Bulgarian grammar
Encyclopedia
Bulgarian grammar is the grammar
of the Bulgarian language
. Bulgarian language
is a South Slavic language, historically Bulgarian language evolved from the Old Bulgarian language, also known as Old Slavonic language which was the written norm for the Slavic languages
in the Middle ages
, and before that from the Proto-Slavic language.
Bulgarian is also a part of the Balkan linguistic union
, which also includes Greek
, Macedonian
, Romanian
, Albanian
and the Torlakian dialect
of the Serbian language
. As such, it shares several grammatical innovations with the other southwest Balkan languages that set it apart from other Slavic languages. These include a sharp reduction in noun inflections
; most Bulgarian nouns and adjectives are inflected for number and gender
, but have lost noun cases. Bulgarian also has a suffixed definite article
, while most other Slavic languages
have no definite article at all. Bulgarian has also lost the verb infinitive
, while otherwise preserving most of the complexities of the Old Bulgarian verb conjugation
system, and has further developed the proto-Slavic verb system to add verb forms to express nonwitnessed, retold, and doubtful (irrealis) actions.
grammatical gender
, number
, case
(only vocative) and definiteness
. A noun has one of three specific grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular and plural). With cardinal numbers and some adverbs, masculine nouns use a separate count form(see below).
The plural is formed by adding to or replacing the singular ending, most commonly in the following ways:
Definiteness is expressed by a definite article
which is postfixed to the noun:
When the two are combined, the plural ending comes first:
Bulgarian has 6 cases in all, but only three, the accusative, dative, and nominative are still completely intact from Old Bulgarian. While Bulgarian has lost most of its declensions, many remnants of the old more complex case system do still exist. These remnants make up the modern genitive, vocative, and instrumental cases. Due to their rarity, however, they are no longer seen as case endings, but are rather considered to be part of some completely different phenomenon, such as being a subcategory of the definite article or of the plural, as with the genitive below.
In Bulgarian, the numerical plural form (broyna mnozhestvena forma) is a remnant of the grammatical dual number
, which disappeared from the language in the Middle Ages. The modern numerical form is used in the masculine whenever there is a precise amount of something, regardless of the actual number, eg. –
agrees in gender
, number
and definiteness
with the noun it is appended to and is put usually before it. The comparative
and the superlative
form are formed analytically.
s vary in gender
, number
, definiteness
and case
. The distinguishable types of pronouns include the following: personal, possessive, interrogative, demonstrative, reflexive, summative, negative, indefinite and relative.
and Bulgarian conjugation
.
Bulgarian verbs are the most complicated part of Bulgarian grammar. They are inflected for person, number and sometimes gender. They also have lexical aspect (perfective and imperfective), voice, nine tenses
, five moods
and six non-finite verb
al forms. Bulgarian verbs are divided into three conjugation
s.
that). The verbs remain unchanged. Thus: Subjunctive - да -
The inferential is formed in exactly the same way as the perfect, but with the omission of the auxiliary
:
The imperative
has its own conjugation - usually by adding -и or -ай (-i or -ay) to the root of the verb:
is rather free. It is even freer than the word order of some languages that have cases, for example German
. This is due to the agreement
between the subject
and the verb
of a sentence. So in Bulgarian the sentence "I saw Lubomir" can be expressed thus:
Видях Любомир.
saw-1pSg Lyubomir
Любомир (го) видях.
Lyubomir (him) saw-1pSg
It is clear that the subject is "аз" ("I") (it has been dropped), because the verb "видях" is in the first person singular.
Other examples - Ivan greeted the girls:
Иван поздрави момичетата.
Ivan greeted-3pSg girls-the.
Момичетата (ги) поздрави Иван.
Girls-the (them) greeted-3pSg Ivan.
Иван момичетата поздрави.
Ivan girls-the greeted-3pSg.
Момичетата Иван (ги) поздрави.
Girls-the Ivan (them) greeted-3pSg.
Поздрави Иван момичетата.
Greeted-3pSg Ivan girls-the.
Поздрави (ги) момичетата Иван.
Greeted-3pSg (them) girls-the Ivan.
Theoretically all permutations are possible but the last one sounds rather odd.
The girls greeted Ivan:
Момичетата поздравиха Иван.
Girls-the greeted-3pPl Ivan.
Иван (го) поздравиха момичетата.
Ivan (him) greeted-3pPl girls-the.
Момичетата Иван поздравиха.
Girls-the Ivan greeted-3pPl.
Иван момичетата (го) поздравиха.
Ivan girls-the (him) greeted-3pPl.
