Meeting People

Unit 2 centers on meeting people. Peter and his wife are travelling through Bulgaria and stop in Sofia to visit an old friend, Mr. Boris Popov. The dialogue covers greetings, introductions, asking about travel and accommodations, and making plans. The Grammar Notes cover the pronunciation of consonants, the Bulgarian suffixed definite article, and verb conjugation patterns.

Basic Sentences

Narrative

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
Peter	Петър
his wife (‘wife to him’)	жена му
they are travelling	пътуват
through Bulgaria	из България
Peter and his wife are travelling through Bulgaria.	Петър и жена му пътуват из България.
stops, is stopping	спира
in Sofia	в София
The train stops in Sofia.	Влакът спира в София.
they	те
they go, they’re going	отиват
that they see	да видят
the old friend	стария приятел
of Peter, Peter’s, to Peter	на Петър
Mr. Boris Popov	господин Борис Попов
They go to see an old friend of Peter’s, Mr. Boris Popov.	Те отиват да видят стария приятел на Петър, господин Борис Попов.

Boris

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
having come (of a man)	дошел
having come (of a woman)	дошла
Welcome, Peter! Welcome, Madam!	Добре дошел, Петре! Добре дошла, госпожо!

Peter

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
met	заварил
Glad to see you! (‘Well met’)	Добре заварил!
my wife (‘wife to me’)	жена ми
Mr. Popov, my wife.	Господин Попов, жена ми.

Boris

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
pleasant	приятно
to me	ми
I’m pleased [to meet you].	Приятно ми е.
from when	от кога
in Bulgaria	в България
How long have you been (‘are you’) in Bulgaria?	От кога сте в България?

Peter

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
we arrived	пристигнахме
yesterday	вчера
afternoon	след обед
by (the) train (‘with the train’)	с влака
We arrived yesterday afternoon by train.	Пристигнахме вчера след обед с влака.

Boris

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
you have put up	отседнали сте
Where are you staying?	Къде сте отседнали?

Peter

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
In the Hotel ‘Bulgaria’.	В хотел “България”.

Boris

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
from where	от къде
you have learned	научили сте
that you speak	да говорите
Where did you learn to speak Bulgarian?	От къде сте научили да говорите български?

Peter

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
we	ние
we were taking	взимахме
lessons	уроци
in New York	в Ню-Йорк
We took lessons in New York.	Ние взимахме уроци в Ню-Йорк.
we understand	разбираме
but	но
yet	още
we can	можем
that we speak	да говорим
We understand everything, but we cannot speak well yet.	Разбираме всичко, но още не можем да говорим добре.

Boris

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
to, up to, until, next to	до
you will stay	ще останете
How long will you be here?	До кога ще останете тук?

Peter

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
we consider, plan, think	смятаме
that we stay	да останем
a few days	няколко дена / няколко дни
after that	след това
we’ll travel on	ще потеглим
to Varna	за Варна
We think we’ll stay a few days and then go on to Varna.	Смятаме да останем няколко дена и след това ще потеглим за Варна.

Boris

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
if	ако
you	Вие
very, too, a lot, much	много
tired	изморени
I’ll take you around	ще Ви разведа
through the city	из града
If you are not too tired, I’ll take you around the town.	Ако Вие не сте много изморени, ще Ви разведа из града.

Peter

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
Can we go later?	Може ли да отидем по-късно?

Boris

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
Tomorrow then.	Утре тогава.

Peter

English	Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
Of course, with pleasure.	Разбира се, с удоволствие.

Grammar Notes

Note 2.1 — Pronunciation of Consonants

Only a few consonants give real trouble to the English speaker. Many, however, are enough different to give the English learner a bad accent if English sounds are used for them.

Note 2.1.1 — Bulgarian /t d n/

Bulgarian /t/ and /d/ are made with the tip of the tongue touching the back of the upper teeth. The pressure is against the teeth, not against the gum. In English, the t in “top” and the d in “dot” are made with the tip of the tongue pressing against the ridge of the gum back of the upper teeth. Bulgarian does not have the puff of breath that English t has, so the t in “stop” (which lacks the puff) is most like Bulgarian /t/. There are fewer variants of English d, which never has a puff of breath after it, but it too is made against the gum ridge, while Bulgarian /d/ is against the teeth. Bulgarian /n/, like /t/ and /d/, is made against the teeth, not the gum ridge. This is often true even before /k/ or /g/, where English has the ng of “sing”, never the n of “now”.

