Goal: Say what something is not.
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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 keepNomin's friend thinks Limba is a teacher
Nomin takes me to her university to show me the library. In a corridor we meet her friend Sarnai. Sarnai looks at the big bag of books on my shoulder and decides that I am the new English teacher. She greets me very respectfully.
It is my chance to use a new word, биш, "not". I am not a teacher, and I am not English either: I am a Canadian student of Mongolian.
Sarnai blushes, Nomin laughs, and two minutes later Sarnai and I are friends.
| Mongolian | Letters | English |
|---|---|---|
| биш | bish | not (it is not…) |
| багш | bagsh | teacher |
| уучлаарай | uuchlaarai | sorry; excuse me |
| зүгээр | zügeer | it's all right; fine |
| жуулчин | juulchin | tourist |
| номын сан | nomyn san | library |
| Япон | Yapon | Japan |
| Солонгос | Solongos | Korea |
The “Letters” column is a letter-by-letter guide to the Cyrillic, not exact pronunciation. It disappears after level A1: by then you read Cyrillic directly.
In lesson 15, two words made a sentence: Би оюутан. To say what someone is not, add биш at the end. Nothing else changes:
биш always comes right after the word it denies, at the end of the sentence. It also works with adjectives:
These two words do different jobs. үгүй means "no": it is the answer word, and it comes first, followed by a comma. биш means "not": it stays inside the sentence. In a negative answer you often need both:
Two good habits make your answers natural. First, change the person: a question with та is answered with би. Second, after saying what you are not, say what you are: Би багш биш. Би оюутан. A bare Үгүй is a complete answer, but it sounds rather short; Mongolians usually add the full sentence, exactly as Limba does in the dialogue.
To say yes, use тийм and keep the sentence without биш: Тийм, тэр багш. ("Yes, she is a teacher.")
биш can take the question particle too. Its only vowel is и, so the particle is үү:
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Saying no: биш, байхгүй, –гүй · Yes and no in Mongolian
Уучлаарай is the all-purpose "sorry" and "excuse me". You use it to apologise, to get past someone in a crowded bus, or to start a question to a stranger: Уучлаарай, …. The usual answer to an apology is Зүгээр, "it's all right". It is one of the most useful words of your first weeks.
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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