There is no written standard in use, although a Pinyin-based orthography has been devised; instead the Dagur make use of Mongolian or Chinese, as most speakers know these languages as well.

[4] During the time of the Qing dynasty, Dagur was written with the Manchu alphabet.

[13] According to Tsumagari (2003), vowel harmony is still a productive synchronic phonotactic aspect of Dagur in which initial syllable long vowels are divided into "masculine" (back), "feminine" (front), and neutral groups.

Likewise, suffixal long vowels must agree in harmonic group with the root.

[14] While the phoneme /t͡ʃ/ (< *t͡ʃʰ) has been retained, the second person singular pronoun has become /ʃiː/ nevertheless,[15] resembling a more thorough sound change in Khorchin Mongolian.

[15] The genitive and accusative have fused in some variants, becoming –ji, and the ablative may assume the form of the instrumental case.

[16] In addition, several other cases have been innovated that are not shared by Mongolian, including a new allative, -maji.

[17] Dagur has a fairly simple tense-aspect system consisting of the nonpast markers -/bəi/ and (marginally) -/n/ and the past forms -/sən/ and (marginally) /la/ and the non-finite imperfective marker -/d͡ʒa/-.

The attributive particle forms are limited to –/ɡʷ/ (< Written Mongolian -γ-a) for imperfective aspect and future tense, -sən (< -γsan) for perfective aspect, -/ɡat͡ʃ/ (< -gči) for habituality (instead of -daγ which used to fulfil this function) and -/mar/ for potential and probable actions.

[18] [19] biteg + ei → bitegei heleg + ei → helegei adus + ei → adusei aol + ei → aolei kaiq + ii → kaiqii orj + ii → orjii tulx + ii → tulxii mori + i → morii nowu + i → nowui danga + i → dangai akaa + yi → akaayi kasoo + yi → kasooyi dao + yi → daoyi xiree + d → xireed horwu + d → horwud tos + d → tosod sarp + aar → sarpaar lek + eer → lekeer topoor + oor → topooroor onq + ier → onqier orj + ier → orjier danga + ar → dangaar gali + er → galier mori + er → morier nowu + or → nowuor qoloo + yaar → qolooyaar kasoo + yaar → kasooyaar akaa + tii → akaatii ewee + tii → eweetii soo + qaar → sooqaar sak + qaar → sakqaar jakmini horoomini sebmaani sebnaani waskalxini geritaani agini ekeeyini eteewuinaani aqaayinaani -yaa -gaan, -geen -gaamini -geemini -gaamaani -geemaani -gaannaani -geennaani -gaanie -gaanxini -geenie -geenxini -gaantie -tu -gaantaani -geentie -geentaani -tgai -gaanini -geenini idbei (iden) yaobei (yawun) idsen yaosen Bi hariwei(hariw).

bii biede baa xii taa ing aang minii biednii maanii xinii taanii inii aanii namd biedende maande xamd taande yamd (ind) aande namii biednii maanii xamii taanii yamii aanii namaase biedenaas maanaas xamaase taanaas yamaas aanaas namaare biedenaar maanaar xamaare taanaar yamaar aanaar namtii biedentii maantii xamtii taantii yamtii aantii It is estimated that out of Dagur's entire language vocabulary, over half is Mongolic in origin.