Поздравиха момичетата Иван.
Greeted-3pPl girls-the Ivan.
Поздравиха (го) Иван момичетата.
Greeted-3pPl (him) Ivan girls-the.
The clitic doubling
(го/ги) is obligatory only when the subject
and the object
are both in third person, and they are either both singular
or both plural
, but when the meaning is clear from the context it can be omitted. Examples:
Иван го поздрави Мария.
Ivan him greeted-3pSg Maria.
Maria greeted Ivan.
Мария я поздрави Иван.
Maria her greeted-3pSg Ivan.
Ivan greeted Maria.
but
Ролите озвучиха артистите...
Roles-the sound-screened-3pPl artists-the...
The artists...(their names) sound-screened the roles. (They made the soundtrack for the film.)
In the compound tenses, when a participle
is used, and when the subject and the object are of different gender
or number
, the clitic doubling
can also be left out. So the first two of the above examples can be expressed in a compound tense thus:
Иван (го) е поздравила Мария.
Ivan (him) has greeted-3pSgFem Maria.
Maria has greeted Ivan.
Мария (я) е поздравил Иван.
Maria (her) has greeted-3pSgMasc Ivan.
Ivan has greeted Maria.
The above two examples sound a bit odd without the doubling, unless it is a case of topicalization and special stress is put on the first word.
Furthermore, numbers take special endings when: referring to a roundabout number (10-100 and, rarely, 5-9) - add "-ina"
ina dushi - about 20 people
they are used as common nouns - add the feminine " -ka/-tsa" '
Notes: The word edni can be translated as "some" - eg. edni tzigari "some cigarettes" (comp. Spanish unos/unas).
When counting, the neuter numbers are taken - edno, dve, tri....
Fractions are the same as the ordinal numbers, and are done in the feminine 1/5 - edna peta, 2/5 - dve peti, etc.
The words for men can be used by themselves, without a noun following - eg. simply "vidyah dvama" - I saw two men, or even colloquilaly "edni dvama..." - these two men...
Irregularly, "sedmina" and "osmina" can be used (archaically, poetically) to also mean "7/8 men" rather than "around 7/8".
The smaller denomination of the Bulgarian currency - the stotìnka (pl. stotìnki) literally mean "hundredths" (diminutive); 100 stotinki = 1 lev
.
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
of the Bulgarian language
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
. Bulgarian language
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
is a South Slavic language, historically Bulgarian language evolved from the Old Bulgarian language, also known as Old Slavonic language which was the written norm for the Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
in the Middle ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, and before that from the Proto-Slavic language.
Bulgarian is also a part of the Balkan linguistic union
Balkan linguistic union
The Balkan sprachbund or linguistic area is the ensemble of areal features—similarity in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and phonology—among the languages of the Balkans. Several features are found across these languages though not all need apply to every single language...
, which also includes Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
, Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
, Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
and the Torlakian dialect
Torlakian dialect
Torlakian or Torlak is a name given to the group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia , northeastern Macedonia , western Bulgaria , which is intermediate between Serbian, Bulgarian and Macedonian.Some linguists classify it as an Old-Shtokavian dialect of Serbian or a fourth dialect of...
of the Serbian language
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
. As such, it shares several grammatical innovations with the other southwest Balkan languages that set it apart from other Slavic languages. These include a sharp reduction in noun inflections
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
; most Bulgarian nouns and adjectives are inflected for number and gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, but have lost noun cases. Bulgarian also has a suffixed definite article
Definite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
, while most other Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
have no definite article at all. Bulgarian has also lost the verb infinitive
Infinitive
In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
, while otherwise preserving most of the complexities of the Old Bulgarian verb conjugation
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
system, and has further developed the proto-Slavic verb system to add verb forms to express nonwitnessed, retold, and doubtful (irrealis) actions.
Nouns
Bulgarian nouns have the categoriesGrammatical category
A grammatical category is a semantic distinction which is reflected in a morphological paradigm. Grammatical categories can have one or more exponents. For instance, the feature [number] has the exponents [singular] and [plural] in English and many other languages...
grammatical gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
(only vocative) and definiteness
Definite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
. A noun has one of three specific grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular and plural). With cardinal numbers and some adverbs, masculine nouns use a separate count form(see below).
