Goal: Say when something happens.
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Now hear it and say it
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepWhen guests arrive
Yesterday we visited Saraa's brother; today it is our turn to receive guests. From ten in the morning the door never stopped. Each time guests arrive, the same small ceremony begins: the New Year greeting, the tea, the plate of buuz, and the men's snuff bottles going from hand to hand.
When a guest leaves, Saraa gives a small present. By the evening I had poured about forty bowls of tea, and I had learnt a new ending.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| зочин | guest (plural: зочид) |
| нээх | to open |
| болох | to become; (of a season or a festival) to come |
| айл | household, family (plural: айлууд) |
| ёс | custom |
| хөөрөг | snuff bottle |
| хавар | spring (the season) |
| хайлах | to melt |
English says "when the guests arrive". Mongolian takes the –х form of the verb, the dictionary form you have known since lesson 41, and adds the dative-locative ending to it: ирэх → ирэхэд. Literally: "at the arriving".
The –хад clause comes first and the main clause after it, like the conditional of lesson 93.
Keep the whole –х form and add –ад / –од / –эд / –өд. The vowel is the same as the vowel just before х.
| Verb | When… |
|---|---|
| явах (to go) | явахад |
| гарах (to go out, to leave) | гарахад |
| орох (to go in; to fall) | ороход |
| болох (to become, to come) | болоход |
| ирэх (to come) | ирэхэд |
| идэх (to eat) | идэхэд |
| өгөх (to give) | өгөхөд |
As with the converbs, the –хад form has no tense. The last verb decides:
With уудаг it is a habit, with ууна a plan: Зочид ирэхэд бид цай ууна. "When the guests arrive, we'll drink tea."
With болох (to become), –хад gives the commonest way to say "when a season or a day comes": Цагаан сар болоход (when Tsagaan Sar comes), Зун болоход (when summer comes).
The –хад clause usually has a subject of its own, different from the main clause: the guests arrive, we greet them. In books you will also meet this subject in the accusative when it is a person: Багшийг орж ирэхэд… "When the teacher came in…". Recognise it; for now, keep to sentences like the ones in this lesson.
–вал (lesson 93) is "if": maybe it happens, maybe not. –хад is "when": it happens, and something else happens at that moment. Зочид ирвэл… "If guests come…"; Зочид ирэхэд… "When the guests arrive…".
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Complex sentences: гэж and the -х clause · The dative-locative case
When guests arrive at Tsagaan Sar, they first greet the elders of the household with золгох, then they are offered milk tea and food. Older men often pass each other their snuff bottles, хөөрөг: offered with the right hand, the left supporting the elbow, received with both hands, admired, sniffed and handed back. When the guests leave, the hosts give each of them a small present.
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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