Goal: Report statements.
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Now hear it and say it
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 keepTelling what the teacher said
At dinner Nomin wants to know everything about my new class, so I report the day word for word: what Oyuunaa said, what Anna said, what the homework is.
In Mongolian, reporting is restful. You repeat the words exactly as they were spoken, then close them with гэж. No "she said that she would", no changing tenses, no turning questions around.
Of course, Temuulen only wants to know one thing: how much homework I have. I decide to have a little fun with the answer.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| гэх | to say (гэсэн, said) |
| шалгалттай | having a test (маргааш шалгалттай, there's a test tomorrow) |
| дахиад | again |
| маргаашийн | tomorrow's |
| цээжлэх | to learn by heart (цээжилж ирэх, to come having learnt it) |
| хэтэрхий | too, excessively |
| тоглох | to play; to joke |
| хуурах | to trick, to fool |
To report what someone said, Mongolian keeps the words exactly as they were spoken, closes them with гэж ("saying", lesson 85), and ends with a verb of saying such as хэлсэн (said, told):
There is no word for "that", and no change of tense. English moves the verb back in time: "she said there was a test". Mongolian keeps the original шалгалттай, "there is a test", because it is quoting.
Quotation marks are optional: with or without them, it is the same sentence.
In everyday speech гэж хэлсэн is often shortened to гэсэн, the past of гэх (to say):
In the question, юу (what) takes the place of the quoted words, and the sentence ends in бэ because гэсэн ends in н.
The person spoken to goes in the dative-locative: надад, чамд, Номинд, багшид.
When the reported words are about a person, that person often goes in the accusative, like the subject of the inner clauses you met in lesson 106:
An order is reported as an order, with its imperative intact:
| What was said | How it is reported |
|---|---|
| "Маргааш ирнэ." | Тэр маргааш ирнэ гэсэн. |
| "Шалгалттай." | Багш шалгалттай гэж хэлсэн. |
| "Үгээ цээжил!" | Багш үгээ цээжил гэсэн. |
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Complex sentences: гэж and reported speech
Because Mongolian quotes rather than rewrites, its stories are full of voices. A storyteller will happily chain "he said… she said… they said…", each time closing the words with гэж or гэсэн, and the listener always knows exactly what was said. Try it when you tell a story in Mongolian: it is easier than English reported speech, and it sounds more natural.
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Lesson done? Train your ear
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