13395331 bulgarian language

8/8/2019 13395331 Bulgarian Language

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[Bulgarianlanguage -

grammar]

Katina Bontcheva

Elementary Bulgarian Grammar 1999

Basic Bulgarian Language rulesEnglish Bulgaria Ivaylo IVAYLOVPrepare pdf

2009


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Introduction

This grammar is aimed at an extremely diverse group of potential readers that fordifferent reasons have chosen to study Bulgarian. It is an elementary grammar, notan academic grammar of Bulgarian. It is designed to explain in a popular way themain grammatical particularities of Bulgarian. If you need more detailedinformation on Bulgarian grammar you should consult other books.

However, I tried not sacrifice the linguistic accuracy for the sake of simplicity. Ingeneral, I avoided to go into details that are not relevant to the aim of this

grammar, i.e. to easethe comprehension of the grammatical categories introducedat the beginners' and intermediate levels of teaching Bulgarian as a foreignlanguage.I hope that you will be able to find enough information on several topicsof the grammar of Bulgarian.

I hope you will enjoy studying Bulgarian. Good luck!


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The Alphabet

The Bulgarian alphabet is a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet. It consists of 30 letters.

In the table below you'll see how they look like, the names of the letters, as well asthe letters or letter combinations of the English variant of the Latin alphabet thatroughly correspond to the Bulgarian letters, and an English word that contains thesame or almost the same sound. In this chapter, and throughout the whole"Elementary On-Line Bulgarian Grammar", the accented vowels are underlined.

Bulgarian

LetterName of the

LetterEnglish

Letter/

Letter

Combin.

Approx. Sound

in English Bulgarian Word

, aMarch (butshorter)

, b baby

, v visa

, g garden

, d doctor

, e Edward

, s measure 'embers'

, z zone

, i idiot

, Y May

, k, c, ck, q cake,stock,quartz ,,

, l Lily, lot , 'boat'

, m minute

, n net 'no', o Bob 'beans'

, p Peter

, r rose

, s salt

, t title

, u, oo put, book 'beech'

, f, ph fine, telephone ,

, h hotel


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, ts, tz, zz bets, quartz, pizza 'king', ,

, ch charm

, sh show

, () Sht ash tray, washed 'happiness'

, ( ) u, a a Bulgarian

, - - 'blue'

, () u, ew dune, New York ,

, () Ya yard

As you can see there are three types of letters:

Some Bulgarian letters and the sounds they stand for are similar to the

English ones:

Bulgarian English

A 'phase' A father

E 'five' E pet

O 'shorts' O short

K 'carpet' K kick

M M May

T T T Tom

Others look like familiar English letters but stand for ratherdifferentsounds:

Bulgarian English

V Valerie

N Nora

R Rose

S Sarah

'push' U butcher

H Harry

The rest of the letters look unfamiliar but stand for sounds that are similar toEnglish sounds:


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Bulgarian English

B baby

G garden

D doctor S measure

Z zone

I idiot

Y May

, L lot, Lily

P Peter

F fine

TZ quartz

CH charm

SH show

SHT ash tray

U a Bulgarian

U dune

YA yard

That leaves only the soft sign completely without a counterpart in English. Thisis due to its specific function in Bulgarian spelling.

Basic Spelling Rules

Bulgarian orthography is regarded as based on the phonetic and the morphological

principles, i.e. to a great extend there are direct correspondences between lettersand sounds but not always. The most important exceptions to that rule refer to thesoft consonants, and to thephonetic value of the letters ,,.

There are 38 (some linguists claim that there are 39) consonants in Bulgarian.Apart from the nasals ,, the liquids , and the glide , that do not participatein the opposition voiced consonants : voiceless (mute) consonants, and the

"hushes" ,,, and the glide , that do not participate in the opposition hard(non-palatalized) consonants: soft (palatalized) consonants, all the other


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consonants participate in those two main oppositions.

Thirty four consonants come in hard - soft pairs. The soft consonants arepronounced as though you were pronouncing the hard consonant and an 'y'

simultaneously. As there are severe restrictions on the distribution of the softconsonants - they can occur only before the non-front vowels ,, , but never infront of another consonant, or in word-final position (i.e. at the end of the word), orbefore the front vowels , - there are no separate letters assigned for them in thealphabet. The letters for the hard consonants are used instead followed by thespecial letters for the 4 vowels that can come after them: for, -, for - ,for - . Here are the hard - soft pairs in alphabetical order followed by someexamples (the accented vowel is underlined):

- ' - [ - '] (a ball (social event) - white)

- ' - [ - '] (a shaft - inert) -' - [ - '] (naked - a puddle) -' - [ - '] (given - a share/a part) - ' - ' - [ - ']1(the trump - to trump) - ' - [ - '] (a heap - a pot) - ' - [ - '] (an onion - an aperture) - ' - [ - ']1(the smoke - to smoke) - ' - [ - ']1(the ringing - to ring) - ' - [ - ']1,2( he poured - I pour) - ' - [ - ']1(the argument - to argue) - ' - [ - '] (Sarah - sulfur) - ' - [ - '] (and, so - she) - ' - [ - '] (a background - a warm wind) - ' - [ - '] - ' - [ - '](a king, tzar - a cure, a remedy)

As you can see there is no example for the pair - '. You can hardly find one inthe standard language, that is why some linguists question the existence of the

sound ' [dz'] at all, and assume that there are 38 consonants in Bulgarian. Theexistence of' and ' is also questionable as they only appear in words of foreignorigin but we'll leave this matter open.

The consonants [dzh], ,, are always hard, and they do not have softcounterparts. Consequently, ,, never appear after them.

As it was mentioned before the soft consonants are pronounced as if the hard

consonant and an 'y' () were pronounced simultaneously. So it is natural that the itself also is not a member of a pair - as a matter of fact it does not participate in

this opposition at all.
http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/103pron.html#unaccentAYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/103pron.html#unaccentAYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/103pron.html#unaccentAYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/103pron.html#unaccentAYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endYhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/102spell.html#endY


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Now we can go back to the phonetic value of the letters ,,. As it wasexplained above, they are used to mark the softness of the consonant preceding thevowels ,,/. The letters , have yet another phonetic value - if they areused at the beginning of the word or after a vowel they stand for the following

combinations of sounds:

= [](a teenager), [](a cabin)= [](an apple), []= [](the hero)

There are two other particularities of the Bulgarian orthography:

There are no special letters for the affricates [dzh], [dz](dzh sounds like theg in 'change', and dz sounds like the z in the name of the Italian film director

Franco Zeffirelli). A combination of letters is used instead: ,:

(a dwarf), (a pocket), (ting), (asphalt)

The letter can not stay at the end of the word. The lettera appears in steadof it:

[](I read 3rdp. sg, pres.t.),[](the town)

The sound appears at the end of the word only in a limited number of morphological forms

- the forms for the 1

st

person sg and the 3

rd

person plural in the present tense of the verbs fromthe 1st

and the 2nd

conjugation, and the forms that have the hard variant of the short definite

article.

Basic Rules of Pronunciation

When we discussed the basic spelling rules in Bulgarian it was mentioned that the

Bulgarian orthography is regarded as based on the phonetic and the morphologicalprinciples. This means that, unlike in English, in general the words are pronouncedthe way they are spelled, and are spelled the way they are pronounced. There are

two basic types of exceptions to that correspondence between letter and sound.One of them was discussed in the chapter on thebasic spelling rules. There wediscussed sounds for which there are no letters and how you spell them, as well asletters that are associated with more than one sound and how you pronounce them.

In this chapter we are going to discuss letters and sounds that are basically meantto have one-to-one correspondence but in certain circumstances fail to do this.

There are three, synchronic by nature, phonetic laws in Bulgarian that causediscrepancies between letters and sounds: the reduction of the unstressed vowels,


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the devoicing of the voiced consonants at the end of the words, and the adjusting ofthe voicing of consonant clusters.

The vowel system of Bulgarian consists of six vowels: , , , , , . As there

is no distinction between short and long vowels it can be assumed that they are allshort. The accented vowels are engaged in different oppositions: front (, ) :non-front (, , , ) vowels, labialized (, ): non-labialized (, ) vowels,open (, , ) : closed (, , ) vowels. However, when the vowels are notaccented the opposition between open and closed vowels is lost, i.e. the unaccented and A sound the same, and the unaccented and O sound more alike than theaccented. Only the front vowels E and continue to oppose each other even whenthey appear in unaccented syllables. Here are some examples (the accented vowelis underlined):

(to take/to pull out) : (tobreed) (a floor; a layer) : (a nook, a corner) (alone): (am)

(to point to/at): (to suck) (a heel of a shoe): (here) (exact): (succulent)

(a marten): (med. herb) (light): (an image) (me): (he passes, 3rdp. sg, pres.t.)

In the examples above A and , O and , E and are stressed and they are fullyopposed to each other. The A sounds like the a in 'father' but a bit shorter, and the sounds like the e in 'father' and even more closed. O sounds like the o in 'short',and sounds like oo in 'book'. E sounds like e in 'Edward' and sounds like i in'idiot'.

