Lesson Four: Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns, like questions, are a core aspect of communication. These are words such as "I", "you", "he", and "she" in English and "би", "та", and "тэр" in Mongolian. Personal pronouns are introduced in this lesson.
The following video provides an introduction to all the basic personal pronouns.
As described in the video above, Mongolian has both a formal and informal form of the second person pronoun. The difference between "та" (you) and "чи" (you) is one of age and social standing. It is polite to refer to people who are older than you using "та". When speaking to people of the same age or younger, "чи" is used. There is nothing wrong with playing it safe and using "та" with people when you're not sure about their ages, but it would be strange for an adult to use "та" when speaking with a child. As such, it's a good idea to get comfortable using both at the appropriate times.
Mongolian also has two forms of the first person and third person plural pronouns. "Бид нар" and "бид" and "тэд нар" and "тэд" are functionally equivalent, and using one over the other is mostly a matter of style.
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These personal pronouns are just the first level of words used when talking about yourself or other people, and there are other forms yet to come.