A summary of the Mongolian language resources I found on the world wide web for self study and future reference.
Basic word order in Mongolian can be shown in this acronym:
STOP! – Subject Time Object Predicate!
CYRILLIC TO LATIN
VOWELS
| Short Vowels | Long Vowels | Diphthongs |
| а | аа | ай |
| э | ээ | эй |
| и | ий | – |
| о | оо | ой |
| ө | өө | – |
| ү | үү | үй |
| у | уу | уй |
| Male Vowels | Neutral | Female Vowels |
| а, о, у | и | э, ө, ү |
| ё, ы, ю, я | е | |
| аав, уул, охин, од, ёстой, аавын, яасан | ярих, эгшиг, алим | үнэг, өндөг, өвөл, ердөө |
QUESTION PARTICLES
УУ (oo), ҮҮ (uu), ЮУ (yoo) and ЮҮ (yuu) are question particles that are always placed at the end of a phrase; they change a sentence into a yes/no question.
- УУ? is used after words with the masculine vowels: а, о, у
- ҮҮ? is used after words with the feminine vowels: э, ө, ү
- ЮУ? is used after words with the masculine long vowels and diphthongs: аа, оо, уу, ай, ой and уй
- ЮҮ? is used after words with the feminine long vowels and diphthongs: ээ, өө, үү, эй and үй
Examples
| Энэ ном уу? | Тэр ширээ юү? | Энэ цай юу? |
| Тэр оюутан уу? | Энэ самбар уу? | Тэр анги уу? |
| Энэ цаас уу? | Тэр хаалга уу? | Сайн байна уу? |
QUESTION WITH ХЭН OR ЮУ – ВЭ AND БЭ
ВЭ (ve) and БЭ (be) are question particles. They are used in sentences that have question words like who (ХЭН) or what (ЮУ). They are not used in yes/no questions.
- БЭ is used after М, В, Л, and Н
- Хэн бэ? / Who’s there?
- Энэ xэний ном бэ? / Whose book is this?
- ВЭ is used after everything else
Examples
| Тэр хэн бэ? | Энэ хүн юу хийх вэ? | Батболд юу хийдэг юм бэ? |
| Цаг хэд болж байна вэ? | Дэвтэр нь хаана байгаа вэ? | Тэр хэзээ явсан бэ? |
| Энэ юу вэ? | Энэ хэд вэ? | Энэ юу юм бэ? |
MOVEMENT FROM A PLACE / PERSON / TIME
-аас is used to show movement from a place and person. It is also used for talking about the time something begins, when giving time duration.
- Би (I) Америкаас (America + from) ирсэн (came)
ХААНААС is a question word. It is formed by the question word ХААНА (where) + -аас. It means where from, or from where.
- Та/ Чи хаанаас ирсэн бэ?
- Би Америкаас ирсэн
- Та нар/ Тэд нар хаанаас ирсэн бэ?
- Тэд нар Солонгосоос ирсэн
PRONOUNS (SINGULAR FORM)
| Personal | Possessive | Objective | |||
| I | Би | My | Миний | Me | Намайг |
| You | Чи / Та | Your | Чиний | You | Чамайг |
| She | Тэр | Her | Түүний | Her | Түүнийг |
| He | Тэр | His | Түүний | Him | Түүнийг |
| It | Энэ | Its / This | Түүний | It / This | Түүнийг |
| We | Бид | Our | бидний | Us | биднийг |
| You | Та нар | Your | Та нарын | You | та нарыг |
| They | тэд | Their | тэднийг | Them | тэднийг |
POSSESSIVES
In normal conversation Mongolians generally use the words “миний”, “таны”, and “чиний” to refer to things or people that are exclusively owned by a single person.
Contrast this with things that people may not exclusively possess such as a mother or father. In these cases, it is common to use the words “манай” and “танай” to refer to things and people.
Apostrophe + S (‘s) / “Of”
Most possessives involve attaching an “ii” like sound to the end of words.
| Rules for Constructing Possessives | ||
| Male vowels | Female vowels | Explanation |
| -ны | -ний | Added onto words ending with long vowels.
Example: дуу+ны, ширээ+ний |
| -ын | -ийн | Added onto words ending with short vowels.
Example: уул+ын, хана+ын, зураг+ийн |
| -ы | -ий | Added onto words that end in “н”.
Example: сонин+ы, үнэн+ий, амьтaн+ы |
| -н | Added onto words that end in pair vowels (diphthongs).
Example: нохой+н, могой+н, ой+н, далай+н, гахай+н |
|
COMMON VERBS
| явах | to go |
| өгөх | to give |
| авах | to take |
| суух | to sit |
| уух | to drink |
| идэх | to eat |
SIMPLE PRESENT
The suffix –ДАГ is used to talk about an action that habitually takes place. (e.g., I walk home everyday). This ending is added to the verb stem using the vowel harmony.
- ажилла +даг
- ид + дэг
- өг + дөг
- ор + дог
FUTURE TENSE
Simple Future
The suffix –на, -нэ, -но, and -нө are used for positive future tense and are added to verb stems according to the rule of vowel harmony.
–ахгүй for negative future tense.
Near Future
The suffix -лаа is used when people talk about the very near future. It expresses an action that happened in the recent past, or that is about happen in the immediate future.
- Би хотоос ирлээ / I have just arrived from the city
- За за, би явлаа / Yeah yeah, I’m leaving
SIMPLE PAST TENSE
To form the simple past tense, drop the –x to form the verb stem.
The suffixes –сан, -сон, -сэн, and –сөн are attached to verbs to create the most commonly used form of the past tense.
–аагүй for negative form.
-сэн
- Тэр Дарханаас ирсэн / He came from Darkhan
-сон
- Чи өчигдөр хөгжим сонссон уу? / Did you listen to music yesterday?
- Би гитар тоглосон. / I played guitar.
-сөн
- Хэн ном багшид өгсөн бэ? / Who gave the teacher the book?
PRESENT CONTINUOUS
The present continuous tense describes actions or events that are in progress at the moment of speaking.
This tense takes the following form,
- Verb + ж байна
- Би ном уншиж байна / I am reading a book
- Verb + аагүй байна
- Би ном уншаагүй байна/ I am not reading a book
To be continued. . .
Reference
https://www.livelingua.com/course/peace-corps/Mongolian_Language_Lessons
http://www.themongolist.com/language-resources/beginner-mongolian/lesson-one-introduction-to-mongolian-cyrillic.html
http://leonsplanet.com/mongol_lesson.htm