Goal: Discuss hypotheses.
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepWhat if Limba stayed forever?
Tonight the sky over the city was clear for once, and Nomin and I climbed up to the roof of the building to look at the stars.
Then she asked the question I have been avoiding for weeks: what if I stayed in Mongolia forever? We played with the idea for an hour: the job I would do, the ger I would put up, the winters I would survive.
Some of our "ifs" could still come true. Others were pure dreams, and Mongolian, I noticed, keeps the two apart.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| хэрэв | if (a signpost word) |
| таамаглал | hypothesis, supposition |
| үүрд | forever |
| гэр барих | to put up a ger; to make a home |
| хасах | minus (in temperatures) |
| градус | degree (of temperature) |
| хүйтэн | the cold; cold |
| айх | to be afraid (–аас айх: to be afraid of) |
| буцах | to go back, to return |
| Хэзээ ч үгүй! | Never! |
| тод | bright, clear |
| хүсэл | wish |
| хүсэл хүсэх | to make a wish |
Every hypothesis (таамаглал) is either something that could still happen or something you are only imagining. English often blurs the two; Mongolian uses two different constructions.
| Kind | Condition | Result | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| real, open | –вал | –на (or a question, an order) | Хэрэв би үлдвэл багш болно. |
| unreal, imagined | –сан бол | –х байсан | Мөнгө байсан бол явах байсан. |
| unreal and negative | –аагүй бол | –хгүй байсан | Чи ирээгүй бол бид уулзахгүй байсан. |
–вал (lesson 93) is for a condition that may well come true. The result is a plain present-future, a question or an order.
–сан бол … –х байсан (lesson 145) is for a condition contrary to the facts: it is not so, or it did not happen. One pattern covers both "if I were…, I would…" and "if I had…, I would have…"; the situation tells you which English you need.
When the imagined condition is negative, use the past negative –аагүй before бол, and the result is usually negative too:
Ask one question: can it still happen? If yes, –вал. If no, because you are imagining or rewriting the past, –сан бол. Nomin's first question is open, since Limba really could stay, so she uses үлдвэл. Being born in Mongolia is impossible now, so Limba says төрсөн бол.
хэрэв and хэрвээ are optional signposts in both constructions: they warn the listener at the start of the sentence that a condition is coming.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: The Mongolian conditional · Saying no in Mongolian
Minus forty is no exaggeration. In much of Mongolia winter nights often fall below minus thirty, and Ulaanbaatar is often called the coldest capital city in the world.
Nomin's wish uses –аасай (lesson 99), the form of hopes: Чамайг дахин ирээсэй! "May you come again!" In a wish with гэж, the person you wish it for usually goes in the accusative, чамайг.
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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