Note 2.1.2 — Bulgarian /h/

Bulgarian /h/ is not the same sound as the English h. It is made in the same place that you make k. Instead of stopping the flow of air for a bit and then letting it go, as you do for k, you keep your tongue in place for k but let the air slide through. It will have a light friction sound somewhat as though you’re clearing your throat. Notice that Bulgarian /h/ is found before consonants, as in /kázahte/. English h is never found in such a position. In Bulgarian it may also come at the end of a word: /kázah/ ‘I said’. Be sure not to pronounce words like /hotél/ with English h, t or o — they are all different in Bulgarian.

Note 2.1.3 — Bulgarian /r/

Bulgarian /r/ is made with the tip of the tongue against the ridge back of the upper teeth. The tip is burred against the ridge. Acoustically /r/ sometimes sounds very much like English r. Care should be taken, however, to make it in the Bulgarian manner. Particular attention must be paid to clusters of consonants which include /r/. Bulgarian /tr/, as in /útro/, is very different from English tr as in “true”.

Note 2.1.4 — Consonant groups (clusters)

Bulgarian has many more groups of consonants at the beginnings of words than English does. Some of these are more difficult than others. For example, /dn/, as in /dnés/ ‘today’, is harder for an English speaker than /smy/, as in /smyátame/ ‘we figure’. Be sure that you do not put any ‘uh’s’ between any of these consonants beginning a word. Some examples of initial clusters: /fč/ (вчера, yesterday), /vl/ (влак, train), /mly/ (мляко, milk), /hly/ (хляб, bread), /smy/ (смятаме, we figure), /ny/ (няколко, some), /mn/ (много, much).

Note 2.1.5 — Syllable division and consonant clusters

Bulgarian not only has more consonant groups at the beginning of words, but the words are often divided a little differently than in English. If a group of consonants may begin a word in Bulgarian, that group should not be split when it is in the middle of a word. It should be pronounced as a unit, just as if it were at the beginning. There should be no pause before it, and care taken not to break up the cluster itself. Examples: go-spo-dí-ne (господине, sir!), go-spó-žo (госпожо, madam!), za-štó (защо, to it), ra-zbí-ra-te (разбирате, you understand), bla-go-da-ryá (благодаря, thank you), mó-lyə (моля, please), ká-za-hte (казахте, you said), ká-zva (казва, he says), u-do-vól-stvi-e (удоволствие, pleasure).

Note 2.1.6 — Words as units

Bulgarian, like English, is inconsistent in its writing of words. Many groups divided into two or more ‘words’, that is, with spaces in between, are actually each a word from the point of view of sound. Note the following ‘words’, written here in transcription as one: /ženámu/ (жена му, his wife), /fsófiya/ (в София, in Sofia), /fhotéla/ (в хотела, in the hotel), /davídyət/ (да видят, that they see), /vbəlgáriya/ (в България, in Bulgaria). Note that /fs/, /fh/ and /vb/ in these combinations are clusters which begin words, as in Note 2.1.4 above.

Note 2.2 — The suffixed article /-ət/, /-ta/, /-to/

The suffix /-ət/ on /hotélət/ and /vlákət/ corresponds to English ‘the’. /-ta/ and /-to/ are also suffixes for ‘the’. Which of these three suffixes is used after a noun depends on two things: 1) the vowel or consonant at the end of the noun, and 2) the gender of the noun.

Most nouns ending in a consonant are masculine gender. These include words referring to men or male beings, as well as many words which are simply arbitrarily masculine gender in Bulgarian. Examples: господин (gentleman) → господинът (the gentleman), ресторант (restaurant) → ресторантът (the restaurant), урок (lesson) → урокът (the lesson). Some nouns have a /y/ extension before the article; as many speakers use the form without /y/, both may be heard. More formal speech uses the /y/: ден (day) → денят / денът (the day), приятел (friend) → приятелят / приятелът (the friend). A number of nouns shift the stress to the article, as /dén/ → /denyát/, /grát/ → /gradát/, /čás/ → /časát/.

