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 isn’t as simple as adding “the” before a noun or noun phrase. In Bulgarian, we have to add the definite article to the end of the noun. There are some exceptions here, particularly with where you place it when using adjectives or demonstrative pronouns, but I will cover those in a future post.

As we add the definite article to nouns, we need to be mindful of gender. If you’re not sure what that means, check out my post on the gender of Bulgarian nouns. If you’ve not already read my posts on the definite article and masculine nouns and the definite article and feminine nouns, give them a quick read so you can see how everything fits together.

Singular neuter nouns

As with feminine nouns, we don’t need to think about whether the noun in question is the subject of the sentence or not (as we do with masculine nouns). We simply add –то to the end of the word, as below:

• вино (wine) becomes виното (the wine)
• кино (cinema) becomes киното (the cinema)
• кафе (coffee) becomes кафето (the coffee)
• пиле (chicken) becomes пилето (the chicken)
• повторение (repetition) becomes повторението (the repetition)
• училище (school) becomes училището (the school)

Plural neuter nouns

As I mentioned in my other posts on using the definite article, to use it with plural nouns it’s important to remember to form the plural first and then add the article, rather than adding the article and then trying to make it plural. To learn about how to do this, check out my post on the plural of neuter nouns in Bulgarian.

Once you have the plural form of the noun, you need to add –та. See the below examples:

• вина (wines) becomes вината (the wines)
• кина (cinemas) becomes кината (the cinemas)
• кафета (coffees) becomes кафетата (the coffees)
• пилета (chickens) becomes пилетата (the chickens)
• повторения (repetitions) becomes повторенията (the repetitions)
• училища (schools) becomes училищата (the schools)