Now let's see what happens when these pairs of vowels appear in unaccented

syllables:

[] (the grandmother) [] (the pigeon)

In the examples above all four unaccented vowels, i.e. the two unaccented a-sounds in the word '' and the two unaccented -sounds in the word ''sound exactly the same way - almost as the accented but a little more open, justlike the e in the English words 'mother', 'brother' etc. This pronunciation is correctfor all unaccented 'a'-s and ''-s, with one exception only. If the 'a' or '' sounds

appear in the syllable just before the accented syllable both are pronounced exactly


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the same way - almost as the accented A but a little more closed, just like the o inthe English words 'mother' and 'brother':

[] (a drum)[] (Bulg. dish of highly seasoned meat) [] (Bulgaria)

For the pairO : there is only one grade of reduction regardless of their positiontowards the stressed syllable. This means that the unaccented O sounds a little likethe , but that's all. It still is a recognizable O. A stronger reduction towards isconsidered non-standard, dialectal. The same is valid for the unaccented . Itsounds a little like the O but just a little. Here are some examples:

[, not] (a fool)

[, not] (down) [, not] (a chimney)[, not] (a field)

There is no reduction of the unstressed E and . This means that the unaccented Edoesn't sound at all like and vice versa. Here are some examples:

[, not] (a chicken) [, not] (cabbage) [, not] (a ticket)

[, not] (a director)

You probably remember that in the previous chapter it was mentioned that most ofthe consonants in Bulgarian are engaged in the opposition voiced : voiceless(mute) consonants. These consonants are otherwise identical, only when youpronounce the voiced consonants the vocal cords also participate, i.e. they arevibrating. When you pronounce the voiceless consonants the vocal cords are notvibrating. Most consonants in Bulgarian are paired in voicing. This means that foreach voiced consonant there is a voiceless counterpart but not vice versa. In

addition to that the nasals M and H, the liquids P and , and the glide do notparticipate at all in that opposition. Like the vowels, they are too sonorous for that.Here are the voiceless : voiced pairs of consonants in Bulgarian:

: : : : :

:

: /


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: :

The palatal consonants form the same pairs but they are not listed because theopposition between voiced and voiceless palatal consonants is not relevant to whatwe are going to discuss as they appear only before the non-front vowels.

In Bulgarian pronunciation, all voiced consonants at the end of the word arepronounced like their voiceless counterparts. This is called devoicing of theconsonants. Here are some examples:

- [] (slaves - a slave) - [] (sleeves - a sleeve) - [] (horns - a horn)

- [] (towns - a town) - [] (hedgehogs - a hedgehog) - [] (stories - a story)

Whenever two or more consonants that participate in the opposition voiced :

voiceless occur next to each other within a word or a cluster of words sharing asingle accent (phonological word), the final consonant influences the voicing of thewhole consonant cluster. This means that if the final consonant is voiced - thewhole lot becomes voiced, and vice versa - if the final consonant is voiceless, allwill be voiceless. This is called consonant assimilation or adjusting the voicing

of consonant clusters. Here are some examples:

- [] (slaves - slave, adj.) - [] (Moravia - of /from Moravia)

- [] (horns - a small horn) - [] (towns - a small town) - [] (to hold - a handle) - [] (to tie/bind - a tie/link) - [_] (in front of the altar - in front of the court) - [_] (without ambition - without reason) - [] (in-laws - a wedding) - [] (to collect - a sum/a total) - [_ ] (from Europe - from another city) - [_] (with ambition - with goodness)

The vowels, and the consonants that do not participate in the opposition voiced :voiceless(i.e. , , , , ), as well as the consonant do not influence the voicingof the neighbouring consonants. (There is a simple explanation for the strangebehaviour of 'B' - this sound descends from the Indo-European semivowel-U, so no

wonder it sometimes behaves just like the , that descends from the Indo-European semivowel-I.) Here are some examples:


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in front of '':

- [] (slaves - a slavery) [_] (from you) [_] (without you) [_] (behind you)

in front of '', '', '', '', '':

[_] (from Rome) [_] (without me) [_] (under the sky) - - [ - - ](to research - togo out - to demand)

in front of vowels:

[_] (in front of the altar) [_] (without ambition) [_] (with ambition) [_] (from Europe)

Some Phonetic Rules

The phonetic rules that we are going to discuss in this chapter are more or less of adiachronic nature. This means that we deal with the reflections in the contemporarylanguage of sounds or rules that existed in Bulgarian about a millennium ago. We'll

pay special attention to three of them - mutation of --,palatalization, and elisionof -,-- .

Mutation of --. Under certain phonetic conditions the letters and E appearalternatively in different forms of one word, or in related words. Not all the wordsthat contain the letter follow this rule, only words in which the letter stands forthe Old-Bulgarian ''-vowel that sounded approximately like the English a in

'cat'. The letter appears only in forms where the '' sound is accented, andprovided there are no palatal consonants or, , , , sounds in the same


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syllable and in the next syllable, and no front vowels (, ) in the next syllable. Incase one of these requirements is not satisfied, the letterE appears. Here are someexamples (the accented vowel is underlined):

E

In unaccented

syllables

E

Preceding palatal

consonant or , in the next syllable

E

Preceding , ,, ,

(white) (whiteness) ['] (I bleach,I peel)

(a name given tooxen)

(I sang) (a singer) (he/she sings) [] (I sing)

(bigf) (size,magnitude) (bigpl)

(a summer) (summers) (summerattr. m)

(a measure) (dimension)

(measures)

(breads) (a baker) (bread attr. m)

(shore, bank) (shores, banks) (coast-line)

(coastal)

(a sin) (sins) (sinful,mistaken m) (a mistake)

(milk) (dairyman) (milk, dairyattr.m)

(milk, dairyattr.f)

(laughter) (laughterpl) (funny) (laugh!imper.2

ndp. sg)

(snow) (snowpl) (snowy, ofsnow m)

(snowy, ofsnowf)

The palatalization of the velar consonants , , occurs in three different variantscalled first, second and third palatalization.

As the name shows, the first palatalization took place before the other two, asearly as Common Slavic. Its essence is that the velar consonants , , changedinto,, when they occurred before certain front vowels. (It should bementioned that there were at least twice as many front vowels in Common Slavic

and in Old Bulgarian as in modern Bulgarian. In the contemporary language thereare only two front vowels - e and ).

The results of the first palatalization can be seen in variety of morphological forms,


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as well as in words derived by the means of certain suffixes. Here are someexamples:

in verb paradigms:

, : , , , (to bake, pres. t. 1st p. sg, 3rd p. pl: 2nd p. sg,3

rdp. sg, 1

stp. pl, 2

ndp. pl)

, : , , , (to be able, pres. t. 1st p. sg, 3rd p. pl: 2ndp. sg, 3

rdp. sg, 1

stp. pl, 2

ndp. pl)

in plural and vocative forms of some nouns:

: (an eye, eyes); : (a man/person Nom : Voc.); : (an ear,ears); : (God Nom :Voc.)

in derivatives such as verbs from the 2nd conjugation, or verbs containing thesuffix -e-; nouns with suffixes -, -, -, -, - , -;adjectives with suffixes -, -, -, -:

: (a pain/torment : to torment 2ndp. sg, pres. t.); : (a circle :to circle around 2ndp. sg, pres. t.); : (dry attr. m: to dry 2ndp. sg,pres. t.); : (deaf: to become deaf 1stp. sg, pres. t.)

: (dust : pollen/fine dust); : (a man/person : mankind);

: (timid : a scarecrow); : (a comrade/fellow : abattalion/party); : (a mother: a mother/mummy); : (an auction : a market

place)

: (a hand : hand attr.m); : (a book: paperattr.); : (fear/dread : fearful); : (a comedian : comic m/pl); : (an enemy : hostile/enemy m/pl); : (a monk: monastic); : (a shadow : shady); : (a wolf : wolf's); : (anenemy : hostile/enemy m/pl)

The second palatalization took place much later (but still in Common Slavic). Its

essence is that the velar consonants ,,changed into ,,when theyoccurred in front of the front vowels e and that came into existence after the firstpalatalization as a result of monophthongization of some diphthongs.

The results of the second palatalization can be seen mainly in the forms for theplural of the masculine nouns that end on ,,in the singular. Here are someexamples:

: (a wolf: wolves); : (a comedian : comedians): (a biologist : biologists); : (a spouse : spouses)


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: (a monk: monks); : (a sheep-skin coat : sheep-skincoats)

The third palatalization took place even later but it did not have considerableimpact on Bulgarian, especially from the point of view of a foreigner learning the

contemporary language, so we'll skip it and move forward to the next item.

