Countries

In this lesson we will see the vocabulary and grammar for words representing countries, nationalities and languages.

Adjectives in -и

Consider the following sentence:

"Говоря български" - I speak Bulgarian

In English "Bulgarian" is a noun - that's the name of the language spoken in Bulgaria. In Bulgarian, however, "български" is an adjective. The sentence is in fact short for:

"Говоря български език" - I speak (the) Bulgarian language

"Език" means tongue or language, and is a singular masculine noun. Why then does "български" end in -и, the ending usually reserved for the plural?

It turns out that there is a whole group of adjectives that end in -и in their masculine form:

You probably recognize пилешко and говеждо from the Food lesson (they are used as short for "пилешко/говеждо месо"). "Свинско" (pork), "агнешко" (lamb) and "телешко" (veal) work the same way.

Definite Forms

As you can see from the previous table, the masculine and plural forms are the same (and thus, will be differentiated by the context). However, the masculine and plural definite forms are different:

• Masculine (long): българският
• Masculine (short): българския
• Feminine: българската
• Neuter: българското
• Plural: българските

The adjective used to describe the language, български език, can also be used to describe anything else Bulgarian:

"Харесвам българска музика" - I like Bulgarian music

Adjectives vs Demonym

English often uses the same word for the adjective and the demonym (what people living in a country are called), but Bulgarian uses different words. Adjectives can be used for the language ("the Bulgarian language") or to qualify other nouns ("a Bulgarian man", "Bulgarian music"...).

"Той е българин" - He is (a) Bulgarian
"Тя е българка" - She is (a) Bulgarian
"Те са българи" - They are Bulgarians
"Той е български мъж" - He is a Bulgarian man
"Тя е българска жена" - She is a Bulgarian woman

You can see that the word for the adjective in "a Bulgarian man" is different from the demonym in "a Bulgarian". It is similar to how the words are different in English in "a Spanish man" and "a Spaniard".

Here's a table summarizing the vocabulary for a few countries:

Languages that are not based on a country name:

• English: английски
• German: немски
• Arabic: арабски
• Hindi: хинди