Grammar

Bulgarian word order is flexible thanks to subject–verb agreement. The neutral pattern is S + V + O + A (Subject, Verb, Object, Adjunct), but other orders such as A + S + V + O, O + S + V + A or S + V + A + O are also possible. You can change the order to emphasise different parts of the sentence without changing the basic meaning.

Bulgarian nouns have three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant (мъж – man, син – son). Feminine nouns often end in –а/–я (жена – woman, ябълка – apple). Neuter nouns typically end in –е/–о (море – sea, месо – meat). There are exceptions: some masculine nouns end in –а/–я (баща – father), some feminine nouns end in a consonant (любов – love), and some neuter nouns end in –и or –ю (такси – taxi).

Bulgarian nouns are either singular or plural. Masculine nouns form plurals with endings like –и, –е or –ове (стол – столове ‘chair – chairs’). Feminine nouns replace –а/–я with –и (жена – жени ‘woman – women’). Neuter nouns take –а or –ета (море – морета ‘sea – seas’). A historical dual number for pairs of inanimate masculine nouns survives with the ending –а (два стола – two chairs).

The Bulgarian definite article attaches to the end of the noun. Masculine nouns take –ът/–ят (студент – студентът ’the student’, кон – конят ’the horse’). Feminine nouns take –та (вода – водата ’the water’, чиния – чинията ’the plate’). Neuter nouns take –то (село – селото ’the village’, море – морето ’the sea’). For plural nouns the article is –те for masculine and feminine plurals and –та for neuter plurals.

Bulgarian cases exist mainly in personal pronouns. There are three cases: nominative (аз, ти, той, тя, то, ние, вие, те), accusative (ме, те, го, я, го, ни, ви, ги) and dative (ми, ти, му, й, му, ни, ви, им). Use the nominative for subjects, the accusative for direct objects and the dative for indirect objects.

Bulgarian verbs conjugate for person and number. The present tense expresses ongoing actions (Аз уча български – I study Bulgarian). Future tense uses the particle ще and the present tense of the verb (Аз ще уча български – I will study Bulgarian).

For A2 learners it’s useful to distinguish between the past aorist and the past imperfect. The past aorist describes completed actions (Аз учих български – I studied Bulgarian), while the past imperfect describes continuous or habitual past actions (Аз учех български – I was studying Bulgarian).

At level A2 you’ll encounter quantifiers and numbers more frequently. The words много (many/much), малко (few/little), всички (all), няколко (several) and никой (none) help quantify nouns. Bulgarian numbers one through ten are: едно, две, три, четири, пет, шест, седем, осем, девет, десет.

Talking about time requires vocabulary for days and parts of the day. The days of the week are понеделник, вторник, сряда, четвъртък, петък, събота and неделя. Parts of the day include сутрин (morning), обед (noon), следобед (afternoon), вечер (evening) and нощ (night).

Food and shopping conversations are frequent at A2. Learn common nouns for food (хляб – bread, мляко – milk, сирене – cheese) and verbs for shopping (купувам – to buy, продавам – to sell, пазарувам – to shop). Understanding basic currency words like лев (the Bulgarian currency) and евро (euro) is also helpful.

At A2 you may need to ask for directions or discuss travel. Key nouns include автобус (bus), влак (train), самолет (airplane), такси (taxi), гара (train station) and летище (airport). The noun билет means ’ticket’, and карта means ‘map’.