The Bulgarianist

  • Conjugating regular -е verbs in the present tense

    There are three groups of verbs in Bulgarian, and each group has a different way to conjugate the regular verbs within it. This post focuses on the first group of verbs, those ending in -е in the third person. To conjugate an -е verb in the present tense, you first take the third person singular…

  • The gender of adjectives in Bulgarian

    As I mentioned in an earlier post, Bulgarian is a gendered language, which means that when we use adjectives, we need to make sure they match the gender of the noun they qualify. If you don’t know the difference between a masculine, feminine, or neuter noun, check out my post on the gender of Bulgarian…

  • The definite article and neuter nouns in Bulgarian

    A definite article is a word that makes a noun more specific. In English, the definite article is “the”, as opposed to the indefinite article, “a” or “an”. If we’re referring to a particular object, we use the definite article, for example: “the book I read last week.” Bulgarian also uses definite articles, but it…

  • The definite article and feminine nouns in Bulgarian

    In English, we have only one definite article (the). We use it to refer to specific objects or concepts, such as “the book I am reading.” In Bulgarian, the definite article changes according to the gender of the noun in question (check out my post on the gender of Bulgarian nouns). It also changes depending…

  • The definite article and masculine nouns in Bulgarian

    In English, we have two articles: indefinite (a, an) and definite (the). They appear before the noun they refer to, but they can be separated by adjectives, e.g. “the black book”. Bulgarian doesn’t have an indefinite article, or rather the indefinite article is implied by the lack of the definite article. Unlike in English, the…

  • Personal subject pronouns in Bulgarian

    A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun or a noun phrase. For example: Desi went to Plovdiv. She called me on arrival. There are two pronouns in the second sentence: she and me. “She” is the subject as it represents the person or thing doing the action. “Me” represents the object, or the…