Lesson Six: Numbers
Numbers have numerous applications (pun intended), and in Mongolian they have functions well beyond just counting and expressing quantity. In this lesson, basic numbers and the rules for constructing larger compound numbers are introduced. In addition, a new question word and an expression for asking a person's age are introduced.
Let's begin with a short introductory video about numbers.
In Mongolian you add an "н" sound to the end of numbers if they precede another number or noun (except 1, 2, and any other number ending in 2). For example:
1 сандал – нэг сандал <-- Note "нэг" is unchanged.
11 сандал – арван нэгэн сандал <-- Note there's an "ан" added to "арав" and "эн" added to "нэг".
2 хүн – хоёр хүн <-- Note "хоёр" is unchanged.
12 хүн – арван хоёр хүн <-- Note there's an "ан" added to "арав" and "хоёр" is unchanged.
15 ширээ – арван таван ширээ <-- Note there's an "ан" added to "арав" and "тав".
Here are 1-10 with nouns to demonstrate the spelling for each number:
Нэг --> нэг машин
Хоёр --> хоёр нохой
Гурав --> гурван гэр
Дөрөв --> дөрвөн харандаа
Тав --> таван хүн
Зургаа --> зургаан дэвтэр
Долоо --> долоон эмч
Найм --> найман хаалга
Ес --> есөн аяга
Арав --> арван муур
The following is a complete chart of numbers in Mongolian from 0-100.
Numbers are not too difficult to memorize. Start with one through ten, and get those numbers committed to memory. Then move on to the 10s. When you think about it, although there are 101 numbers represented in the chart above, you only need to commit 20 numbers (0-10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100) and a simple rule to memory.
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Learning to count opens up the opportunity to ask questions about quantity. The following video introduces the question word "хэд".
"Хэд" behaves just like numbers. By itself it is "хэд", but when it precedes nouns, you must change it to "хэдэн." For example:
Хэд вэ?
Хэдэн хүн бэ?
Хэдэн цаг болж байна вэ?
Хэдэн настай вэ?
The last example is a common question to ask people, and it is necessary to complete the last exercise.
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а. арван дөрвөн настай. |
а. гучин таван настай. |
Remember to focus on 1-10 to start, and then move on to memorizing the 10s. Counting is something easy to practice in your free moments, and you'll be surprised how fast you can learn if you try to use Mongolian numbers in every day activities such as doing push ups or sit ups.