Practice 99 Verbs! – Extra Notes
Verbs
In Bulgarian, an action can be described from two different aspects, as an ongoing or repetitive action (described by an imperfective /“unfinished” verb) or as an accomplished completed one time action (described by a perfective / “finished” verb). It is because of these two aspects, people may associate verbs to come in pairs however this is not a pair as such, only that there is mostly always two (or more) verbs to describe an action.
In general imperfective verbs imply unfinished actions (you may also consider them as continuous general actions, without specifics in completion, just in the sense of doing something in general or right now at the moment of speaking).
In general perfective verbs are used to imply completed single actions, or actions given a start and end point. I will refer to imperfective verbs as ‘impf’ and perfective as ‘perf’ for simplicity on occasion.
An example being:
Borrow: заемам (impf), заема (perf)
I don’t like to borrow money. (A general statement, about not liking to borrow money). Не обичам да заемам пари.
Can I borrow that book? (A specific request, meaning now, a specific book). Може ли да заема тази книга?
Verbs are considered to fall into one of two groups absolute or relative aspect pairs.
My Observation
I have made an observation about how to identify whether a verb pair is as absolute or relative. I will share this observation, but please note it is just this, an observation. It is not a rule taught by teachers of the language, nor is it something that fits every pair.
For most of the relative groupings (impf./perf.), the perfective verb will contain the imperfective verb in its entirety, it will make it its own version of completed word. Think of them as relative buddies, the perfective verb has copied the imperfective verbs homework, but adds its own spin on it so it looks somewhat unique. They are closely related (copied homework) but add their own spin (sometimes a prefix, suffix, additional letters) on a verb i.e look/ watch: гледам, изгледам and cut: режа, отрежа.
For absolute this is not the same. You will not find the imperfective verb in the perfective verb in its entirety, it only keeps the stem (beginning) of the word i.e. Go: отивам, отида. There are however cases where an absolute verb group will not have the same stem an example being come: идвам, дойда.
Also, an example of where my observation does not fit, is for the word love, обичам, обикна. Using my observation this verb pair may be thought of as absolute, however this is not the case as it is indeed a relative paring.
Lexical Meaning
For absolute groupings each of the two words lexical meaning (what they mean on their own) mean the same thing, from different aspects (of the finished or unfinished action). However relative groupings lexical meaning (if you took either word in its own right so to speak) will have slightly different adaptations of meaning in Bulgarian, concerning the verb in question. This difference can not always be exactly translated or expressed in English. An example being:
Relative – slightly different lexical meaning
Горя (impf.) = burning
изгоря (perf.) = Burn out/ burn away
Absolute – same lexical meaning
Изгарям (impf.) = Burn out/ burn up/ burn down
изгоря (perf.) = burning down, burning up, burning out
Изгарям (perf.) = burning down, burning up, burning out
There are occasions when practically there is more than one paired perfective verb to match an imperfective one. An example being:
Wait
Imperfective: чакам
Perfective: почакам (wait a little) / изчакам (wait as long as needed)
For the purpose of the app, we have used examples that are either more colloquially used or that best fit the example sentences given. Just bare in mind, you may hear additional words for verbs covered in this app as you listen to, and read, Bulgarian. The aim of this app is to help users practice the most commonly used verbs, it’s not a comprehensive learning tool to discuss each verb in great deal. It is to help practice verb conjugation into the correct verb group becoming familiar with the verb ending patterns.
Verb Conjugations:
Each verb falls into one of three verb groups:
Group 1) е
Group 2) и
Group 3) а / я
The two verbs that make up a verb-grouping (impf./pef.) may or may not belong to the same verb group (groups 1, 2 or 3). By practicing & expanding your knowledge of how verbs are conjugated (which group they fall into) you will get a feel for which verb conjugation sounds the most right for a given verb.
If you know of the verb already in its conjugated state to represent the 3rd person singular ‘he/she/it’, then you will know by looking at this which verb group the verb belongs to. This is because the verb will end in the group letter of either е, и or а / я. For example, реже (group 1-е), носи (group 2-и), става (group 3-а), променя (group 3-я).
From this 3rd person singular conjugation we know what the other conjugation will be excluding for the 1st person singular. The verb in its 1st person singular state will be more tricky to work out for groups 1 and 2, although you may find you are actually familiar with it already as you can correctly guess it from the verbs you know.
If a/я is present in the 1st person singular (see above table) then the a/я is brought back for the 3rd person plural, this is present in verb group 1 and 2, for example нося → носят. The a/я in verb group 3 remains, it is never omitted in the conjugation.
With the use of verb conjugation, because the verb now reflects who is doing the verb (I, you, he/she/it, we, them) Bulgarians often omit the personal pronoun because this is clear from the conjugated verb. You can still hear people using the personal pronoun, this may be for emphasis reasons.
