Goal: Use proverbs in speech.
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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 keepDulmaa's wisdom
Bold drove Nomin and me to Arkhangai for one last weekend at Dulmaa's camp. In the evening we sat by the stove, and I told Dulmaa my worries: my Mongolian is still slow, and I want to finish my notebook of words before I leave.
Dulmaa did not give me advice. She gave me proverbs, one after another, and each one fitted my worry exactly.
Nomin says her grandmother has a proverb for everything. I believe it now.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| зүйр үг | proverb |
| зүйр цэцэн үг | proverbs and sayings (the whole genre) |
| яарах | to hurry |
| даарах | to be cold, to freeze |
| хичээх | to try hard, to make an effort |
| эзэн | master, owner (in the proverb: the person concerned, you yourself) |
| заяа | fate, fortune |
| дуусах | to come to an end, to be finished |
| дуусгах | to finish (something) |
| давс | salt |
| уусах | to dissolve |
| ёс | custom, way of doing things |
| дагах | to follow |
| алдаа | mistake |
| бага багаар | little by little |
Mongolian proverbs, зүйр цэцэн үг, are short and balanced, and most of them hang on a converb: an "if" or a "when" in the first half, the result in the second.
| Proverb | Word for word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Яарвал даарна. | if you hurry, you'll be cold | haste makes waste |
| Эзэн хичээвэл заяа хичээнэ. | if the master makes an effort, fate makes an effort | heaven helps those who help themselves |
| Ажил хийвэл дуустал, давс хийвэл уустал. | a job, until it's done; salt, until it dissolves | finish what you start |
| Хэлэхэд амархан, хийхэд хэцүү. | in the saying, easy; in the doing, hard | easier said than done |
| Усыг нь уувал ёсыг нь дагана. | if you drink its water, you follow its custom | when in Rome, do as the Romans do |
Notice that the third proverb has no finite verb at all. A proverb leaves out what everybody can supply ("keep going"), and that is part of its punch.
A proverb is quoted like reported speech: the saying, then гэдэг or гэж.
Quote the proverb exactly, at the right moment, and do not explain it: everybody knows it, and the pleasure is in recognising it.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Mongolian converbs · The Mongolian conditional
Listen to the endings of Dulmaa's favourite: дуустал and уустал rhyme, and so do the two halves of хэлэхэд and хийхэд. Balance and echo help a proverb survive for centuries.
One more that every Mongolian knows, about honour: Нэрээ хугалахаар ясаа хугал ("Rather than break your name, break your bones"). Here –хаар after the verb means "rather than": хугалахаар, "rather than breaking".
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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