Goal: Understand five common proverbs.
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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 keepDulmaa's proverbs by phone
Dulmaa phoned from Arkhangai this evening. The line crackled, the wind blew into her phone, and she wanted to know everything about the Gobi. To every story I told, she answered with a proverb, the way older Mongolians do.
After the call I wrote down five of them with Nomin's help. A proverb, she explained, is short, has two halves that echo each other, and uses pictures from herding life: horses, dogs, magpies, a deel.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| зүйр цэцэн үг | proverb |
| эсэн мэнд | safe and sound |
| эвтэй | in harmony, united (эв: harmony, unity) |
| шаазгай | magpie |
| буга | deer |
| зуух | to hold in the mouth, to carry in the teeth (a different word from зуух, stove) |
| хүлэг | a fine horse, a steed |
| унага | foal |
| ам | mouth |
| тосдох | to become greasy |
| зах | collar (also: market) |
| хөгшин | old (of people) |
| үргэлжлүүлэх | to continue, to carry on with |
| удахгүй | soon |
| Proverb | Word for word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Эвтэй шаазгай буга барина. | Magpies in harmony catch a deer. | United, even the small can do great things. |
| Явсан нохой яс зууна. | The dog that has walked about gets a bone in its teeth. | Those who go out and try will find something. |
| Хүн болох багаасаа, хүлэг болох унаганаасаа. | The one who will be a person, from childhood; the one who will be a steed, from foalhood. | What someone will become shows early. |
| Ажил хийвэл ам тосдоно. | If you work, your mouth gets greasy. | Work, and you will eat well. |
| Хүн ахтай, дээл захтай. | A person has an elder, a deel has a collar. | Everyone has someone senior to respect. |
In conversation a proverb is usually followed by гэдэг ("as they say", lesson 124), and often by шүү дээ.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Participles: the relative clause goes first · The Mongolian conditional · The present forms
Older Mongolians, especially in the countryside, often answer a story with a proverb, the way an English speaker might say "well, there you go". You do not have to answer with another proverb: a smile and Тийм шүү ("That's true") are enough. But if you can quote one at the right moment, people will be delighted, and they will remember you.
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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