Goal: Link actions happening 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 keepMaking milk tea with Dulmaa
Today Dulmaa taught me to make milk tea, the drink of every Mongolian home. It looks simple: water, tea, milk and a pinch of salt. But Dulmaa does everything at once: she talks and stirs, she sings and lifts the ladle high, pouring the tea back into the pot until it foams.
When I tried, half the tea ended up on the stove. Nomin laughed and drank what was left. Salty tea: I never thought I would love it.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| буцалгах | to boil (water, milk) |
| давс | salt |
| хутгах | to stir |
| чихэр | sugar; sweets |
| амсах | to taste |
| амттай | tasty, delicious |
| дуулах | to sing |
| бэлэн | ready |
| аягалах | to pour into bowls |
| үзэх | to see; after a verb in –ж: to try (doing) |
| гүйх | to run |
In lesson 83, –аад put two actions one after the other. The converb –ж (or –ч) is looser: it joins two actions that make one event, or tells you how the second one is done. It makes no claim that the first is finished before the second begins.
As with every converb, only the last verb has a tense: уусан is past, so the chatting was in the past too.
The progressive –ж байна of lesson 43 is this converb followed by байна. So the forms are the ones you have used for weeks: ууж, хийж, ярьж, уншиж, идэж, унтаж, and with –ч: авч, өгч, гарч, сурч. There is no vowel harmony: the ending is always –ж or –ч. Which verbs take –ч has to be learnt verb by verb.
Many everyday expressions are two verbs joined by –ж:
| Expression | Literally | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| гүйж ирэх | come running | to come running |
| инээж ярих | talk laughing | to talk and laugh |
| амсаж үзэх | taste and see | to have a taste, to try |
| аягалж өгөх | pour into bowls and give | to pour for someone |
–ж үзэх means "to try doing": Амсаж үз. "Have a taste." –ж өгөх means "to do it for someone": Цай аягалж өгөөч. "Pour the tea for us, would you?"
In instructions, –ж joins the steps like "and":
It can also join two people doing different things at the same time:
The difference is small but real. Бид цай ууж ярилцсан says that drinking and chatting went together. Бид цай уугаад ярилцсан says that first we finished our tea, then we chatted. Choose –аад when the order matters.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Mongolian converbs · Present and future: -на, -ж байна, -даг
Mongolian milk tea, сүүтэй цай, is salty, not sweet: tea, water, milk and a little salt, boiled together. It is the first thing a guest is offered, and it is drunk all day long. Take the bowl with your right hand, the left touching your right elbow, and say Баярлалаа. You do not have to empty it, but always taste it.
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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