Goal: Link cause and time.
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepWhen it gets cold, people stay home
The weather has changed overnight. It is the end of July, and yet the rain is cold and the wind comes straight from the north. I stand at the window in two jumpers.
Bat laughs at my face. This is nothing, he says: in January, when it is minus thirty, the whole city stays at home and drinks tea. I was here in January, and he is right.
Today I am happy to stay in too. With a cold, a cup of tea and Temuulen as company, a grey day is not so bad.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| хойноос | from the north |
| салхи | wind |
| үлээх | to blow |
| гадуур явах | to go out |
| өвөл | winter |
| нэгдүгээр сар | January |
| гадаа | outside |
| болохоор | because, since (бол- + –хоор) |
| шууд | straight away, directly |
–хаар is the –х form with the instrumental ending. In lesson 116 it meant "in order to" after a verb of motion. Everywhere else it links a cause or a moment to what follows: "when…", "since…", "because…". Very often both meanings melt together: when it gets cold, and because it gets cold, people stay at home.
| Stem | Vowel | –хаар |
|---|---|---|
| бай- (be) | а | байхаар |
| бол- (become) | о | болохоор |
| үлээ- (blow) | э | үлээхээр |
| өг- (give) | ө | өгөхөөр |
In lesson 95 you learnt болохоор for "because": Би ядарсан болохоор унтсан. It is simply бол- with this ending: "since it becomes", "it being so".
–хаар has no tense of its own. With –даг at the end the sentence is a general truth; with a past verb it tells one event:
| Where –хаар stands | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| After a verb of motion (явах, ирэх, очих, гарах) | "in order to" | Эм авахаар явлаа. |
| Elsewhere | "when, because, since" | Бороо орохоор гэртээ байдаг. |
Look at the last verb of the sentence first: if it is a verb of going or coming, read –хаар as a purpose.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Complex sentences · The instrumental
Ulaanbaatar is often called the coldest capital in the world. In January the temperature regularly falls below minus thirty, and the whole city lives indoors, in flats heated by hot-water pipes. Summer is short and warm, but it is also the rainy season: most of the year's rain falls in July and August, and a cold northern wind can bring a winter jumper out of the cupboard in the middle of July.
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This written course teaches you to read and write. The LIMBA audio course makes you speak: 24 lessons of 12 to 15 minutes, recorded with a native speaker. You listen, you repeat, you answer — the perfect partner for these pages.
Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keep