People

Vocabulary

The plural of човек is хора (normal plural) or души (numeral plural): един човек, двама души, много хора.

"Те са богати хора" - They are rich people
"Има много хора" - There are a lot of people
"Имам резервация за двама души" - I have a reservation for 2 people

You will probably hear people say човека (numeral plural of човек). It is technically incorrect, since the numeral plural doesn't normally apply to words representing people. However, it is very commonly used, and so we will accept it as correct in the exercises.

The English words мадам and мис are also acceptable in place of госпожа and госпожица. In Bulgarian, the words господин, госпожа and госпожица can be used as a title (as in Mr Borisov), or as a polite way to refer to someone (as in "Who's this gentleman?").

In Bulgarian, there is only one gender-neutral word for boyfriend or girlfriend: гадже. If you want to specify it, you can use приятел (boyfriend) or приятелка (girlfriend), even though they do not necessarily imply a romantic relationship.

познавам

There are two words meaning "to know" in Bulgarian:

• знам is used for facts or learned skills
• познавам is used to express familiarity or acquaintance with people or places

Irregularities

The plural of господин is господа. The plural of население is населения and this plural form applies to most words ending in -ие.

Nouns representing people and ending in -ел typically use -ят/-я as the definite article:

приятел ➜ приятелят/приятеля
жител ➜ жителят/жителя
служител ➜ служителят/служителя
свидетел ➜ свидетелят/свидетеля

The same goes for these two:

крал ➜ кралят/краля
цар ➜ царят/царя

The plural of крал is крале and the plural of цар is царе (like мъж ➜ мъже).

Feminine Forms

Most words representing people have a feminine form ending in -ка that can be used to specify that the person is a female:

служителка: a female employee
шефка: a female boss
туристка: a female tourist
etc.