The elision of the vowels -E- and -- is another phonetic rule that is diachronicby its nature. If the vowels E, happen to be in the final syllable of nouns oradjectives that belong to the masculine gender they disappear in the forms for theplural and the vocative of the nouns, in the forms for the feminine, the neuter andthe plural of the adjectives as well as in the definite forms for the masculine genderof the adjectives. The reason for this is that the -- comes from Old-Bulgarian --,and -E- comes from Old-Bulgarian --. According a phonetic rule that was in force

in Old Bulgarian these vowels were pronounced when they were in a strongposition and were not pronounced, i.e. disappeared, when they were in a weakposition. We'll not go into details which position was strong, and which - weak, itis enough to point out that in the form for the masculine of the above-mentionedwords they are in a strong position and in the rest of the forms they are in a weakposition. Here are some examples:

: ; ,but (an young man : young men, young man Voc., theyoung man) : ,but(a fire : fires, the fire)

: ; ,but(an old man : old men, old man Voc., the oldman) : ; ,but(an eagle : eagles, eagle Voc., the eagle) : , , , ()(little/small m : f, n, pl) : , , , ()(warm m : f, n, pl) : , , , ()(summerattr.m : f, n, pl) : , , , () (moon attr.m : f, n, pl)

As always, there are exceptions to the rule. Thus, in adjectives like , ,, , , etc. the sound e does not disappear when theforms for the feminine, the neuter and the plural, as well as the forms with thedefinite article for the masculine are constructed:

, , , , () (green m : f, n, pl), , , , () (woolen m : f, n, pl)


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The Parts of Speech

In Bulgarian the words are classified as belonging to different part-of-speech

classes ( ), just like in English (or any other Indo-Europeanlanguage). Thus, for example, it is considered that words that refer to persons,objects, places, substances, concepts etc. are nouns. There are, though, some minordifferences between the traditional classifications in Bulgarian and English.

In Bulgarian are recognized 10 part-of-speech classes - all the 9 classes that are

recognized in English (i.e. nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, verbs,adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions and particles) and, in addition, theinterjection is considered to be a separate class. Into this class fall exclamationwords that express emotion, as well as onomatopoeic (i.e. sound imitating) words.

Besides, on the morphological level, a distinction is made between 'inflective'and'non-inflective'parts of speech. Thus, the nouns, the adjectives, the numerals, thepronouns and the verbs belong to the 'inflective'parts of speech because they have

grammatical categories such as number, for example, they have forms for thesingular and forms for the plural, i.e. they have two or more different forms. Therest of the part-of-speech classes are considered 'uininflective'. Strange enoughbecause the adverbs fall into this category despite the fact that they have forms forpositive, comparative and superlative degrees (at least the qualitative adverbs).

On the syntactical level, a distinction is made between independentwords andfunction words. Into the first category fall all the 'inflective'part-of-speech classes

and the adverbs because they can perform independently as a part of the sentence(i.e. a noun can be a subject, an object etc. of the sentence, a verb can be apredicate, an adjective can be an attribute, an adverb can be an adverbial and soon). The conjunctions, the prepositions and the particles can not functionindependently as any part of the sentence. Thus the conjunctions connect orotherwise indicate the relationship between clauses or other elements of a sentence,the prepositions indicate the relations (grammatical or in the space) between two

nouns, or a verb and a noun, the particles are used for constructing differentgrammatical forms, for example the future tense of the verbs, the comparative and

the superlative degree of the adjectives and the adverbs and so on. According to thetraditional grammars of Bulgarian the interjection does not belong to any of thesetwo categories. From a syntactical point of view it is considered to be sort of"extraneous" to the structure of the sentence. This is a bit strange because some, ifnot most of the interjections, can perfectly well perform as a predicate in thesentence. Anyhow, it is not the aim of this "opus" to solve this problem, and noteven to set it.

Another difference between Bulgarian and English is that in Bulgarian, in general,


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the part-of-speech class of a word tends to be invariable, only part of the adverbsthat are derived from adjectives are homonymous to the forms for the neutergender of the adjectives.

The different part-of-speech classes in Bulgarian are represented in the table below(the definitions and more details about the different classes will be given later inthe introductory chapters on the different classes):

Inflective

() Parts of Speech( ) Independent()

Inflective

NOUN( )

Grammatical categories: gender, number,

definiteness, relics of case system (vocative forms)

Independent

Inflective

ADJECTIVE( )

Grammatical categories: gender, number,definiteness, degrees of comparison

Independent

Inflective

NUMERAL()

Grammatical categories: definiteness. For ordinalnumerals also: gender and number

Independent

Inflective

PRONOUNS()

A bit diverse class, as into it fall pronouns proper,"proadjectives", "proadverbs", "pro-verbs" etc. Thereare nine subclasses: personal, possessive, reflexive,

interrogative, relative, indefinite, negative and

generalizing pronouns. Grammatical categories:altogether - gender, number, definiteness, person andcase relics. Naturally, not all of them are relevant foreach subclass of the pronouns. Some are relevant for

some subclasses and others are relevant for othersubclasses.

Independent

Inflective

VERB()

Grammatical categories: number, person, tense,

aspect, voice, mood

Independent


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Non-inflective

(!!!)

ADVERB()

Grammatical categories (!!!): degrees of comparison

Independent

Non-inflective CONJUNCTION()

Function

Non-inflectivePREPOSITION

()Function

Non-inflectivePARTICLE()

Function

Non-inflectiveINTERJECTION

()Function

Non-inflective() Parts of Speech( ) Function()

Gender of the Nouns

Each Bulgarian noun ( ) belongs to one of the followinggender groups: masculine, feminine, neuter. Adjectives, pronouns, participles etc.agree in gender with the nouns they refer to.

Most of the nouns that belong to the masculinegender ( ) end in aconsonant in the singular. Here are some examples (the accented vowel isunderlined):

(a slave), (a peninsula), (a biologist m), (a town), (an engagement), (a track), (a hero), (a fool m), (a falcon),

(a home), (a belt), (syrup), (a fisherman), (a class), (a life), (a slipper), (a monk), (a well), (a tailor),

(luxury), (a cloak)

There are few exceptions:

(a father), (a servant), (a judge), (a lucky fellow),(a grandfather), (an uncle), (an uncle - mother's brother), (afool), (a spoilt boy/man)


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Most of the nouns that belong to the feminine gender ( ) end in -A or -:

(a woman), (a table), (a garden), (a library),(a room), (an idea), (a saucer), (a waiting-room), (a

bathroom)

There are few exceptions that end in a consonant:

(a morning), (an evening), (a night), (a spring - season), (blood, (sugar), (salt), () (copper)

as well as the nouns ending in the suffix -/-:

(joy), (youth), (an illness), (sorrow)

The nouns that belong to the neuter gender ( ) have endings -, -, orend in , , , (the latter are usually loan words):

(a place), (a village), (a lake), (a face), (a girl),(a hostel),(a cafe), (a morning performance), (whisky), (a taxi),(a jewel), (a menu), (an overcoat)

In other words - except for the nouns ending in the suffix -/-, and someother exceptions that belong to the feminine gender - all the nouns that end in a

consonantbelong to the masculine gender.

Most of the forms that end in -, - belong to the feminine gender, or to themasculine gender exceptions.

Plural of the Nouns

There are three main ways to construct the plural ( ) forms ofthe nouns: by adding the endings -, -/, and -/. There are a lot ofexceptions as well.

The most frequent ending for the plural of the nouns that belong to the masculineand the feminine gender is -:


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It is added to most of the nouns that end in a consonant regardless to their gender.Here are some examples (the accented vowel is underlined):

m: (a buss) - , (a ceiling) - f: (an evening) -, (joy) -

If the noun ends in , -, - it is replaced by -:

m: (a hero) - , (a father) - , (a judge) - f: (a library) - , (a bathroom) -

Exception: (a hand) -

Most masculine monosyllabic nouns join the ending -/- in the plural:

(a town) - , ((a cup of) tee) - , (a course) - , (a beating) -

Exceptions: (a man) -, (a king) - , (a king) - , (a horse) - 2(time, e.g. three times) - , (a finger) - , (a day) - , (a guest) - 1(a road) -

The masculine nouns that end in - join the ending - in the plural:

(a grandfather)- , (an uncle) - , (a fool) -, (a spoilt boy/man) - , -

In other words, the masculine polysyllabic nouns that end in a consonant form the

plural by adding the ending -, the masculine polysyllabic nouns that end in , -,- form the plural by replacing it with the ending -, the masculine monosyllabicnouns (with some exceptions - see above) form the plural by adding the ending -/-, and those that end in - join the ending -.

The feminine nouns that end in a consonant (included those that end in suffixes -

/-) form the plural by adding the ending -. The feminine nouns that endin -, - form the plural by replacing it with -.

The neuter nouns that end in - form the plural by replacing it with the ending -:


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Definite Article and the Nouns

There is only one article in Bulgarian - the definite article (

). There is no equivalent, for example, to the English indefinite article or theFrench partitive article (article partitif). Another difference between Bulgarian andthe most of the Indo-European languages which have definite article is that thedefinite article in Bulgarian is always added as an ending to the noun. Here are theforms for the definite article for the masculine, feminine, and neutergender, andfor theplural:

There are long forms -/- ( ) and short forms -/- () of the definite article for the nouns of the masculine gender. The long formsare used when the noun is the subject of the sentence, apposition or predicative.

