Goal: Explain causes and effects.
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepWhy the pasture is degrading
On the hills above the lake the grass is short, and in places the bare earth shows through. Near the shore, around a cluster of tourist camps, the ground is grey and dusty.
A ranger from the national park, Otgon, stops his motorbike to talk with us. He has worked here for twenty years and has watched the pasture change. Nomin asks him why it looks like this.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| доройтох | to degrade, to decline |
| хэт | too, excessively |
| ноолуур | cashmere |
| улмаас | because of, due to (after a genitive) |
| үр дүн | result |
| үндэс | root |
| зулгаах | to pull up, to pluck |
| ган гачиг | drought |
| шороо | dust, earth |
| эвдрэх | to be damaged, to break down |
| сэлгэх | to rotate, to take turns with |
| хамтран ажиллах | to work together, to cooperate |
| үүрэг | duty, role |
| учир нь | because, the reason is (opening a sentence) |
улмаас means "because of, due to", and like most postpositions it wants a genitive in front of it. To give an event as the cause, put the verb in the past participle –сан and give it the genitive. The vowel of –сан drops: болсон → болсны, байсан → байсны, явсан → явсны.
With a plain noun, use its genitive: борооны улмаас (because of the rain), зудын улмаас (because of the dzud).
The negative past –аагүй takes a short genitive –н: ороогүйн улмаас, "because it did not fall".
үр дүн is "result". The phrase is built exactly like –сны улмаас, but the outcome it introduces is usually good, or at least neutral:
учир нь opens a new sentence and gives the reason for the one before. The sentence often ends in юм:
| Form | Where it goes | Register | Typical outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| –сны улмаас | inside the sentence, before the result | formal | usually bad |
| –сны үр дүнд | inside the sentence, before the result | formal | usually good |
| учир нь | at the start of the next sentence | neutral | gives a reason |
| –сан учраас | inside the sentence (lesson 95) | everyday | any |
For the other direction, from cause to result, use тиймээс ("so, therefore") at the start of the next sentence: Ямаа өвсийг үндсээр нь иддэг. Тиймээс өвс ургахгүй.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Postpositions · Complex sentences · The genitive
Since the 1990s the number of livestock in Mongolia has grown enormously, and goats most of all, because Mongolian cashmere sells well: the country is the world's second producer after China. Goats graze close to the ground and damage the roots. Add drought, and cars that drive anywhere on the open steppe, and a large share of the country's pastureland is now degraded. Groups of herders who share and rotate their pastures are one of the most hopeful answers.
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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