Definite and indefinite articles
In English, and many other languages, there are 2 types of articles: definite and indefinite.
The woman - A definite woman
A woman - An indefinite woman
There is no indefinite article in Bulgarian. See how the words "жена" (woman) and "куче" (dog) are used alone to refer to "a woman" or "a dog":
"Тя е жена" - She is a woman
"Това е куче" - This is a dog
(Sometimes, the word for "one", едно, can be used in a way similar to an indefinite article.)
Basic forms of "to be"
In Bulgarian, verbs are conjugated according to the subject (I, you...) and the tense (present, past...). The conjugation is applied to the ending of the verb.
Bulgarian verbs do not have an infinitive form. When referring to a verb, we use the first person conjugation of that verb. This is the citation form: the form used to refer to a verb or to look it up in a dictionary, and is different from the infinitive in a grammatical sense.
For example, "to be" is "съм" in Bulgarian. "Съм" is used for the citation form and for "I am".
In this lesson, you will be introduced to these two conjugations of "съм":
| English | Bulgarian |
|---|---|
| I am | аз съм |
| he/she/it is | той/тя/то е |
Examples:
"Той е мъж" - He is a man
"Тя е жена" - She is a woman
"Това е куче" - This is a dog
Since conjugations are unique to each subject, the pronoun can generally be left out.
Instead of "аз съм мъж" (I am a man), you can say "мъж съм".
Why did the verb suddenly change position?
It is a rule that you cannot start a sentence with a present form of the verb съм ("to be"). Therefore, if you omit the subject personal pronoun, the verb has to move in second position:
"Аз съм мъж" or "Мъж съм" - I am a man
It is incorrect to say "съм мъж".
Negation
"Не" means "no" in Bulgarian. It can also be used to negate a sentence:
"Ана не е мъж" - Ana is not a man
"Да" means "yes":
"Да, мъж съм" - Yes, I am a man
How to type Cyrillic on your keyboard?
In this exercise you will need to type sentences in Cyrillic.
If you already have a Cyrillic keyboard, that's great! Otherwise, don't worry, there's a way to type Cyrillic on your phone, tablet, or on your classic (say, QWERTY) keyboard.
Check out these links to find out how to install another keyboard layout (such as Bulgarian Cyrillic), on your operating system:
Another option, if you're on a computer, is to use our transliteration tool. With it you can just type in Roman letters and we'll convert that to Cyrillic for you!
For some Bulgarian letters that do not have a direct equivalent in Roman letters, you'll have to use a combination of letters like "ya" for "я" and "zh" for "ж". Please refer to the Cyrillic lesson for the romanization standard.