Alternative Grouping Of Imperfective & Perfective Verbs:
This app is designed to give you the verb groupings (impf./ perf.) as used in daily life. Sometimes the verb groupings used colloquially differs from the verb pair taught in textbooks, as listed in dictionaries or online resources. The reason Bulgarians choose to use a word that differs from the textbook pair may be because it is replaced with a word that is easier to say, or has a more fitting meaning in general use.
The Summary Screen will show a note of the alternative pair where applicable.
The only exclusion to this alternative grouping note will the for the prefixes из and пo. Some perfective verbs will add the prefix из___, пo___. For example:
impf:
чакам – wait
perf:
почакам – wait a little bit then leave
OR
изчакам – wait a little bit BUT as much as needed then go
We have chosen to omit these examples from the Summary Screen alternative examples for simplicity.
Only Imperfective:
There are exceptions to the grouping (of an imperfective & perfective verb). Some verbs have only a imperfective version, for example:
Appear (seems / looks): изглеждам
Expect: oчаквам
Follow / pursue one’s study – следвам
Have – имам
Scared (to be) – страхувам се
This is because usage of these verbs can not be fitted into a time-constraint or a complete/incomplete state. The verb is just ‘active’ so to speak, for example you have something or you expect something. Grammatically you can write it, but practically it doesn’t make sense.
Verbs where there is no perfective pairing will be marked ‘n/a’ meaning ‘not applicable’ on the verb Summary Screen and as such you will not be able to click into the Overview Screen, as none exists.
Going into greater details why this is the case for each verb, is beyond the scope of this app.
Only Perfective:
There are exceptions to the grouping (of an imperfective & perfective verb). Some verbs have only an perfective version, for example:
Go after: последвам -> She wants to follow him. Тя иска да го последва.
Having only a perfective version of the verb is much rarer than the scenario of having only an imperfective. This is why there is no such examples used in the app, excluding the above example written here.
Use Оf Cе:
Some verbs are reflexive. Reflexive verbs mean the person doing the verb is being affected by the verb/action. The particle се remains unchanged, it is not changed depending on who the subject is. For example:
Аз се казвам…
Ти се казваш…
Той се казва…
Тя се казва…
То се казва…
Вие се казват…
Where ce is positioned follows certain rules, so this is why you will see it position both before the verb and after. You cannot for example start a sentence with ce. For example:
Аз се казвам Мария.
Казвам се Мария.
As you can see from the above, if the sentence is started with the verb then ce will follow after the verb. In all other cases ce will precede the verb.
The audio/text in this app shows се coming after the verb, however please bare in mind the position can change depending on the sentence structure.
Agree (with), Consent (to) → съгласявам се / съгласиш се
Appear (entity, object) → появявам се / появиш се
Verb With Or Without Ce:
Some verbs must be used with ce. That is to say although the verb itself has its singular word shown in text without ce, it simply is not used without ce in practice. For these examples we have included ce with the audio/text content of this app (example A) below).
For other verbs where the use of ce can be used with the verb BUT it’s use may be omitted, depending on the context/ meaning, you will see the text ‘can be used with ce‘ appear (example B) below). To use ce means the verb meaning can change (example D below).
Finally, some verbs you will never hear being used with ce (example C ) below).
Categories of usage with ce example:
A) Must be used with ce
Happen: случва се | случи се
B) Can be used with ce
Understand: разбирам | разбера
C) Never used with ce
Drink: пия | изпия
D) Change of meaning using ce:
I am beginning to understand: Започвам да разбирам.
I don’t get along with her. Аз не се разбирам с нея.
Going into more detail on the use of reflexive verbs and the use of particle се is beyond the scope of this app.
Use Оf Reflexive Verbs With Cи:
The particle ce represents that the subject performs the action (verb in use) on himself/herself. When the verb is used with an object causing us to express possession of this object, we do so with the use of си.
It is reflexive like ce as the subject is being affected by the verb, but the object belongs to the subject, examples being:
She is writing her homework. тя си пише домашното.
Move an object or oneself:
Премествам ce в нова къща. I am moving to a new house.
Премествам си колата. I am moving my car.
You may hear си in other parts of speech not related to being used with verb(s) for example “ти си” meaning you are, ‘себе си’ meaning myself.
Not Covered In This App:
This app does not discuss changes to verbs by other elements such as (but not limited to) mood, tense, person doing the talking/ whom we are talking to, tone of voice, transitive or intransitive verbs, etc. The goal of the app is to practice the basic form of 99 verbs as used in everyday life, focusing on the verb conjugation for perfective and imperfective simple usage.
It’s a fun, easy to use app, simple aid to help with other means of learning and as such is not meant to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ tool where you can learn the Bulgarian language.
Screen Names As Mentioned Above
Summary Screen
Overview Screen