The plural is formed by adding to or replacing the singular ending, most commonly in the following ways:
| sing. | plur. | |
| masc. | -conson. Consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,... |
+и +ове (monosyl.) |
| fem. | -а / -я | -и |
| neut. | -о -е |
-а +та |
Definiteness is expressed by a definite article
Definite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
which is postfixed to the noun:
| masc. | fem. | neut. | |
| sing. | -ът / -ят (subj.) -a / -я (obj.) |
-та | -то |
| plur. | -те | -та | |
When the two are combined, the plural ending comes first:
|
|
|
Bulgarian Case System
- See also: Bulgarian Language - Case
Bulgarian has 6 cases in all, but only three, the accusative, dative, and nominative are still completely intact from Old Bulgarian. While Bulgarian has lost most of its declensions, many remnants of the old more complex case system do still exist. These remnants make up the modern genitive, vocative, and instrumental cases. Due to their rarity, however, they are no longer seen as case endings, but are rather considered to be part of some completely different phenomenon, such as being a subcategory of the definite article or of the plural, as with the genitive below.
- the accusativeAccusative caseThe accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
and the dativeDative caseThe dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
- Are preserved in the personal pronouns - eg. mene (me), neya (her); nèmu (to him), im (to them, short form) These personal pronouns have both a short and a long form for the accusative and the dative.
- Also, they appear in the
- the genitiveGenitive caseIn grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
is preserved in the masculine singular – however, it is not used exclusively in genitive constructions any more. Instead, it has become the incomplete definite article suffix (nepulen chlen), used with all definite masculine nouns which are the object of a sentence:- stol (a chair) → stolat (the chair, subject) → pod stola (under the chair - object). '
- the vocative -
- for family members - eg. майка → майко (maika → maiko - "mother")
- for masculine names - eg. Петър → Петре (Petar → Petre)
- in social descriptors - eg. priatelyu (friend), uchitelyu (teacher)
- the instrumentalInstrumental caseThe instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action...
-- mostly for set phrases, such as noshtem ("during the night", from nosht); sbogom ("farewell" - lit. "with God", from s + bog); or begom ("while running" from byagam - to run)
Remnant of the dual
- See also: Language and Nouns articles
In Bulgarian, the numerical plural form (broyna mnozhestvena forma) is a remnant of the grammatical dual number
Dual (grammatical number)
Dual is a grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and plural. When a noun or pronoun appears in dual form, it is interpreted as referring to precisely two of the entities identified by the noun or pronoun...
, which disappeared from the language in the Middle Ages. The modern numerical form is used in the masculine whenever there is a precise amount of something, regardless of the actual number, eg. –
- stol (chair) → mnogo stolove (many chairs - general plural) → dva stola/deset stola (two chairs/ten chairs - numerical plural). '
Adjectives
A Bulgarian adjectiveAdjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
agrees in gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
and definiteness
Definite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
with the noun it is appended to and is put usually before it. The comparative
Comparative
In grammar, the comparative is the form of an adjective or adverb which denotes the degree or grade by which a person, thing, or other entity has a property or quality greater or less in extent than that of another, and is used in this context with a subordinating conjunction, such as than,...
and the superlative
Superlative
In grammar, the superlative is the form of an adjective that indicates that the person or thing modified has the quality of the adjective to a degree greater than that of anything it is being compared to in a given context. English superlatives are typically formed with the suffix -est In...
form are formed analytically.
Pronouns
Bulgarian pronounPronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s vary in gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, definiteness
Definiteness
In grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context and entities which are not ....
and case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
. The distinguishable types of pronouns include the following: personal, possessive, interrogative, demonstrative, reflexive, summative, negative, indefinite and relative.
Verbs
Main articles: Bulgarian verbsBulgarian verbs
Bulgarian verbs are the most complicated part of Bulgarian grammar, especially when compared to other Slavic languages. They are inflected for person, number and sometimes gender. They also have lexical aspect , voice, nine tenses, three moods,These are the indicative, the imperative and the...
and Bulgarian conjugation
Bulgarian conjugation
Bulgarian conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a Bulgarian verb from its principal parts by inflection. It is affected by person, number, gender, tense, mood and voice...
.
Bulgarian verbs are the most complicated part of Bulgarian grammar. They are inflected for person, number and sometimes gender. They also have lexical aspect (perfective and imperfective), voice, nine tenses
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
, five moods
Grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
and six non-finite verb
Non-finite verb
In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person...
al forms. Bulgarian verbs are divided into three conjugation
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
s.
Voice
The voice in Bulgarian adjectives is presented not through the auxiliary verb, as it is in English ("I have eaten" - active; "I was eaten" - passive), but rather by the ending on the past participle; the auxiliary remains съм ("to be"):- ActiveActive voiceActive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. It is the unmarked voice for clauses featuring a transitive verb in nominative–accusative languages, including English and most other Indo-European languages....