The short forms - when it is any other part of the sentence. Here are someexamples (the accented vowel is underlined):

. (The train stopped at Sofia Station.) . (Many passengers got off the train.) . (The teacher was talking about StefanStambolov.)

. (We were listening to the teacher with interest.)

Most of the nouns that belong to the masculine gender take the -/- variant ofthe article:

(a suitcase) - - (the suitcase)(a hotel) - - (the hotel)(a train) - - (the train)(a student m) - - (the student m)

The nouns that take the variant -/- are the following:

all the nouns that end in ( is replaced by the article):

(an end) - /(the end), (a hero) - /(the hero)

all the nouns that end in the suffix- both for persons and non-persons,and on the suffixes -/- forpersons:

(a teacherm) - /(the teacherm), (a numerator) -/(the numerator),

but (a hotel) - /(the hotel)as '' is not a suffix


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(a jeweler/goldsmith)- /(the jeweler/goldsmith), (a personcelebrating an anniversary) - /(the person celebrating an anniversary)

but (a suitcase) - /(the suitcase)as '' is not a suffix, and '' is

a non-person noun

ten nouns that historically ended in apalatal consonant and, unlike the rest

of the nouns that ended historically on a palatal consonant, persistently jointhe soft variant of the article. Here they are:

(a day) - /(the day)(a son in law) - /(the son in law)(a horse) - /(the horse)(a king) - /(the king)

(an elbow) - /(the elbow)(a nail) - /(the nail)(a fire) - /(the fire)(a road) - /(the road)(a dream) - /(the dream)(a king) - / (the king)

The nouns of the masculine gender that end in -/- join the article morpheme forfeminine - (see below):

(a father) - (the father), (a judge) - (the judge)

The nouns of the masculine gender that end in -O join the article morpheme forneuter -TO (see below):

(a grandfather) - (the grandfather), (an uncle) - (the uncle),(a spoilt boy/man) - (the spoilt boy/man)

There is only one form of the definite article for the nouns of the feminine genderregardless to their role in the sentence - the morpheme -TA:

(a table) - (the table), (a studentf) - (the studentf)(a bathroom) - (the bathroom), (a room) - (the room)(a night) - (the night), (an evening) - (the evening)

(joy) -(the joy), (an illness) - (the illness)

There is only one form of the definite article for the nouns of the neuter genderregardless to their role in the sentence - the morpheme -TO:

(a girl) - (the girl)(a place) - (the place)


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(whisky) - (the whisky)(a jewel) - (the jewel)(a menu) - (the menu)(a school) - (the school)

(a heart) - (the heart)(a journey) - (the journey)

(a meeting) - (the meeting)(an action) - (the action)(time; weather) - (the time ; the weather)

There is only one form of the definite article for the nouns in plural regardless totheir role in the sentence - the morpheme -TE:

- - (a ceiling - ceilings - the ceilings)

- - (a hero - heroes - the heroes) - - (a father - fathers - the fathers) - - (an evening - evenings - the evenings)

- -(joy - joys - the joys) - - (a library - libraries - the libraries) - - (a town - towns - the towns) - - (a man - men -the men) - - (a grandfather - grandfathers - the grandfathers) - - (an eye - eyes - the eyes) - - (an animal - animals - the animals)

The nouns of the neuter gender that have ending for plural -A/-/-TA join thedefinite article for the feminine gender regardless to their role in the sentence:

- - (a village - villages - the villages) - - (a field - fields - the fields) - - (a glass of whisky - (some) glasses of whisky - the glassesof whisky) - - (a jewel - jewels - the jewels) - - (a menu - menus - the menus) - - (a school - schools - the schools) - - (a face - faces - the faces) - - (a journey - journeys - the journeys) - - (a meeting - meetings - the meetings) - - (an action - actions - the actions) - - (time - times - the times) - - (a child - children - the children)


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Use of the Definite Article

Although it seems that the only obvious difference between the use of the definite

article in Bulgarian and in English is that in Bulgarian thepossessive pronouns canbe used with the definite article, it is useful to remember that there are three mainreasons to use the definite article:

If a certain object has already been mentioned once in the conversation or inthe text, the second time we mention it we refer to it as we refer tosomething familiar, defined. For this reason we use the definite article. Thisfunction is called individual qualificative function. Here are some

examples (the accented vowel is underlined):

. , , .Towards us, at a high speed was coming a huge truck. We thought that we were going to

collide but in the last moment the truck managed to turn to the right.

. .Maria had a child from a previous marriage. Asen also had a child from a previous marriage.

In the first two sentences we are talking about one and the same truck. First we

mention that such an object appears, and after that we refer to the same object.That is why we use the form with definite article. In the second two sentences wetalk about different kids. First we mention Maria's child, then we mention anotherchild, Asen's child, that is why we use the basic form, without a definite article.

If we want to imply that all the people or the whole quantity of something isinvolved in the activity we use the definite article although the object might

not have been mentioned before. This function is called quantitativefunction. Often in such cases we deal with plural forms (count nouns) butnot always (non-count/mass nouns):

.The novels of Michail Bulgakov are translated into Bulgarian.

( ) .The lamb (in the local shop) is sold out.

As the novels of Bulgakov are not mentioned before in the text and still the formwith the definite article is used, it is clear that all his novels are translated inBulgarian. The meaning of the second sentence is that the whole quantity of lamb

that was available in the local shop is sold out, finished.


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There is yet another function of the definite article which can be calledgeneralizing function. In such cases we usually refer not to one singleobject but to all the objects in that class, especially in proverbs and maxims:

- .Dog is man's best friend.

.Smoking is harmful to the health.

What these sentences imply is that any dog is a better friend of yours than, forexample, your boss, your spouse, or even your dearest friend; and no matter whatyou smoke - cigarettes, cigars or a pipe - smoking is harmful to your health.

If you feel the need to use something like the good old English indefinite article,

you can always use the forms of the cardinal numeral for 1 (or rather the forms ofthe indefinite pronoun , , , ). There is even a form for pluralcorresponding to the English "some" (). Here are some examples:

/ .I was talking to a friend (male/female).

.I was talking to some friends.

.We met at a cafe.

Gender and Number of the Adjectives

Bulgarian adjectives ( ) change in gender and numberbecause they agree with the nouns they refer to. In the masculine gender theadjectives usually end in a consonant. The corresponding forms for the feminine,the neuter and the plural are constructed by adding -, -, -. If the vowel in frontof the final consonant in the masculine is or E it disappears in the forms for thefeminine, the neuter and the plural; as usually there are exceptions to that rule.Here are some examples (the accented vowel is underlined):

, , , (tall), , , (big)

, , , (dear), , , (cheap)


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, , , (soft)

, , , (good), , , (small/little)

, , , (warm)

, , , (tasty), , , (domestic), , , (summerattr.), , , (moon attr.), (strange)

Exceptions:

, , , (red)

, , , (green)

, , , (made of leather or fur),but, , , (of skin)

, , , (of glass), , , (of wood),but, , , (of concrete)

, , , (of wool), , , (of silk),but, , , (of cotton)

As you can see, apart from the adjectives like (red) and (green) thatare qualificative, all the other adjectives that belong to the exceptions are relativebut not all the relative adjectives belong to the exceptions.

There are some adjectives that end in -in the masculine. It is the final vowel ofthe suffix --. The forms for the feminine, the neuter and the plural areconstructed by replacing the - of the suffix with -, -, -. Naturally, the formsfor the masculine and the plural are homonymous:

, , , (Bulgarian attr.), , , (technical)


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Definite Forms of the Adjectives. Adjective Comparison.

Definite Forms of the Adjectives

In Bulgarian the adjectives, as well as the pronouns, the ordinal numerals etc., used

as attributes in the sentence are usually placed in front of the nouns they qualify. Inthis case the definite article, if needed, is joined to the first attribute of the nounphrase.

