Goal: Discuss urban problems.
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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 keepBat remembers last winter's smog
Back in Ulaanbaatar, on the first cold morning of September. From the balcony the air is still clear, and the mountains around the city look close enough to touch.
"Enjoy it," says Bat. "In two months you won't see them." I remember January: the grey fog lying over the ger districts, the smell of coal in my scarf, the cough that would not go away.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| утаа | smoke; smog |
| агаарын бохирдол | air pollution |
| гэр хороолол | ger district |
| түлш | fuel |
| түлэх | to burn (fuel), to heat with |
| хүрээлэгдэх | to be surrounded |
| шалтгаан | cause, reason |
| түүхий нүүрс | raw coal |
| хориглох | to forbid, to ban |
| сайжруулсан түлш | improved fuel |
| шийдэгдэх | to be solved |
| уушгины хатгалгаа | pneumonia |
| маск зүүх | to wear a mask |
| нийтийн тээвэр | public transport |
To say that an action begins, put the verb in its –ж/–ч converb and add эхлэх, "to begin". The first verb never changes; эхлэх carries the tense.
эхлэх shows its stem as эхэл– before an ending that starts with a consonant, and as эхл– before a vowel:
| Form | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| –нэ | хэрэглэж эхэлнэ | will start using |
| –дэг | ихсэж эхэлдэг | usually starts to increase |
| –сэн | ханиаж эхэлсэн | started coughing |
| –лээ | бороо орж эхэллээ | it has just started raining |
| –бэл | явж эхэлбэл | if we start going |
| –ээд | эхлээд | first, to begin with |
эхлэн after an ablative means "starting from":
Bat explains the smog with a passive participle and учраас. The thing that does the surrounding goes in the instrumental:
Notice бохирдлыг: бохирдол drops its last short vowel before the accusative.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Sentences with two verbs · Converbs · Causative and passive
Ulaanbaatar lies in the valley of the Tuul river, ringed by mountains. On windless winter days, cold air sits on the city like a lid and traps the smoke. Hundreds of thousands of people in the ger districts heat their homes with stoves, and for years raw coal was the main source of the winter smog. In 2019 raw coal was banned in the city and replaced by improved fuel briquettes. The air is better than it was, but on the worst days of January a mask is still a good idea.
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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