Goal: Understand a joke.
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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 keepJokes at a party
Nomin's birthday party filled the flat with her friends, a cake and a lot of noise. Late in the evening somebody said that the foreigner had to tell a joke, in Mongolian, of course.
I told the only funny story I really own: the day I asked a shop assistant for hair. Everybody laughed, and then the jokes started flying around the table.
I understood most of them. Being able to laugh at the right moment felt like passing an exam.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| онигоо | joke, funny story |
| онигоо ярих | to tell a joke |
| инээдтэй | funny |
| худалдагч | shop assistant |
| худлаа | a lie; "that's not true!" |
| тоглох | to joke, to kid (also: to play) |
| хэл | language; tongue |
| ганцхан | only one, just one |
| үс | hair |
| үнэн | true; the truth |
| Хөөх! | Wow! |
| инээлгэх | to make (someone) laugh |
A Mongolian joke has the same three parts as an English one: a set-up, a punchline and the laugh. What is different is that the voice of the joke is written into small words at the ends of the sentences. Learn to hear them and you will know when to laugh.
| Word | Meanings | The joke |
|---|---|---|
| хэл | language; tongue | "How many languages?" — "You've only one tongue!" |
| ус / үс | water / hair | one letter apart, a whole world apart |
| явлаа | "I'm off!" (the moment just ahead) | the guest who says it and stays an hour |
Temuulen's joke works because хэл is both words at once: he asks about languages, then answers about tongues with ганцхан хэлтэй, "having only one tongue". Bat's joke works because –лаа announces something that is about to happen (lesson 52), and Mongolian guests are famous for announcing it a long time in advance.
| Particle | What it does in a joke | Example |
|---|---|---|
| гэнэ | "so the story goes": the voice of an anecdote | Монгол хүн … ярьдаг гэнэ. |
| шүү дээ | "you know!": the punch itself | Чи ганцхан хэлтэй шүү дээ! |
| юм байна | "so that's it!": sudden understanding | Тийм юм байна! |
| echo + уу/үү | surprise, disbelief | Үс үү? |
In writing, punctuation does the work of intonation: ! for the punchline, ? for an echo question, and … for the pause before it. Laughter is written Ха ха ха!, and surprise Хөөх!
The verb тоглох means both to play and to joke, and худлаа! ("that's a lie!") is the friendly protest of someone who has just been teased.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Mongolian final particles · The Mongolian vowels
A Mongolian farewell is long, and everyone knows it. The host offers one more cup of tea, the guest says Явлаа!, and the conversation starts again at the door. Laughing about it is part of the ritual, so Bat's joke works at every party in the country.
Laughing at yourself is the best joke a foreigner can tell. A story about your own mistake in Mongolian will always find an audience.
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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