The forms of the article for masculine are:

-/- (long form/short form). The article is added not directly to the basic formfor the masculine of the adjective but to a form extended with -. The extendedform looks exactly like the form for the plural. Do not forget that if the vowels 'E','' happen to be in the final syllable of adjectives that belong to the masculinegender they disappear. Here are some examples (the accented vowel is underlined):

+ > +() = ()(the thin/weakm) + > +() = () (the warm m) + > +() = () (the summerattr. m)

Ifthe adjective ends in (the suffix --) the article is added directly to thebasic form:

+() = ()(the Bulgarian attr. m)

The rest of the forms are:

-TA for the feminine, -TO for the neuter, -TE for the plural:

TA, TO, TE (the weak, thinf, n, pl)TA, TO, TE (the summerattr.f, n, pl)TA, TO, TE (the warmf, n, pl)TA, TO, TE (the Bulgarian attr. f, n, pl)

Degrees of Comparison of the Adjectives

Bulgarian adjectives have three degrees of comparison ( ) -positive (), comparative (), superlative(). The comparative and the superlative degrees are formed by


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placing the hyphenated particles -(more), -(most) in front of the positiveform of the adjective. Here are some examples:

masculine feminine neuter plural

(thin/weakm)

()(the thin/weakm)

(thin/weakf)

(the thin/weakf)

(thin/weakn)

(the thin/weakn)

(thin/weakpl)

(the thin/weakpl)

-(thinner/weakerm)

-()

(the thinner/weakerm)

-(thinner/weakerf)

-

(the thinner/weakerf)

-(thinner/weakern)

-

(the thinner/weakern)

-(thinner/weakerpl)

-(the thinner/weaker

l)

-(the thinnest/weakest

m)

-()(the thinnest/weakest

m)

-(thinnest/weakestf)


)

-(thinnest/weakest n)


n)

-(thinnest/weakestpl)


l)

(good m)

()(the good m)

(goodf)

(the goodf)

(good n)

(the good n)

(goodpl)

(the goodpl)

-(betterm)

-()(the betterm)

-(betterf)

-(the betterf)

-(bettern)

-(the bettern)

-(betterpl)

-(the betterpl)

-

(best m)

-()(the best m)

-

(bestf)

-(the bestf)

-

(best n)

-(the best n)

-

(bestpl)

-(the bestpl)

(the strong m)

()(the strong m)

(strongf)

(the strongf)

(strong n)

(the strong n)

(strongpl)

(the strongpl)

-(strongerm)

-(strongerf)

-(strongern)

-(strongermpl)


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-()(the strongerm)

-(the strongerf)

-(the strongern)

-(the strongerpl)

-

(strongest m)

-()(the strongest m)

-

(strongestf)

-(the strongestf)

-

(strongest n)

-(the strongest n)

-

(strongestpl)

-(the strongestpl)

Such adjectives are called qualitative adjectives ( ).They express a quality, characteristic, property of a noun, and they may be not onlycompared but as well intensified ( > (good > very good)), andvery often also adverbialized ( >(good > well)) and nominalized (>(good > goodness)).

Some adjectives, however, denote such qualities (properties) that are notcomparable. For instance a wooden table can not be more wooden or less wooden,

so although you can build forms like *-'(*more wooden), *-(*most wooden) you can't actually use them. Those adjectives are called relativeadjectives ( ) and they identify the relation of onenoun to another noun from which the adjective is derived. Usually they denote thematerial of which the object is made and can be replaced by a construction

consisting of the preposition 'OT'(of) and the noun for the material: > = (wood > wooden = of wood)( = (wooden table = table of wood)). At the same time if you use the adjective (wooden)figuratively meaning for example that somebody is a clumsy dancer youcan not only build the forms for comparison but use them as well:

- . I haven't seen a more clumsy dancer than Natalie.

-, .

Natalie is the clumsiest dancer I have ever seen.

It is important to remember that the particles -, - have a stress of their own,i.e. they are always accented.


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Cardinal Numerals

The cardinal numerals ( ) for the numbers from 0 to

19 are (the accented vowel is underlined):

0

1

2

3

4

5

6 7

8

9

10

11 ()

12 ()

13 ()

14 ()

15 ()

16 ()

17 ()

18 ()

19 ()

The cardinal number for 1 changes in gender and number. Although the idea ofhaving a form for the plural of 1 may seem strange there is quite naturalexplication: the forms of the cardinal numeral for 1 are sometimes used in thefunction of the English indefinite article ; sometimes the plural form can mean onepair or one set. Here are some examples:

. I have only one (not more) pencil.

. I was talking to a friend (male).

. I read only one (not more) book.

. I was talking to a friend (female).


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. I had only one (no more) coffee.

. We met at a cafe.

( .) (I have got only one pair of shoes.)

. I was talking to some friends.

The cardinal number for 2 changes in gender: the form '' is used with thenumerical form for the plural of the masculine nouns for non-persons, and the form'' is used with the plurals of the feminine and the neuter nouns:

(2 pencils), (2 books), (2 women), (2children), (2 villages)

Contracted forms like '' (11), '' (12), '' (60) etc. are usedmainly in the colloquial speech. You should avoid, though, writing them. The

formal '', '', '' etc. should be used instead.

The cardinal numbers for the 'tens' are:

20 ()

30 ()

40 ()

50

60 ()

70

80

90

The forms for the 'hundreds' are:

100

200

300

400

900


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The word for 1,000 - '' belongs to the feminine gender, so it takes the formfor the feminine of the numeral 2 - '', while the words for 1,000,000 and for1,000,000,000 - '', '' belong to the masculine gender and they take

the form for the masculine of the numeral 2 - ''. Naturally, after numerals'', '' are used in theirnumerical form, not the ordinary form for theplural:

; () ; () ;

Here are some examples how you read the cardinal numerals:

21 321

4 321 ,

12 345 ,

1 234 567 , ,

The conjunction (and)is added between the second and the third member of eachgroup of three digits.

The cardinal numerals have special forms called "male-person" cardinal numerals( ) . They end in -() and are regularlyderived for the numerals from 2 to 6: (2), (3), (4),(5), (6). They also appear in complex forms: (22), (153), etc. For the numerals for 7, 8, 9 there areforms that look like (7), (8), (9)but they are hardlyused nowadays; the ordinary cardinal numerals are used instead. The "male-

person" cardinal numerals are used only with nouns that denote male persons andafter them the noun is in its regular plural form not the numerical form. To use thisform for a group of people it is enough at least one of them to be male. Here aresome examples:

- .There were five persons at the cafe - one man and four women.

- .Out of the four judges two were man, and two - women.


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.There were one hundred twenty eight spectators in the theatre and only one hundred and

twenty seats.

If you do not know, or do not want to specify the exact number of the objects youtalk about you can use some forms specialized to express approximate number.These forms are derived by joining two neighbouring or belonging to the sameclass numerals, e.g. -(-, -)(one or two, a couple of), -(- , -)(two or three, a couple of), -,(six or seven)-(14-15), -(80-90), -(200-300). For the numbers 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100there are special forms derived by adding the suffix -: (about ten),(about twenty), (about one hundred). Here are some examples:

- - .Ivan hasn't got a lot of friends - just a couple from the years at the university.

- - .The village is small - there are about seven-eight hundred residents.

.I waited about fifteen minutes and left.

The cardinal numerals can join the definite article, if needed. Usually they join thearticle for the plural -TE. The cardinal numerals that end in -A join the article -TA.

The cardinal numeral for 1 derives its forms with the article like the adjectives:(), , , , and the cardinal numerals for 1,000,000 and1,000,000,000 join the article like the masculine nouns: / ,/. Here are some examples:

- , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , -

- , - , - , - , -, -


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Ordinal Numerals

The ordinal numerals ( ), just like the adjectives, are used as

attributes in the sentence. They agree in gender and number with the nouns theyqualify, so they have forms for the three genders and for the plural, and they canjoin the definite article. The forms for the ordinal numerals, as a rule, are derivedfrom the form for the cardinal number by adding endings -,-, -, - for themasculine, the feminine, the neuter and the plural. Here are some examples (theaccented vowel is underlined):

- , , , (fifth) - , , , (sixth) - , , , (seventh)

- , , , (eighth) - , , , (ninth) - , , , (tenth) - , , , (thirtieth)

However, not all the ordinal numerals are derived like this. The ordinal numeralsfor the 'hundreds', for '', '', '' are derived by adding thesuffix -EH (the E disappears in the forms for the feminine, the neuter and the

plural):

- , , , (hundredth, 100th) - , , , (thousandth, 1,000th) - , , , (millionth, 1,000,000th) - , , , (billionth,1,000,000,000

th)

The ordinal numerals for 200 and 300 - ''('two-hundredth', 200th),''('three-hundredth', 300th) sound clumsily and are barely used.

The ordinal numerals for 1, 2, 3, 4 are more or less irregular. Here they are:

1 - , , , (first)2 - , , , (second)3 - , , , (third)4 - , , , (fourth)

In the complex forms of the ordinal numerals - all numbers over 20, only the lastnumeral is ordinal. It changes in gender and number, and joins the article, ifneeded. Here is an example:


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123 - (()) /() /() /() ((the) onehundred twenty third)

Fractions

The fractions () consist of two parts - numerator (, above the line)and denominator (, below the line). The numerator is always acardinal numeral (in the feminine if the number is 1 or 2); the denominator isalways an ordinal numeral (in the feminine if the numerator is 1, or in the plural ifthe numerator is any other number). Here are some examples (the accented vowelis underlined):

1/6

2/6

8/6

1/3

2/3

3/3

1/100

2/100

3/100

1/123

2/123

108/123

The fraction 1/4 is read '', not ''. The fraction 1/2 isread '' in mathematical context and '()' in other cases.Decimal fractions are read like other fractions: 0,1 - '', 0,01 - '' etc. '' is used in front of a noun, and '' is usedindependently:

(half an hour) (two hours and a half)

(half a kilogram) (two kilograms and a half)


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'' is used both independently or in front of a noun:

(a quarter of an hour) (an hour and a quarter) (a quarter of a kilo) (a kilo and a quarter)

The Personal Pronouns

The personal pronouns ( ) are words that replace nouns ornoun phrases, i.e. they are proper pronouns. They are called "personal" notbecause they stand for nouns for persons but because they have the grammaticalcategory "person". They refer to something that was previously mentioned or thatis clear from the situation:

.I spoke to Ivan and he agreed to come with us.

