Goal: Describe a landscape in detail.
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepLimba travels north to Khövsgöl
At the end of August, Bold drives Nomin and me north. After a night at Dulmaa's camp in Arkhangai and a long day of dirt roads, the forest suddenly opens and there it is: Lake Khövsgöl, dark blue, so long that I cannot see the other end.
We stay in a small ger camp near Khatgal, on the southern shore, run by a man called Tsogoo. The water is icy and so clear that I can count the stones on the bottom.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| тунгалаг | clear, transparent (water, air) |
| цэнгэг | fresh (water: not salty) |
| гүн | deep; depth |
| ёроол | bottom (of a lake, a pot) |
| өтгөн | thick, dense |
| шинэс | larch |
| нөөц | reserve, stock |
| хил | border, frontier |
| хөлдөх | to freeze |
| мөс | ice |
| нимгэн | thin |
| шумуул | mosquito |
| үзэсгэлэнтэй | beautiful, scenic |
| нам гүм | quiet, peaceful |
You already know that –тай (having) and –гүй (without) turn a noun into an adjective. They are the backbone of any landscape description:
| Noun | With –тай | With –гүй |
|---|---|---|
| мод (tree) | модтой (wooded) | модгүй (treeless) |
| салхи (wind) | салхитай (windy) | салхигүй (still) |
| шумуул (mosquito) | шумуултай (full of mosquitoes) | шумуулгүй (free of mosquitoes) |
| хүн (person) | хүнтэй (with people) | хүнгүй (deserted) |
The powerful pattern is adjective + noun + –тай, placed in front of another noun. The adjective describes the first noun, and the whole group describes the second:
The –тай goes on the inner noun (ус, ой), never on the adjective, and the outer noun (нуур, уул) takes the case endings: тунгалаг устай нуурт, "at a lake with clear water".
To exclaim about a quality, put ямар before the adjective and close with юм бэ!:
With an adjective, болох says "to become": шар өнгөтэй болдог (turns yellow), нимгэн болдог (gets thin), хүйтэн болж байна (it is getting cold).
тунгалаг (clear) and булингартай (muddy, cloudy) · гүн (deep) and гүехэн (shallow) · өргөн (wide) and нарийн (narrow) · өтгөн (thick) and нимгэн (thin) · нам гүм (quiet) · үзэсгэлэнтэй (beautiful).
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Adjectives · The comitative · Building new words
Lake Khövsgöl lies in the far north of Mongolia, in Khövsgöl province, close to the Russian border. It is more than 130 kilometres long and over 260 metres deep, the deepest lake in the country, and it holds most of Mongolia's fresh water. Its water flows out at Khatgal into the Eg river, then into the Selenge, and finally into Lake Baikal in Russia. In winter the lake freezes over completely; in summer its shores fill with herders' camps and visitors.
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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