Goal: Order and talk about food.
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Now hear it and say it
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepLunch in a guanz (canteen)
Bold, the family's friend and driver, takes me to lunch in a guanz, a small canteen near his garage. There is no menu on the table: the dishes are written on the wall.
Buuz, khuushuur, tsuivan, milk tea. Bold orders like a regular, and I try to follow.
Almost everything contains meat, and everything is delicious. I leave very full and very happy.
| Mongolian | Letters | English |
|---|---|---|
| гуанз | guanz | guanz, a simple canteen |
| бууз | buuz | buuz, steamed meat dumplings |
| хуушуур | khuushuur | khuushuur, fried meat pastry |
| цуйван | tsuivan | tsuivan, fried noodles with meat |
| мах | makh | meat |
| ногоо | nogoo | vegetables |
| аяга | ayaga | bowl, cup |
| шил | shil | bottle; glass |
| таваг | tavag | plate |
| амттай | amttai | tasty, delicious |
| маш | mash | very |
| бэлэн | belen | ready |
| Сайхан хооллоорой! | Saikhan khoollooroi! | Enjoy your meal! |
The “Letters” column is a letter-by-letter guide to the Cyrillic, not exact pronunciation. It disappears after level A1: by then you read Cyrillic directly.
Everything you learned in this unit works with идэх (to eat) and уух (to drink). Here they are in all the forms you know:
| Form | идэх (eat) | уух (drink) |
|---|---|---|
| stem | ид– | уу– |
| will, does: –на | иднэ | ууна |
| happening now: –ж байна | идэж байна | ууж байна |
| habit: –даг | иддэг | уудаг |
| won't: –хгүй | идэхгүй | уухгүй |
| doesn't, as a rule: –даггүй | иддэггүй | уудаггүй |
The waiter asks Юу идэх вэ? (What will you eat?) or Юу уух вэ? (What will you drink?). You answer with the formula of lesson 34: Надад … өгөөч.
As with кило, a container word goes in front of the food and the food stays singular: нэг аяга сүүтэй цай (a bowl of milk tea), нэг шил ус (a bottle of water), нэг таваг цуйван (a plate of tsuivan).
The endings –тай and –гүй of lesson 26 build many food words. Сүүтэй цай is tea "with milk"; махтай хоол is a dish with meat; махгүй хоол is a dish without meat.
Амттай is амт (taste) with –тай: "with taste", that is, tasty. Маш амттай is "very tasty". It is the compliment every cook hopes to hear. Its opposite, built with –гүй, is амтгүй, "tasteless": a word you will not need in Bold's guanz.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Everyday phrases · Present and future: three forms
Бууз are steamed dumplings filled with minced mutton or beef. Хуушуур are flat fried pastries with the same filling, the classic food of the Naadam festival. Цуйван is a plate of thick home-made noodles fried with meat and a few vegetables.
If you do not eat meat, ask Махгүй хоол байна уу? "Is there any food without meat?" In a small guanz the answer may be no, so in the city, vegetarian cafés are the safer choice.
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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