Goal: Discuss climate problems.
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepGanbaatar talks about a hard winter
Tonight, by the lake, I am writing down what Ganbaatar told me two days ago, when we stopped at Dulmaa's camp on our way north.
We were sitting outside the ger at sunset, watching the sheep come home. Ganbaatar was quiet for a long time, then he began to talk about last winter, the hardest he can remember. I had read the word зуд in the newspaper. That evening I understood what it means.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| зуд | dzud, a winter disaster in which animals cannot reach the grass |
| ган | drought |
| уур амьсгал | climate |
| өөрчлөгдөх | to change, to be changed |
| бэлчээр | pasture |
| ширгэх | to dry up (of water) |
| хатах | to dry out, to wither |
| хайлах | to melt |
| дулаарах | to get warm |
| бэлтгэл | preparation |
| хангалттай | sufficient, enough |
| өвс тэжээл | hay and fodder |
| хашаа | fence; animal shelter, enclosure |
| гол горхи | rivers and streams |
Many Mongolian verbs describe a slow change. With –ж байна they mean "is getting…, is becoming…":
| Verb | Meaning | Is getting… |
|---|---|---|
| дулаарах | to get warm | дулаарч байна |
| хүйтрэх | to get cold | хүйтэрч байна |
| хуурайших | to become dry | хуурайшиж байна |
| ширгэх | to dry up (water) | ширгэж байна |
| нэмэгдэх | to increase | нэмэгдэж байна |
| багасах | to decrease | багасч байна |
| өөрчлөгдөх | to change | өөрчлөгдөж байна |
Watch the converb: some of these verbs take –ч (дулаарч, хүйтэрч, багасч) and others –ж (ширгэж, нэмэгдэж). Learn each verb with its form.
улам in front of an adjective or a verb means "more and more, even more":
улам олон is "more and more (numerous)", улам ойр ойрхон "more and more often".
өөрчлөх means to change something; its passive өөрчлөгдөх says the change happens to the subject.
To define a word, describe the situation, put it in the accusative, and add the word with гэдэг. Ganbaatar does exactly this with зуд:
A description of a disaster is often one long chain of converbs, closed by a single tense: Өвөл дулаарч, цас хайлаад, дахин хөлдөж мөс болдог, "in winter it turns warm, the snow melts, and it freezes again into ice". As always, read to the last verb.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Causative and passive · The progressive –ж байна · Converbs
Herders distinguish several kinds of dzud. A цагаан зуд, "white dzud", is snow too deep for the animals to dig through. A хар зуд, "black dzud", is a winter with no snow, so no water. A төмөр зуд, "iron dzud", is an ice crust over the grass, as Ganbaatar describes. A туурайн зуд, "hoof dzud", comes when the pasture has been trampled and grazed bare. Severe dzuds, such as the one in the winter of 2009-2010, have killed millions of animals.
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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