Most nouns ending in /-a/ are of feminine gender. These include words referring to women and female beings, as well as many others. All words ending in /-a/ take the article /-ta/ (stressed form /-tá/ or /-tó/; always spelled -та). Examples: госпожа (lady) → госпожата (the lady), госпожица (miss) → госпожицата (the miss), съпруга (wife) → съпругата (the wife), вода (water) → водата (the water), чаша (glass) → чашата (the glass), жена (woman) → жената (the woman). There are also feminine nouns ending in a consonant, which have the /-tá/ (or /-tá/) suffix, with the article always stressed: /véčer/ ‘evening’ → /večertá/ ‘the evening, in the evening’.

Most nouns ending in /-o/ or /-e/ (in the singular) are neuter and have /-to/ as the suffix for ‘the’. Some examples: месо (meat) → месото (the meat), мляко (milk) → млякото (the milk), вино (wine) → виното (the wine), кафе (coffee) → кафето (the coffee), кино (movie) → киното (the movie), удоволствие (pleasure) → удоволствието (the pleasure), утро (morning) → утрото (the morning).

If an adjective comes before the noun, the article is added to the adjective, as in /stáriya priyátel na Pétar/ ‘the old friend of Peter’s’.

The pronoun /tózi/ ‘this’ (masculine) has forms related to the article in all but the masculine: /tázi/ or /tézi/ ‘this’ (feminine), /tová/ ‘this’ (neuter) and /tézi/ ‘these’ (for all genders). (See Note 5.3 for further details and drill.)

Note 2.2.1 — Variation of /-ət/ and /-ə/

The masculine singular article /-ət/ has two forms: /-ət/ and /-ə/. In ordinary speech the two are used almost interchangeably. There is, however, a tendency to use /-ət/ at the beginning of a sentence or clause and /-ə/ elsewhere. In formal and literary style the two must be used strictly according to rule, which is that /-ət/ is used when the noun is the subject of a verb or the like (in positions equating to ‘nominative’) while /-ə/ is used when the noun is the object of a verb or of a preposition (as here: /iz gradá/, /səs vlákə/). This formal, rather artificial, distinction will be maintained here in the Cyrillic spelling, as it is the accepted literacy norm.

Note 2.2.2 — Variation of consonants before /-ət/

There is a regular alternation between voiced and voiceless consonants in certain words. The word /grát/ ‘city’ has a form /grad-/, with the alternation /t/ and /d/. The same is found in /óbet/ ~ /obed-/. /hlyáp/ and /léf/ have similar correspondences of /p/ ~ /b/ and /f/ ~ /v/. The form with the voiced consonant (/b d v/) is to be taken as the basic one. At the end of a word these change to the corresponding voiceless consonants (/p/ to /b/, /d/ to /t/, /v/ to /f/). Examples: град (city) → градът (the city), хляб (bread) → хлябът (the bread), лев (lev) → левът (the lev), обед (noon meal) → обедът (the noon meal). /d/, /b/ and /v/ only occur before vowels or like (voiced) consonants (see Note 5.1), never at the end of a sentence or before a pause or open juncture.

Note 2.3 — /a/ verbs

Bulgarian verbs have endings for three persons (first, second, third) and two numbers (singular, plural). The /-m/ of /razbíram/ is the first person singular ending, indicating ‘I’; /-me/ is first person plural ‘we’; and /-te/ is second person plural ‘you’. The last, /-te/, is used not only for plural ‘you’ but also as a polite way of addressing one person. There is a familiar second person singular ending /-š/: /razbíraš/, but this should not be used by the beginner. It is restricted to persons with whom one is very familiar, the Deity, children, and is often used among the peasantry.

Other verbs illustrate the third person endings. Singular: the third person singular forms have no ending. Plural: the third person plural forms end in /-t/ ‘they’.

The full set of endings, illustrated by /razbíram/, are:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	разбирам (I understand)	разбираме (we understand)
2nd	разбираш (you understand, fam.)	разбирате (you understand, pl. or pol.)
3rd	разбира (he/she/it understands)	разбират (they understand)

Drills

No drill exercises appear in the provided page range for this unit (pages 31–45). The drills for Unit 2 likely appear on subsequent pages.