In the example above the personal pronoun "" (he) replaces "", i.e.something previously mentioned. The personal pronoun "" stands for "I andyou" and it is clear from the situation that it refers to the person who is speakingand the person(s) that is (are) spoken to.

The personal pronouns have the following grammatical categories: person,number, and the forms for the 3rd person singular have also gender. Although

there are no declensions in Bulgarian, still there are in use some remnants of oldcase forms of the pronouns. The personal pronouns have forms for thenominative, the accusative and the dative. For the accusative and the dative thereare two forms - long and short. The long forms for the dative case nowadays sound

archaic and they are substituted by complex forms consisting of the preposition"HA" and the long form for the accusative case. All the forms are given in thetable below:

PERSONAL PRONOUNS


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Case Nom Engl Acc Engl Dat Engl

Forms Long Short Long Complex Short

1 p. sg I me to me

2 p. sg you you toyou

2 p. sgpolite

you you to

you

3 p. sgmasc.

he him to

him

3 p. sg fem. she her to

her

3 p. sg neut. it it (to it)

1 p. pl we us to us

2 p. pl you you to

you

3 p. pl they them tothem

There is a special, polite form for the 2nd p. sg. It is used as a polite address to astranger or a superior. Actually, it is the form for the 2nd p. pl, only it is capitalized.

The short dative form for the feminine singular contains the vowel"" but it iswritten like "" to be distinguishedfrom the conjunction "". The short forms are,as a rule, unaccented. They are accented only when they appear after the negative

particle "", e.g. " . ! (I didn't hear you. Don't shout at me!)".

The short forms are used more often than the long forms. As a rule their position isin front of the verb. Sometimes, though, they appear after the verb because theycannot appear in clause-initial position. The position of the long forms is after theverb:

. . .I (am) ask(ing) you.

. . .I (am) speak(ing) to you.

The short forms and the long forms are identical in meaning. The long forms for

the dative case are considered archaic, so the complex forms are used instead. Theforms for the accusative case are used with transitive verbs that have been used

transitively. The forms for dative case are used with intransitive verbs or withtransitive verbs that have been used intransitively (be aware that in one


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language a verb may be transitive, and in another language the same verb may beintransitive!):

, .I (am) ask(ing) you, not him.

.I (am)ask(ing) about you.

.I (am) walk(ing) towards you.

The short forms for the dative case substitute only the complex form, i.e. the

combination of the preposition "HA" + the long form for the accusative.Combinations of other prepositions and the long form for the accusative cannot besubstituted by the short form for the dative case, neither can the short forms appearafter prepositions (there are some exceptions but we'll not go into such details).Here are some examples:

. .I (am) talk(ing) to him.

.I (am) talk(ing) about him.

. , .Ivan lives on the first floor. I live right above him, on the second floor.

The Possessive Pronouns

The possessive pronouns ( ) are words that indicatepossession, and they replace either adjectives that denote personal possession, orpossessive constructions of the type "preposition HA + noun", e.g. "= > , (Maria's sister=the sisterof Maria > her sister)".


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The possessive pronouns have the grammatical category "person", and specialforms for the three genders and for the plural, as well as short forms. The longforms can join the definite article but the short forms cannot. All the forms are

given in the table below:

POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS

For

m

Masc. Femin. Neut. Plur. Shor

t

Engl

.non-def.

definite non-def. definite non-def. definite non-def. definite

1st

p.

sg () my

2nd p.sg

() your

2n

p.

sgpolite

() your

3rd

p.

m sg

()

his

3rd

p.

f sg

()

her

3

rd

p.n sg () its

1st

p.

pl () our

2nd

p.

pl () your

3rd

p.

pl

() their

There is a special, polite form for the 2nd p. sg. Just like the polite form of thepersonal pronouns it is used when you talk to a stranger or a superior. Again, it is

the form for the 2nd p. pl, only it is capitalized. The short dative form for thefeminine singular contains the vowel"" but it is written like "" to bedistinguished from the conjunction "". The short forms are, as a rule, unaccented.

The long forms agree in gender and number with the nouns they qualify, and canbe used with the definite article as well. Their position is in front of the noun.

The long from of the possessive pronouns can take any place among the attributespreceding the noun. In case it occupies the first position in the noun phrase, and the


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definite article is needed, the definite article is joined to the possessive pronoun, asit is joined to the first attribute of the noun phrase. The long forms can also be usedin the predicate. In other words, they behave exactly like the adjectives:

.This habit of yours is very bad.

.Herparents live in another city.

.A friend of yours phoned.

.The Ivanov family are friends of his.

.This is not going to be your problem.

, .This book is mine and this magazine is theirs.

There is only one short form for the three genders and the plural, i.e. it does not

agree with the noun and cannot be used with the definite article. The position of

the short forms is after the noun and it is used only after nouns that have definitearticle with exception of some nouns for relatives. Here are some examples:

1996 . , , . , .In 1996 the young Bulgarian writer D. I. published a novel, a play, an essay and some short

stories. His novel and his short stories had great success but hisplay and his essay were a

complete failure.(Actually it is much better to say " , ." - "His novel and short stories had great success but hisplay and essay were a complete failure."

but the version with the four possessive pronouns is also an option.)

. , .Her parents were elderly and needed constant care. Her husband and her children helped

her a lot, especially her son.(Again, it's better to say " , ()."- "Her husband andchildren helped her a lot, especially the/her son." but once again the sentence in the example above is anoption.)

- ?


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- , .- Where are living your mother and (your) father?

- In Plovdiv, there live also my brother and (my) sister.

.His grandmother and (his) grandfather love very much his daughter.(In this case when the nouns for relatives do not join the definite article it is not possible to

omit any of the short forms of the possessive pronouns because they define the nouns and, in

a way, compensate the lack of the definite article.)

As you have probably noticed the short forms of the possessive pronouns and theshort forms of the personal pronouns for the dative case are the same. The only

difference is that the short forms of the personal pronouns are used in front of theword they refer to, i.e. the verb, and the short forms of the possessive pronouns are

used after the word they refer to, i.e. the noun. Thus it can happen that a form ofthe possessive pronoun is followed by a dative form of the personal pronoun forthe same person and number, for example:

__ .(His friend introduced Maria to him.)

Although the position of the short forms of the possessive pronouns is after the

noun, in certain occasions it can occur before the noun. If the noun has got one ormore attributes (usually placed in front of the noun) the short form of thepossessive pronoun is placed after the first attribute:

.== .(Her long black hair glitters at the sunshine.)

The Reflexive Pronouns

There are two types of reflexive pronouns ( ):

personalpossessive.

Both types have long forms and short forms.


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The reflexive personal pronouns have forms only for accusative and dative cases.They have no forms for nominative, as their function is to refer the direct or theindirect object back to the subject of the sentence, i.e. they are never used in therole of subject of the sentence.

The reflexive possessive pronouns qualify objects and adverbial modifiers butnever the subject of the sentence. The forms for the feminine, the neuter and the

plural join the definite article following the same rules as the adjectives or theordinary possessive pronouns. The long form for the masculine gender cannot jointhe long form of the definite article as it never modifies the subject. The forms ofthe reflexive possessive pronouns mean that the "possessor" and the subject of thesentence are the same. The short forms of the reflexive possessive pronouns are thesame as the short dative forms of the reflexive personal pronouns.

Here are the forms:

Reflexive Personal Pronouns

Accusative Dative

long form short form long form short form

()

Reflexive Possessive Pronouns

masculine feminine neuter plural short form

Here are some examples how you use the reflexive pronouns:

.== .(Elitza is looking at herselfin the mirror.)

, - .== , - .(Ivan buys forhimselfa book and for Elitza - flowers.)

. . = . ( )(Mila is Elitza's friend. Mila is talking with her sister. (the sister of Elitza))

.

. = . ( )


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(Mila is Elitza's friend. Mila is talking to her own sister. (the sister of Mila))

.== .(The children love their own parents.)

. .== . ( ) (The children respect the parents of Annie and Peter. The children respect their parents. (the

parents of Annie and Peter))

The Interrogative Pronouns

There are several types of interrogative words that are traditionally included in thegroup of the interrogative pronouns ( ) . There areinterrogative words for persons and objects - the proper pronouns; there are also

interrogative words for qualities and possession - they are actually "proadjectives";there are also "proadverbs" and even some "pro-verbs". Still, for practicalpurposes we'll continue to call them all interrogative pronouns. It is important tolearn their forms well because they are the basis from which the forms for fourother types of pronouns are derived. Here are the forms of the interrogativepronouns:

Pronouns and "Proadjectives"

FormsFor Persons and

ObjectsFor Qualities For Possession

Masculine

(Nom.)

