Goal: Link sentences in a text.
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Now hear it and say it
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepLimba writes a blog post
Nomin has talked me into writing a blog about my year, in Mongolian. My first post is about the Gobi. The facts were easy; the hard part was joining the sentences. My first draft was a list: The Gobi is hot. It is cold at night. There is little water.
Nomin read it and laughed: "It sounds like a telegram!" Then she taught me five small words that turn a list into a text.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| гэхдээ | but, however (common in speech) |
| тиймээс | so, therefore |
| мөн | also, and also |
| түүнчлэн | moreover, furthermore (formal) |
| өөрөөр хэлбэл | in other words |
| эсвэл | or |
| блог | blog |
| өгүүлбэр | sentence |
| холбох | to join, to connect |
| адилхан | the same, alike |
| шалтгаан | reason, cause |
| ойролцоо | near (after the genitive) |
| албан ёсны | formal, official |
| жинхэнэ | real, true |
A text is more than a list of sentences. Small linking words show how one idea follows from another. Each of these words opens its sentence, and an ordinary sentence follows it.
| Word | Meaning | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| гэхдээ | but, however | contrast (very common in speech) |
| тиймээс | so, therefore | gives a result |
| мөн | also, and also | adds an idea |
| түүнчлэн | moreover, furthermore | adds an idea (formal) |
| өөрөөр хэлбэл | in other words | says the same thing more clearly |
Гэхдээ and гэвч (lesson 137) both mean "but": гэхдээ is more common in speech, гэвч sounds a little more written. Харин sets two things side by side, "whereas".
Тиймээс is тийм (so, like that) in the ablative: "from that". It introduces a consequence, like тийм учраас "for that reason", built on the учраас of lesson 95.
Мөн (also) adds an idea, a little more formally than бас. Түүнчлэн (moreover) belongs to written texts and speeches.
Өөрөөр хэлбэл is literally "if one says it otherwise": өөр (other) in the instrumental, and хэлбэл, the conditional of хэлэх with the б of lesson 93.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Complex sentences and the few real conjunctions · Mongolian word order · The Mongolian conditional
Mongolian journalists and bloggers like түүнчлэн and мөн in written texts, while in conversation people prefer бас and гэхдээ. If your text sounds too stiff, replace түүнчлэн with бас; if it sounds too casual, do the opposite. A comma usually follows өөрөөр хэлбэл. In a longer text, the last paragraph often opens with Тиймээс, to draw the conclusion.
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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