Introduction to Twin Verbs

The easiest way to learn Bulgarian or any language is to use it to practise what you can really imagine yourself saying or needing to say. That way you will remember a patterned sentence that makes sense to you, one you can adapt to suit your needs.

With my Teach Yourself Bulgarian text book, I found it easier to skip through to find out the things I really wanted to say at the time when I needed them, rather than wait till I had diligently learned everything page by page.

Early on in my Bulgarian experience, I needed to say:
“I want to pay the bill”

I knew “I want” was искам (eeskam) but how would I say, “to pay” if there was no such thing as an infinitive in Bulgarian? Under the word “pay” my dictionary listed two verbs: плащам (plashtam) and (да) платя (da platya). This was my first introduction to twin verbs, two verbs meaning the same but used in different ways when constructing sentences.

Плащам is a third conjugation verb like искам and means “I pay” or “I am paying” so Плащам сметка (smetka) means “I am paying a bill.”

I need the second of the two verbs, the one introduced by да, if I want to add a second verb in the sentence. So, “I want to pay the bill” becomes искам да платя сметката. (whoops, now I need to show you how to say “the.”)

Платя is a second conjugation и-pattern verb. Both verbs in the sentence need to change to reflect who is doing the wanting and who is doing the paying.

In искам да платя сметката, both verbs are in the I form. But if I change this to искам да платиш сметката then I want you to pay the bill as I have used the you (singular) ending on the verb to pay.

иска да платим сметката means He or she wants us to pay the bill.

Try changing the verbs around for yourself and see how many different meanings you can make. To help, I have listed the two conjugations with the different verb endings for each person below.

Main verb+ да + Second verb


3rd (a-pattern)
искам I want
искаш you want
иска he wants
искамe we want
искатe you want
искат they want


2nd (и-pattern)

платя I pay
платиш you pay
плати he pays
платим we pay
платитe you pay
платят they pay

Post any corrections, questions or some of your sentences in the comments below.
Have fun. До скоро. (daw skawraw) See you soon.