Goal: Discuss culture and arts.
Course progress: lesson 190 / 200 · tip: use the ← and → keys to change lesson
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 keepLimba's favourite things in Mongolia
Our unit on arts and ideas ended with a little ceremony: each student had to present their favourite things in Mongolia, in Mongolian, in front of the class.
I had a list of thirty things and five minutes. In the end I chose four: the music, a poem, the people and a proverb. Anna teased me about Mongolian goodbyes, Oyuunaa corrected one ending, and when I recited Natsagdorj's two lines, the whole class said them with me.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| морин хуур | morin khuur, the horse-head fiddle |
| хөөмий | khöömii, throat singing |
| уртын дуу | long song |
| шүлэг | poem |
| уран зохиол | literature |
| онигоо | joke |
| зүйр үг | proverb (plural зүйр үгс) |
| зан чанар | character, personality |
| цагаан сэтгэлтэй | kind-hearted |
| гар задгай | generous |
| үнэндээ | actually, to tell the truth |
| мэдээж | of course |
| цээжээр мэдэх | to know by heart |
| гайхах | to be amazed, to wonder |
| ачаар | thanks to (таны ачаар: thanks to you) |
| Lesson | Point | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 181 | music; sounds with сонсогдох and шиг | Морин хуурын дуу салхи шиг сонсогддог. |
| 182 | poetry: a participle before a noun; poetic words | миний төрсөн нутаг ; орон, мэт, буй |
| 183 | idioms | Миний уур хүрлээ. ; гар задгай |
| 184 | proverbs built on converbs | Ажил хийвэл дуустал, давс хийвэл уустал. |
| 185 | telling a plot | –даг байсан, –ж байсан, –сан, гэтэл |
| 186 | jokes | … гэнэ ; … шүү дээ ; Тийм юм байна! |
| 187 | discourse markers | за, тэгэхээр, ер нь, мэдээж, үнэндээ |
| 188 | character | эелдэг, зөрүүд, ухаантай ; жаахан, маш |
| 189 | hypotheses | –вал … –на ; –сан бол … –х байсан |
The unit gave you three ways of talking about the world: telling (a plot, a joke), describing (a sound, a person) and imagining (a hypothesis). Each has its verb forms.
Poems, proverbs and jokes are all quoted the same way: the words, then гэдэг, гэж or гэнэ.
Open with a marker, give your reasons in order, and close politely:
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Mongolian converbs · The Mongolian conditional · Mongolian final particles
Make your own list: five favourite things in Mongolia, each with one reason, in the order of lesson 179 (нэгдүгээрт … эцэст нь). Saying why you love something uses nearly everything in this unit: description, a story, a quotation, a hypothesis. Then say the list aloud without reading it. That is fluency.
Choose the right answer, then press Check my answers. Score 70% or more and the lesson is ticked on your course map.
Well done! Lesson 190 is ticked on your course map.
Write your answer on paper or in your head first, then reveal the model answer.
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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