(Acc.)

= (Dat.)

Feminine

Neuter


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Plural

English who what whose

"Proadverbs"

For Quantity how much, how many

For Place where(to, from) (, )

For Timewhen(since when, untillwhen)

(, )

For Reason why

For Manner how

The Bulgarian Verb

So far I would like to believe that the grammar of Bulgarian was neither difficult

nor challenging for most of the foreigners that have chosen to study Bulgarian.Apart from the verb, all the other part-of-speech classes in Bulgarian could becompared to planets within the solar system of Bulgarian grammar. Unfortunately,the verbal system of Bulgarian should be compared to nothing less but a galaxy.

However, you have to master the verbal system of Bulgarian if you want to masterBulgarian, as the predicate is in the core of the communication, and the verb is thecore of the predicate. It is of little consolation to be reminded that in otherlanguages that have declination you have to master the declination as well. Therichness and the complexity of the verbal system in Bulgarian is a complete"compensation" for the simplicity of its nominal system.

So, let's take a deep breath and face the beast!

A verb, as you know, is a word that describes, refers to an action, a state of being

or experience of the subject of the sentence. It is the principal element of the clause


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which connects the subject to the other words.

The verbs in Bulgarian have up to 3, 000 (!!!) different forms. This is due to thefact that there are six grammatical categories - person (with three subcategories -

1

st

, 2

nd

and 3

rd

person), number (with two subcategories - sg and pl), aspect (withtwo subcategories - imperfective and perfective aspect), tense (with ninesubcategories - present tense, aorist, imperfect tense, future tense, perfect tense,plu(squam)perfect, future perfect tense, future in the past tense and future perfectin the past tense), voice (with two subcategories - active and passive voice) andmood (with four subcategories - indicative, imperative, conditional and the socalled "reported" mood). In addition to that there are five participles (three activeparticiples - present, aorist and imperfect, and two passive participles - present andpast) and a few other non-finite verb forms - the verbal adverbs, and the verbal

nouns with the suffixes -, -.

There are three conjugations according the present-tense stem and several (up toten) classes according to the aorist stem. There are two auxiliary verbs ( - "tobe", and - "to want"), no infinitive, three sets of personal endings (one for thepast tenses and two for the present tense) and two basic temporal stems from whichall those 3, 000 forms are derived. Let's have a closer look at the stems first.

The verbs that belong to the 1st and the 2nd conjugation have two basic temporalstems - the present-tense stem and the aorist stem. Most often these stems aredifferent, but sometimes it may happen that they appear to be identical (e.g.

| > - for the present tense and | > - for the aorist). Theverbs that belong to the 3rd conjugation always have identical stems for the presenttense and the aorist, i.e. they have only one stem.

The present-tense stem is what is left when you remove the personal ending -from the form for the present tense, 2nd person sg (the stem vowel doesn't appear inthe forms for the 1st person sg and the 3rd person pl of the verbs that belong to the1st and the 2nd conjugation, the 3rd conjugation is athematic). Here are someexamples:

Basic Form 2nd p. sg Stem

|(to read) | -

| (to go) | -

| (to fall) | -

| (to cry, to weep) | -

| (to say) | -

| (to write) | -

| (to drink) | -


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| (to live) | -

| (to know) | -

| (to see) | -

| (to invite) | -| (to ask, to beg) | -

| (to study) | -

| (to put) | -

|(to dry) | -

|(to stand) | -

| (to have) | -

|(to shoot) | -

| (to come) | -

| (to destroy, todemolish)

| -

|(to ice over) | -

|(to buy) | -

This stem is used when the following forms are constructed: the present tense, the

simple forms for the imperative mood, the present active participle, the imperfecttense, the imperfect participle and the verbal adverb. Actually all those forms, apartfrom the forms for the present tense and the imperative mood, are derived from the

imperfect-tense stem. The imperfect-tense stem is what is left when you removethe personal ending -X from the form for the imperfect tense, 1st person sg. But theimperfect-tense stem is not considered to be a basic temporal stem of the verbs as itis derived from the present-tense stem by replacing the stem vowels --, -- in thepresent-tense stem of the verbs from the 1st and the 2nd conjugation with the suffixfor the imperfect tense --/--(mutating ). The verbs that belong to the 3rdconjugation have only one stem (as it was mentioned above). When you construct

the imperfect-tense stem you should use as a basis the form for the present tense,1st person sg, as the stem vowel does not appear in it and you have to remove onlythe personal ending. Here are some examples how the imperfect-tense stems of theverbs from the 1st and the 2nd conjugation are constructed:

-> -+/; > |(I was reading)- > -+/; > |((whenever) I said)- > -+/; > |(I knew; I used to know)- > -+/;> |((whenever) I saw)

-> -+/;> |(I was drying)

-> -+/;> | (I was counting)


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The aorist stem is what is left after you remove the personal ending -X- from theform for the aorist, 1st person sg of the verbs that belong to the 1st and the 2ndconjugation. As it was mentioned above, the verbs that belong to the 3 rdconjugation have only one stem. This stem is used when the following forms are

constructed: the aorist, the aorist participle, the past passive participle and theverbal nouns with the suffixes -, -. Here are some examples:

| (I said) > -| (I hid) > -| (I saw) > -| (I dried) > -| (I counted) > -

The verbs that have the suffix -O-in the aorist stem (e.g. |) show some

irregularities when the aorist participles and the past passive participles areconstructed. (For details go to the chapters on the aorist participle and the pastpassive participle.)

There are two sets of personal endings of the verbs in the present tense. Here theyare:

For the 1st and the 2nd conjugation:

1st p. sg -/-

2nd p. sg -

3rd p. sg -

1st p. pl -

2nd p. pl -

3rd p. pl -/-

For the 3rd conjugation:

1st p. sg -

2nd p. sg -

3rd p. sg -

1st p. pl -

2nd p. pl -

3rd p. pl -


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From contemporary point of view the personal endings for the two simple pasttenses - the aorist and the imperfect - are the same. Only in the aorist the forms forthe 2nd and the 3rd person sg join no ending while the corresponding forms for theimperfect tense join the ending -. The two tenses are differentiated by their

stems. Here are the endings for the simple past tenses:

1st p. sg -

2nd p. sg -(aorist)/-(imperfect)

3rd p. sg -(aorist)/-(imperfect)

1st p. pl -

2nd p. pl -

3rd p. pl -

The two auxiliary verbs are (to be) and (to want). The verb isuniversal as an auxiliary verb and its forms are used widely to construct most ofthe complex verb forms. The verb has got suppletive (i.e. derived from differentroots) stems for the present tense, the aorist and the future tense. Here follow theparadigms of the verb for the present tense, the future tense, the imperfecttense and aorist, as well as the aorist participle:

Form Pres. Future Imp. Aor.

1st

p. sg / 2nd p. sg / ()

3rd p. sg / ()

1st p. pl /

2nd p. pl /

3rd p. pl /

aor. participle , , ,

The verb is used only to construct the forms for the future tenses. For the futuretense and the future perfect tense is used the form for the 3 rd person sg, presenttense - for the whole paradigm, and from contemporary point of view it isconsidered a particle. The aorist participle (, , ) isused to construct the forms for the future tenses of the "reported" mood. The fullparadigm of the verb in the imperfect tense is used to construct the forms forthe future in the past tense and the future perfect in the past tense. Here is theparadigm of the verb for the imperfect tense:

1st

p. sg


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2nd p. sg

3rd p. sg

1st p. pl

2

nd

p. pl 3rd p. pl

Aspect of the Verb

The aspect of the verb ( ) is a way of looking at the action. Thereare two aspects of the verb in Bulgarian (and in the other Slavic languages) -imperfective( ) andperfective( ). Some languagesdo not express such kind of differences by grammatical means; other languagesexpress by grammatical means different aspectual distinctions. In English, forinstance, there are perfective (the perfect tenses) and progressive (the continuous

tenses) aspects.

The main difference between the imperfectiveand the perfective aspects inBulgarian is that the perfective aspect implies a completed single action, whilethe imperfectiveaspect simply does not give any implication whether the actionis single or not, whether it is completed or not. Very often, though, when opposedto the perfective aspect, the imperfective forms imply the opposite of what theperfective forms imply - a single but uncompleted action (i.e. action in progress)or an action that has been successfully completed more than once (i.e. iterative,

habitual action). Here are some examples:

.I'll phone my mother tomorrow. (The event is planed as a single completed action.)

.From now on every weekI'll phone my mother. (The action is intended to be completed

successfully and repeated more than once.)

.Tomorrow afternoon I'll be preparing myself for the English language test. (The action will

be in progress by tomorrow afternoon.)


