Goal: Tell the whole trip.
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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 keepBack in Ulaanbaatar, Limba tells the family
Back in Ulaanbaatar, covered in dust, with sand in every pocket. At dinner the family wanted to hear everything, so I told the whole trip from the beginning: the car that was repaired, the closed road, the sand, the camels, the dinosaurs, the cold nights and the stars.
Temuulen listened with his mouth open. Bat corrected my Mongolian twice, very gently. When I had finished, Saraa said I now talk like someone who has been to the Gobi.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| засуулах | to have (something) repaired |
| хаагдах | to be closed |
| туслалцах | to help one another |
| Явцгаая! | Let's all go! |
| асуудал | problem, trouble |
| тэмээ | camel |
| бөх | hump |
| манхан | sand dune |
| үлэг гүрвэл | dinosaur |
| хэдийгээр | although |
| худаг | well |
| хэр хол | how far |
| од | star |
| Алтан гадас | the Pole Star |
| Lesson | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 131 | causative –уул– / –лга– / –га– | Болд машинаа засуулсан. |
| 132 | passive –гд– | Зам хаагдсан. |
| 133 | cooperative –лц– | Бид бие биедээ туслалцсан. |
| 134 | collective –цгаа– | Бүгдээрээ явцгаая! |
| 135 | Gobi words, –тай and –гүй | хоёр бөхтэй тэмээ, модгүй тал |
| 136 | reported past –жээ | Энд үлэг гүрвэлийн өндөг олжээ. |
| 137 | хэдийгээр … ч, гэвч, харин | Хэдийгээр халуун байсан ч… |
| 138 | хэр … бэ / вэ?, units | Хэр хол бэ? Хорин километр. |
| 139 | the night sky, … гэдэг | Тэр одыг Алтан гадас гэдэг. |
Lessons 131 to 134 all use the same slot, between the stem and the ending.
| Suffix | What it adds | Plain verb → new verb |
|---|---|---|
| –уул– / –лга– | someone else does it | засах → засуулах (to have repaired), угаах → угаалгах (to have washed) |
| –гд– | the thing is acted upon | хаах → хаагдах (to be closed) |
| –лц– | the action is shared | туслах → туслалцах (to help one another) |
| –цгаа– | many do it together | явах → явцгаах (to go, all together) |
After any of them, the verb takes its usual endings.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Causative, passive and cooperative verbs · The collective –цгаа · The four Mongolian pasts
When you come home from a long journey, Mongolians greet you with Сайн явж ирэв үү? ("Did you travel well?"). The answer is Сайн, сайн or Сайн явж ирлээ. Then comes the question everybody waits for: Сонин сайхан юу байна?, "What's new?", and the whole trip is told over tea.
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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