Mongolian would be be wrong. They say that Koreans and Japanese can learn Mongolian fairly easily because their grammar is similar. For native English speakers it doesn’t feel natural at first, but with practice we can get used to it, too.

See Substitution 3 above for examples of this word order.

Practice

How do you say the following words:

  • how many
  • what
  • days of the week
  • yesterday, today, tomorrow
  • morning, afternoon, evening
  • birthday
  • age
  • do
  • read
  • watch
  • listen
  • visit
  • book
  • song
  • letter

How do you say the following sentences:

  • What day (of the week) is today?
  • What day (of the month) was yesterday?
  • Tomorrow is Friday.
  • When is your birthday?
  • What are you doing tonight?
  • Let’s watch TV, okay?
  • Are you going to their place?
  • What day is Sunday?
  • Answer the above questions.

Review by saying the following:

  • Let me give an introduction.
  • How are your parents?
  • I’m going to the internet cafe tomorrow.
  • Hello.
  • Are your parents busy?
  • Where are you going?
  • Goodbye.

If you were able to say most of these things correctly then you are ready to go on to lesson seven. If not, then keep practicing! You can also download the audio for the whole lesson so that you can practice listening while going to school. Just right-click the link below and choose “Save Link As…” to download.

Lesson 6
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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.

6 Comments on “Lesson 6

  1. I know I keep asking alot of questions but that is a way to learn. I was wondering since the verbs go at the end of the sentence why did bol go before the another word in the sentence a couple of lessons ago, as in “Bi bagsh bishe, bi bol suregsh”. Thanks.

    • Questions are good. If you have a question about something then other people do, too. And I get to learn a little more by trying to answer it.

      I had to look this one up in my grammar book. I guess /bɔl/ isn’t technically considered a verb. It is a connecting particle (or Focus Particle, as my grammar book says.). It connects the subject of the sentence with its complement. It functions similarly to the English linking verb “to be”. However, unlike “is, am, are”, you can’t conjugate /bɔl/. (There is a similar verb /bɔl-/ (to become) and that one can be conjugated at the end of the sentence.)

  2. Thank you so much! That makes alot more sense. Also in the vocabulary list it has bɔl meaning to be okay. How do you tell the difference between that and bɔl to become?

    • The verb /bɔl-/ can mean “okay” or “to become” depending on the context. It is a commonly used verb with a few different meanings. I forgot that in our lessons so far it has only meant “okay”.

  3. Hi, thanks for your effort on this online course, I really learned a lot!
    Just 1 question, when we say “to read a book”, why say “nɔm ʊŋʃə̌n” instead of “nɔmig ʊŋʃə̌n”? I thought nɔm should be the object here.

    • As I understand it, when talking about reading a book in general you say “nɔm ʊŋʃə̌n” but if you were talking about a specific book, like this book, you’d say “ən nɔmig ʊŋʃə̌n”.

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