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Most of the verbs have forms both for the perfective and the imperfective aspects.There are, however, some verbs that have forms only for the imperfective aspect(e.g. (to shout),(to walk, to go),(to look),(to talk),(to cook, to prepare),(to live),(to think),(to wash),(to sing),

(to write),(to drink),(to sleep),(to go, to walk),(to study),(to read)). We could call them "imperfectiva tantum", just like the nouns that haveforms only for the singular or only for the plural are called "singularia tantum" or"pluralia tantum". These verbs are not derived from other verbs, they are "primary"verbs in that respect (but they can be derived from nouns, adjectives etc.). The factthat almost all the verbs in Bulgarian come in perfective-imperfective pairs meansthat those pairs are not two different verbs but two forms of one and the same verb.This also means that the verbs, unlike the Russian verbs, are not classified as verbsthat belong to the perfective aspect and verbs that belong to the imperfective

aspect. In Bulgarian verbs "change" in aspect, i.e. they have forms for both the

imperfective and the perfective aspects. Although these forms belong to differentconjugations, they are considered forms of one and the same verb, not two closebut different verbs.

Perfective verbs can easily be derived from "primary" imperfective verbs byadding prefixes or the suffix-H-:

(to drink)> (to take a drink), (to finish (o.'s drink)), (tobooze), (to drink up), () (to get drunk) (to shout)> (to cry out), (to begin to shout), (to call, tocry out), (to call in, to send for), () (to burst into shouts)

It should be pointed out immediately that the basic imperfective verb (e.g. )and the verbs derived from it by the means of prefixes or the suffix -H- (e.g.,, ,, ()) are different verbs, not two or moreforms of one and the same verb. Despite the fact that the basic verb and thederivatives belong to the same conjugation (except the derivatives with suffix -H-)and the closeness of the meaning of the basic verb and the derivatives the latter arenew verbs. The prefixes and the suffix -H- not only change the aspect of the verb

stem to perfective but also add to the lexical meaning of the new stem thusproducing a new verb.

For these perfective verbs, as well as for the "primary" perfective verbs like (to see), (to stop),(to say),(to lift up),(to buy),(to pay)imperfective FORMS can be constructed by adding the suffixes --/--,--,--/--,--. These suffixes add NOTHING to the lexical meaning of thestem, they only change the aspect of the verb to imperfective. The basic perfectiveforms and the derivatives are forms of one and the same verb despite the fact thatmost often they belong to different conjugations. If the perfective verb contains the

suffix -H- or the suffix -A- the suffix is first removed and after that theimperfectivating suffix (usually -BA-) is added. Here are some examples:


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(|) > (to see)(|) >(to pay)(|) > (to stop) (|) > (to throw)

(|) > (to open) (|) > (to cry out)

| > (to call, to cry out)| > (to call in, to send for) (|) > (to buy) (| ) > (to seem/to appear to be) (|) > (to pass)

(|) > (to decide)(|) > (to build)(|) > (to count (up))

These derivatives are called "secondary imperfective verbs" and they all belong tothe 3rd conjugation. If the basic perfective verb belongs also to the 3rd conjugationno phonetic changes take place in the verb stem. Otherwise most often the processof secondary imperfectivation (i.e. the derivation of secondary imperfective formsfor the perfective verbs by the means of the suffixes --/--,--,--/--,--) is accompanied by a change of the vowel of the root of the verb or/and achange of the last consonant of the root. Let's have a closer look at those changes:

1. The vowel of the root of the basic verb is e and the vowel of the root of the

secondary imperfective form is .This kind of change takes place when the basicverb belongs to the 1st conjugation with accent on the ending (the accented vowelis underlined) and the imperfectivating suffix is -a-:

e(e|) > a(to choose)e(e|) > a(to gather, to collect)e(e|) > a(to drag up/in)e(e|) > a(to dress)e(e|) > a(to sweep (away/off/out))

e(e|) > a(to sweep up)

e(e|) > a(to bake)e(e|) > a(to wash (out))e(e|) > a(to begin knitting; to entangle)e(e|) > a(to knit)e(e|) > a(to call, to name)ee|) > a(to cut/crop off)e(e|) > a(to cross, to cut off)e(e|) > a(to flow/run out; to expire)e(e|) > a(to read/finish (a book))

e(e|) > a(to honour; to read a little)e(e|) > a (to read through)


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This pattern is followed also by some other verbs - the prefixed perfectivederivatives of the imperfective verbs , , also the verb (theybelong to the 2nd conjugation) and the prefixed perfective derivatives of the verb () (that join the imperfectivating suffix --):

e(e|) > a(to fly over)e (e|) > a(to grind, to mill, to mince, to digest)e (e|) > a(to find)e (e| ) > (to smile; to begin to laugh)

e (e|) > (to make s.o. laugh)

2. The vowel of the root of the basic verb is o and the vowel of the root of thesecondary imperfective form is a.This kind of change takes place when the basicverb belongs to the 2nd conjugation and the imperfectivating suffix is --(after:

-a-):

(|) > a(to bring down, to overturn) (|) > a(to answer) (|) > a (to poison) (|) > a(to bury)(|) > a(to burn out)(|) > a(to catch, to take hold of)(|) > aa(to cause, to bring forth)

This pattern is followed also by the prefixed perfective verbs containing the root*. They join the imperfectivating suffix -a-:

(|) > aa (to put)

3. The vowel of the root of the basic verb is e and the vowel of the root of thesecondary imperfective form is ['a ]. This kind of change takes place when thebasic verb belongs to the 1st conjugation and contains the suffix -H-. Theimperfectivating suffix is -a- and it replaces the suffix -H-:

e (e|) > a(to lie down)e (e|) > a(to throw, to cast)e (e|) > a (to sit)

4. There is no vowel in the root of the basic verb and the vowel of the root of thesecondary imperfective form is . This kind of change takes place when the basicverb contains one of the following roots - -1- (to shove), -2- (to boil), --, --,--, -- (all those verbs belong to the 1st conjugation except the verb (to

boil)from the root -2-, which belongs to the 2nd conjugation). Theimperfectivating suffix is -a-:


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(2|) > a(to boil away)(1|) > a(to thrust in/into, to shove)() > a(to catch sight of)(|) > a(to die)

(|) > a(to stop)(|) > a (to stretch out; to hang out (clothes/washing)

5. The root of the basic verb ends in or and the root of the secondaryimperfective form ends in or. This kind of change takes place when the basicverb belongs to the 1st conjugation and the imperfectivating suffix is --. (Theseverbs have the same alternation of consonants also in the aorist stem, e. g. (tosay)> ):

(|) > (to say)

(|) > (to cut into pieces, to slice) (|) > (to copy) (|) > (to smell)

6. The root of the basic verb ends in or and the root of the secondaryimperfective form ends in or. This kind of change takes place when the basicverb belongs to the 1st conjugation and the imperfectivating suffix is --:

(|) > (to cut/trim s.o.'s hair) (|) > (to start crying)

7. The root of the basic verb ends in / and the root of the secondary imperfectiveform ends in . This kind of change takes place when the basic verb belongs to the1st conjugation and the imperfectivating suffix is -a-, and is simultaneous to thealternation [:] of the vowel of the root:

e(e|) > a(to drag up/in)e(e|) > a(to dress)e(e|) > a(to bake)e(e|) > a(to call, to name)

e(e|) > a(to cut/crop off)e(e|) > a(to cross, to cut off)e(e|) > a (to flow/run out; to expire)

8. The root of the basic verb ends in or and the root of the secondaryimperfective form ends in or. This kind of change takes place when the basicverb belongs to the 2nd conjugation and the imperfectivating suffix is -a- or --(from --, --). The same pattern is followed also by the prefixed perfectivederivative verbs of the basic imperfective verb (to lead)(e.g.

(e), 1

st

conj. (to bring along, to fetch)):


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(|) > a(to send; to see off)(|) > a(to pay (for))(|) > (to visit)(|) > (to abbreviate, to reduce)

(|) > (to foresee)

(|) > a(to cause, to bring forth)(|) > (to defeat, to overcome)(|) > (to persuade)(|) > a (to bring along, to fetch)

Present Tense

( )

There are three classes or conjugations of verbs in Bulgarian according to theirstem in the present tense. The classification of the verbs in the practice isdetermined by the final vowel in the 3 rd person sg: E for the first conjugation, for the second conjugation, and / for the third conjugation. The first and thesecond conjugations have a long history. They are thematic, i.e. they have a stem

vowel - E and . Unfortunately, the stem vowel does not appear in the forms forthe 1st person sg and the 3rd person pl. As in the dictionaries appears the basic formof the verb, i.e. the form for the 1st person sg, present tense, it is not directlyobvious to which conjugation the verb belongs. The third conjugation has arelatively short history, and it is athematic, i.e. the final vowel in the 3rd person sg/ is not a proper stem vowel but a part of a suffix or the suffix itself. Here aresome examples and some practical rules how to determine the conjugation of the

verb:

Conj. 1st

p. sg 3rd

p. sgFinal Vowel in

the 3rd p.sg

1st

(to read)

1st

(to go)

1st

(to fall)

1st

()(to cry, to weep)

1

st

()(to say)


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1st

()(to write)

1st

13395331 bulgarian language

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