Goal: Suggest doing something together.
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Now hear it and say it
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepNomin proposes an outing
Nomin has decided that before the countryside I need one proper Saturday in the city. Her plan has three parts, and she announces each one with the same ending: let's do this, let's do that.
I learn the ending quickly, because every time I use it correctly she answers with the same two magic words, За, тэгье! "OK, let's do that!" By the evening I am using them too.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| бямба гараг | Saturday |
| хамт | together |
| гарах | to go up; to go out; of a film: to come out |
| Зайсан | Zaisan, the memorial hill in the south of Ulaanbaatar |
| кино | film |
| шинэ | new |
| хуушуур | khuushuur, fried meat pastries |
| хичээлтэй | having class |
| хоёулаа | the two of us, both |
| тэгэх | to do so; За, тэгье! OK, let's do that! |
| орох | to enter, to go in |
English needs an extra word, "let's". Mongolian adds an ending to the verb stem: –ъя / –ъё / –ье. It means "let's (do it)" when you include the listener, and "let me, I'll (do it)" when you speak only of yourself.
| Stems | Rule | Forms |
|---|---|---|
| яв–, ав–, гар–, сур– | consonant at the end, vowel а or у: –ъя | явъя, авъя, гаръя, суръя |
| ор– | consonant at the end, vowel о: –ъё | оръё |
| үз–, ид–, бич–, тэг– | consonant at the end, front vowels: –ье | үзье, идье, бичье, тэгье |
| уу–, хай–, хий–, тогло– | vowel or й at the end: –я, –е, –ё | ууя, хайя, хийе, тоглоё |
The hard sign ъ goes with back-vowel words and the soft sign ь with front-vowel words. In this ending they simply mark the join between the stem and the ending: learn each form with its spelling.
With би, the same ending announces what you are going to do, often as an offer.
За, тэгье! "OK, let's do that!", from тэгэх "to do so", is the standard answer. To make a suggestion and ask for agreement at the same time, add тэгэх үү? "shall we?": Кино үзье, тэгэх үү? "Let's watch a film, shall we?"
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Mongolian imperatives · Demonstratives, тэгээд and тэгье
Зайсан is the hill at the southern edge of Ulaanbaatar, crowned by a memorial from the Soviet period. A long staircase leads to the top, and from there you see the whole city stretched along the valley of the Tuul river. Go at sunset, and take a hat: the wind up there is strong even in summer.
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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