- ударил съм... - udaril sum... - I have hit... - PassivePassive voicePassive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
- ударен съм - udaren sum - I have been hit
Mood
Mood in Bulgarian is expressed not through verb endings, but through the auxiliary particles че (che) and да (da) (which both translate as the relative pronounRelative pronoun
A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause within a larger sentence. It is called a relative pronoun because it relates the relative clause to the noun that it modifies. In English, the relative pronouns are: who, whom, whose, whosever, whosesoever, which, and, in some...
that). The verbs remain unchanged. Thus:
- Indicative - че -
- e.g. знам, че си тук - znam,
- e.g. искам да си тук - iskam
The inferential is formed in exactly the same way as the perfect, but with the omission of the auxiliary
Auxiliary verb
In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
:
- Perfect - той е бил - toy e bil - he has been
- Inferential - той бил - toy bil - he (reportedly) was
The imperative
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
has its own conjugation - usually by adding -и or -ай (-i or -ay) to the root of the verb:
- e.g. sit - сядам → сядай (syadam → syaday – imperfectiveImperfective aspectThe imperfective is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed with internal structure, such as ongoing, habitual, repeated, and similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future...
), or седна → седни (sedna → sedni – perfectivePerfective aspectThe perfective aspect , sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed as a simple whole, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. The perfective aspect is equivalent to the aspectual component of past perfective forms...
).- Negative instructions - either ne syaday or nedey da syadash - "don't sit down". (See section on intentional particles.)
Word order
Although Bulgarian has almost no noun cases its word orderWord order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
is rather free. It is even freer than the word order of some languages that have cases, for example German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. This is due to the agreement
Agreement (linguistics)
In languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
between the subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
and the verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
of a sentence. So in Bulgarian the sentence "I saw Lubomir" can be expressed thus:
Видях Любомир.
saw-1pSg Lyubomir
Любомир (го) видях.
Lyubomir (him) saw-1pSg
It is clear that the subject is "аз" ("I") (it has been dropped), because the verb "видях" is in the first person singular.
Other examples - Ivan greeted the girls:
Иван поздрави момичетата.
Ivan greeted-3pSg girls-the.
Момичетата (ги) поздрави Иван.
Girls-the (them) greeted-3pSg Ivan.
Иван момичетата поздрави.
Ivan girls-the greeted-3pSg.
Момичетата Иван (ги) поздрави.
Girls-the Ivan (them) greeted-3pSg.
Поздрави Иван момичетата.
Greeted-3pSg Ivan girls-the.
Поздрави (ги) момичетата Иван.
Greeted-3pSg (them) girls-the Ivan.
Theoretically all permutations are possible but the last one sounds rather odd.
The girls greeted Ivan:
Момичетата поздравиха Иван.
Girls-the greeted-3pPl Ivan.
Иван (го) поздравиха момичетата.
Ivan (him) greeted-3pPl girls-the.
Момичетата Иван поздравиха.
Girls-the Ivan greeted-3pPl.
Иван момичетата (го) поздравиха.
Ivan girls-the (him) greeted-3pPl.
Поздравиха момичетата Иван.
Greeted-3pPl girls-the Ivan.
Поздравиха (го) Иван момичетата.
Greeted-3pPl (him) Ivan girls-the.
The clitic doubling
Clitic doubling
In linguistics, clitic doubling, or pronominal reduplication is a phenomenon by which clitic pronouns appear in verb phrases together with the full noun phrases that they refer to .Clitic doubling is found in many languages, including Albanian, Arumanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian,...
(го/ги) is obligatory only when the subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
and the object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
are both in third person, and they are either both singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
or both plural
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, but when the meaning is clear from the context it can be omitted. Examples:
Иван го поздрави Мария.
Ivan him greeted-3pSg Maria.
Maria greeted Ivan.
Мария я поздрави Иван.
Maria her greeted-3pSg Ivan.
Ivan greeted Maria.
but
Ролите озвучиха артистите...
Roles-the sound-screened-3pPl artists-the...
The artists...(their names) sound-screened the roles. (They made the soundtrack for the film.)
In the compound tenses, when a participle
Participle
In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
is used, and when the subject and the object are of different gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
or number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, the clitic doubling
Clitic doubling
In linguistics, clitic doubling, or pronominal reduplication is a phenomenon by which clitic pronouns appear in verb phrases together with the full noun phrases that they refer to .Clitic doubling is found in many languages, including Albanian, Arumanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian,...
can also be left out. So the first two of the above examples can be expressed in a compound tense thus:
Иван (го) е поздравила Мария.
