Goal: Say you had something done.
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Now hear it and say it
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepBold has the car repaired
August, and the Gobi trip is three days away. Bold's car is not ready: the engine makes a noise like an angry camel. Bold does not repair it himself, of course. He has it repaired by a friend at a garage behind the market, and then he has it washed, which Nomin thinks is pointless before a week of dust.
While we waited, Nomin and I had our hair cut. In Mongolian I did not "cut my hair": I made it be cut, тайруулсан. One small suffix, and someone else does the work.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| засах | to repair, to fix |
| засуулах | to have (something) repaired |
| засварчин | mechanic, repairer |
| хөдөлгүүр | engine |
| угаах | to wash |
| угаалгах | to have (something) washed |
| энэ хооронд | meanwhile, in the meantime |
| үсээ тайруулах | to have one's hair cut (тайрах: to cut) |
| үсчин | hairdresser |
| хүлээлгэх | to keep (someone) waiting |
| тоос | dust |
| үргэлж | always |
| цэвэрхэн | clean, nice and clean |
| орчим | about, around (after a number) |
English says "Bold repairs the car" and "Bold has the car repaired": the second needs an extra verb, "have". Mongolian keeps one verb and slips a suffix in between the stem and the ending. This suffix is the causative: the subject does not do the action but makes, has or lets someone else do it.
| After the stem | Suffix | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| a consonant | –уул– / –үүл– | засах → засуулах, тайрах → тайруулах, үзэх → үзүүлэх (to show) |
| a long vowel or a diphthong | –лга– / –лгэ– | угаах → угаалгах, хүлээх → хүлээлгэх, уух → уулгах (to give a drink) |
| a few old verbs | –га– / –гэ– | гарах → гаргах (to take out), хүрэх → хүргэх (to take someone somewhere) |
Only the first two are living patterns. Learn the verbs in –га– as words of their own, and never build a causative you have not met: a guess may give a word that does not exist.
The person who actually does the job stands in the instrumental, the case of автобусаар (by bus):
Once the suffix is in place, the new verb takes every ending you know, and the ending follows the vowel of the suffix: - засуулна (will have repaired), засуулсан (had repaired), засуулъя (let's have it repaired), засуулаарай (have it repaired, please) - хүлээлгэсэн (kept waiting), as in Хүлээлгэсэнд уучлаарай! "Sorry to have kept you waiting!" - with битгий: Битгий хүлээлгээрэй! "Don't keep me waiting!"
Some verbs you already know are causatives in disguise: үзүүлэх (to show) is "to make see", явуулах (to send) is "to make go", and сургах (to teach, to train) is "to make learn". English uses three unrelated words; Mongolian shows you the family.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Causative, passive and cooperative verbs · The instrumental case · In what order suffixes stack
Хүлээлгэсэнд уучлаарай! ("Sorry to have kept you waiting!") is one of the most useful sentences in Mongolia, where meetings rarely start exactly on time. It is the causative хүлээлгэх (to make wait) with –сан and the dative-locative: word for word, "forgive me for the making-wait". The usual answer is Зүгээр, зүгээр ("It's fine, it's fine").
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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