Visit Bulgaria

Bulgarian course

2011-07-13T02:55:00.000-07:00

Bulgarian Course

This course is a real find and helpful for all stages from beginners to advanced.

It costs nothing but the effort to download the textbook for each section and then the sound files for each lesson.

Starting from the beginning, I am absolutely delighted that it works in a functionally useful pattern. I am learning past tense structures from the start and the sound files stop me from stressing about getting the pronunciation wrong.

I'll be blogging as I learn but expect it will still be erratically as I am swamped with work and grateful for it LOL

This Bulgarian course was developed by the U.S. government for use of diplomats abroad.

If it is too difficult to access and download the materials, several sellers are offering it on ebay on disc so you must expect to pay a bit for their time and effort in downloading it for you.

But remember it costs nothing so don't pay anyone far too much for it, though I think it is worth a lot compared to some courses I have seen.

Back in a month when I hope to have completed much of Level One.

Introduction to Twin Verbs

2010-08-03T05:59:00.000-07:00

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.

Learn Bulgarian-- Verb Twins

2010-08-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

Without verbs, it is impossible to speak a language fluently or even comprehensibly. The problem with Bulgarian verbs is that you have two verbs for the price of one--and they're rarely identical twins in form or usage.

If you find grammar a real turn off, don't read this paragraph. Your dictionary may only show you one of the twins--the imperfective one.

This is the one you use mostly when talking in the present tense. When you talk about now, you are usually referring to an action which is not yet complete or finished.'I live in Sofia.' I live there now, I am living there--the action is still continuing.

The second problem is that there is no infinitive, no word to give you the name of the verb as such. When you look up a verb in a Bulgarian dictionary, you find the "I" form of one of the twin verbs. Look up the verb 'live' and you find: живея, which translates as I live, I am living.
Look up the verb 'eat' and you find ям, which translates as I eat, I am eating.

In learning Bulgarian, most students tackle what is known as the third conjugation first. It is the most common conjugation with over 3000 verbs. However the 'twin' verb can be a completely different conjugation so it is necessary to learn the endings for all the conjugations together.

Have a look at these:

Let's choose one of these pairs to see how the verbs are used. Here both verbs of the pair belong to the same conjugation or verb pattern.

продавам / продам

Both mean sell. The first is used when the action is not completed or finished. The second is complete--perfective.

So: продавам яйца днес. I am selling eggs today. (action not finished)
искам да продам яйца. I want to sell eggs. This time the wanting is the ongoing action. To sell--and you must use да in front of the verb--needs the second or perfective form of the twin.

Normally a student learns verbs in a new language by putting them into patterned sets or conjugations. All verbs with a certain ending will (mostly) work in the same way.

But the more common the verb, the less likely it is to follow a set pattern. The more it is used, the more corrupted it becomes.

So the verb 'to be' is never an easy one to guess.

Verbs are very difficult to master and twin verbs are very difficult indeed. Any questions, grammatical comments on and corrections of this article will be gratefully received.

Better late than never

2008-02-14T03:17:00.000-08:00

Bit of a sloth with the language learning last year. Can't remember anything I learned new --probably easier to log everything I forgot.

So a year late and two months late on the 2008 resolution, ready to start again.

Aiming to go back to VT beginning of May so I have ten weeks at least in which to log progress.

Nouns --the names of things -- are OK. I can look them up in my dictionary and point to them if my pronunciation proves impossible.

First task is prepositions --those little words that go in front of a noun to joining it to the rest of the sentence --all those to, for, from, by type words that I consistently mix up.

They oil the communication wheels by extending meaning.

This will be an ongoing post, added to whenever I find useful examples.

Learn Bulgarian in a month

2007-05-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

To learn to speak Bulgarian perfectly in one month is a tall order. To learn to understand when people talk to you is an even more improbable task.

However, I'm back on track and will be posting daily (if possible) with my learning tasks. Promises, promises. It will be difficult to achieve, I know, as my workload this month is high --an emergency travel guide to finish, newspaper articles to write and a busy teaching schedule. But I love deadlines --if you do too, keep on track with my monthly goal. If not, learn more securely by tackling one topic per week or per month.

For a start, practise your Bulgarian alphabet understanding by reading the cyrillic captions on the Bulgaria vs Europe cartoon. Click on the last video link at the bottom of the page and the video will load and play at the top of the page -- took me a while to master that one :-)

The dustbin scenes are great and ironic over here in UK where rows over poor dustbin collections (once a fortnight) have caused many upsets in this week's local council elections. (hooray).

The other video links (l to r) show the setting up of the SAP labs in Sofia (English commentary), Bulgaria's Eurovision entry for 2007 and a video of Bulgaria produced by the Bulgarian Tourist Board in English spoken by what sounds like a Dutch presenter.

Enjoy.

Bulgarian Alphabet

2006-06-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

The Bulgarian alphabet is featured in some excellent websites which summarise the history of the Cyrillic alphabet, give approximate equivalent sounds for the consonants and vowels in English and in some cases provide excellent sound clips.

Useful websites
Easy Bulgarian

Click on free pages or demo. Click on Bulgarian Alphabet. Follow page numbers at top then at bottom right The alphabet is divided into consonants and vowels. Good, easy to access soundclips.

Comprehensive free Bulgarian learning site

The sound clips are not yet in place. Scroll down to find the actual alphabet section if you do not wish to read the whole article. Clear and well-organised. Good if you do not mind waiting for the sound to be added. Letters in alphabetical order and useful pronunciation guide.

Bulgarian Wonderland site .
In English and Bulgarian. Click the language flag to enter site

Visual illustrations of capital letters. Interesting and an impressive site about Bulgaria

All Bulgaria Virtual Guide

Interesting article on language, the alphabet and a most useful pronunciation guide. After this are more language notes which I found practical and useful. Eighty one per cent of people who read this article voted for it as very useful. See what you think.

Learn Bulgarian

I love this site. It is colourful, lively and really geared to beginning to learn the language. There are 15 free lessons listed which you can download so if you are already confident with reading the alphabet, this is a good way of helping yourself move on.

Your comments on your learning experiences using any or all of these sites would be really welcome. Have fun.

And at the weekend, there will be another lesson.

Goals : First month

2006-06-21T06:19:00.000-07:00

I like making lists and having the satisfaction of crossing off items achieved.
So here goes.
1. Revise alphabet. List useful weblinks.
2. Directions. Ask where places and things are
3. Numbers and time. Ask for times of buses, cost of taxis
4. Say what I need and what I would like to do
5. Understand and order from a menu
6. Using verbs to link things I say into sentences which make sense.
This is a very comprehensive list for only one month.
However for me it is revision of prior learning.
If you are just starting to learn the language, learning the alphabet well will speed later learning and help you avoid pronunciation difficulties.
The good thing is that when you learn a sound, it will never change. A relief from English where letter combinations can make different sounds --cough, rough, although and bough for example.

Bulgaria -New Beginnings

2006-06-21T06:03:00.000-07:00

An apt title as this marks the sad decease of my last lamented blog, hijacked by a sales spammer but it also gives me the chance to make a new start, untrammeled by past posts.
I'm sorry to have lost Annie in Bulgaria just as it was beginning to climb the google charts but in some aspects it had lost its way.
This is a record of my visits to Bulgaria but primarily a record of learning the language and finding out everything about the place and its culture. Bulgaria is for me a visit to the living past but also a visit to a country bursting with optimism and enthusiasm not only for its proud past but for an exciting future.
For my benefit and the benefit of anyone interested in learning the language, I shall set out my language goals for the next month.
Please comment if you wish to add new goals for yourself or have other language topics you wish to see listed.