Ivan (him) has greeted-3pSgFem Maria.
Maria has greeted Ivan.
Мария (я) е поздравил Иван.
Maria (her) has greeted-3pSgMasc Ivan.
Ivan has greeted Maria.
The above two examples sound a bit odd without the doubling, unless it is a case of topicalization and special stress is put on the first word.
Numbers
In Bulgarian, the numbers 1 and 2 take gender.Furthermore, numbers take special endings when:
- referring to
- eg. 2 chairs - dva stola; 2 brothers - dva
- eg. dvadeset dushi - 20 people; dvadeset
- sedem - "seven", but sedmitza - the number seven (as in "the seven" in a deck of cards, or "bus number seven", etc.).
| № | Cardinal Numbers | numbers relating to men | "roundabout" numbers | ordinal numbers | as a common noun | notes / other |
| 1 | edìn (masc) - ednà (fem) ednò (neut) - ednì (plur.) * |
pruv / pùrvi (masc), purva (fem), etc | edinìtsa | vednazh - once | ||
| 2 | dva (masc) - dve (fem/neut) | dvama | vtori | dvòyka | polovin(ka) - half | |
| 3 | tri | trima | treti | tròyka | ||
| 4 | chètiri | chetirima | chetvùrti | chetvòrka | chètvurt(in(k)a) - quarter | |
| 5 | pet | petíma | péti | petìtsa | ||
| 6 | shest | shestima | shesti | shestìtsa | ||
| 7 | sèdem | * | sedmi | sedmitsa | ||
| 8 | òsem | osmi | osmitsa | |||
| 9 | dèvet | (devetina) | deveti | devyàtka (devètka) | ||
| 10 | dèset | desetima | desetina | deseti | desyàtka (desètka) | |
| 11 | edinàdeset (edinàyset) | (edinadesetìma / edinaysetima) | edinadesetìna (edinaysetina) | edinàdeseti (edinays(e)ti) | edinàdesetka (edinàyska) / edinadesetìtsa (edinays(e)tìtsa) | from "edin-na-deset" - "one-on-ten", etc |
| 12 | dvanàdeset (dvanayset) | (dvanadesetìma / dvanaysetima) | dvanadesetìna (dvanaysetina) | dvanàdeseti (dvanays(e)ti) | dvanàdesetka (dvanàyska) / dvanadesetìtsa (dvanays(e)tìtsa) | |
| 20 | dvàdeset (dvàyset) | (dvadesetìma / dvaysetima) | dvadesetìna (dvaysetina) | dvàdeseti (dvaysetima) | dvàdesetka (dvàyska) / dvadesetìtsa (dvays(e)tìtsa) | "dva-deset" - "twice ten" |
| 21 | dvadeset i edno (dvayset i edno) | dvadeset i purvi/-a/-o | dvadeset (dvayset) i edinitsa | |||
| 22 | dvadeset i dve (dvayset i dve) | dvadeset i vtori/-a/-o | dvadeset (dvayset) i dvoyka / (dvàys-dvòyka) | (...'23' - dvàys-tròyka, etc) | ||
| 30 | trideset (triyset) | trideseti/-a/-o (triys(e)ti/-a/-o) | trìdesetka (trìyska) / tridesetitsa (triys(e)titsa) | |||
| 100 | sto | stotíma | stotína | stótni | stotìtsa | nyàkolkostotin... - several hundred... * |
| 200 | dvèsta | (okolo 200 - "around 200") | (dvestni) | - | 300 - trìsta | |
| 400 | chetiristòtin | (chetiristòtni) | - | 500-900 - same pattern | ||
| 1,000 | hilyàda | hìlyadni | hilyadàrka | 2,000 - dve hilyadi, etc | ||
| 0 | nùla | nulev | nula | nikolko - none |
Notes:
- In Bulgarian, numbers can be used directly in front of uncountable nounsMass nounIn linguistics, a mass noun is a noun that refers to some entity as an undifferentiated unit rather than as something with discrete subsets. Non-count nouns are best identified by their syntactic properties, and especially in contrast with count nouns. The semantics of mass nouns are highly...
- eg. vodа "water" → edna voda "a glass of water" (the quantifier 'glass of' is inferred from the context - comp. English 'a beer
Bulgarian lev
The lev is the currency of Bulgaria. It is divided in 100 stotinki . In archaic Bulgarian the word "lev" meant "lion".It is speculated that Bulgaria, as a member of the European Union will adopt the Euro in 2015 .- First lev, 1881–1952 :...
.