Bulgarian verbs are the most complicated part of Bulgarian grammar, especially when compared with other Slavic languages. Bulgarian verbs are inflected for person, number and sometimes gender. They also have lexical aspect (perfective and imperfective), voice, nine tenses, three moods,These are the indicative, the imperative and the conditional. Additionally, the inferential is treated as a fourth mood by those linguists who do not include it within the evidential system (e.g. Kutsarov 2007, p. 282-286). And there are a few authors who treat da-forms as constituting a conjunctive mood, but the prevailing opinion is against this view (Kutsarov 2007, p.282, Nitsolova 2008, p. 327) four evidentials and six non-finite verbal forms. Because the subject of the verb can be inferred from the verb ending, it is often omitted. As there is no infinitive in contemporary Bulgarian, the basic form of a verb is its present simple tense first person singular form.
Conjugations There are three conjugations. The conjugation of a verb determined by the final vowel of the verb in the third person singular present simple tense. Verbs of the first conjugation end in e, of the second in и and of the third in а or я.
Aspect
As is typical of Slavic languages, Bulgarian verbs express lexical aspect (вид). The verbs are either of imperfective (глаголи от несвършен вид) or perfective (глаголи от свършен вид) aspect. The former describe actions in progress (uncompleted actions) and the latter whole completed actions (actions which have a beginning and an end). So in Bulgarian, an English verb is usually translated by two verbs (or sometimes by even three, see below). Perfective verbs can be usually formed from imperfective ones by suffixation or prefixation, but when prefixes (or very rarely suffixes) are used the resultant verb often deviates in meaning from the original. There are not any strict rules and irregularities are very common. Nevertheless many verbs can be grouped according to their stem change:
{| class="wikitable" !colspan="1"| Perfective !colspan="1"| Imperfective !colspan="1"| Perfective !colspan="1"| Imperfective !colspan="1"| Perfective !colspan="1"| Imperfective |- | предложа || предлагам || отговоря || отговарям || кажа || казвам |- | изложа || излагам || изговоря || изговарям || накажа || наказвам |- | сложа || слагам || преговоря || преговарям || предскажа || предсказвам |- | възложа || възлагам || договоря || договарям || докажа || доказвам
The verbs from one pair are of different conjugations, for example кажа is from the first conjugation and казвам from the third.
In the past imperfect and the present tense perfective verbs cannot stand alone in an independent clause, in these tenses such verbs are used only in subordinate clauses.
Secondary imperfective verbs Very often when a perfective verb is formed from an imperfective one by means of a prefix (or rarely a suffix) this verb can be made again imperfective using a suffix. The resultant verb is called secondary imperfective verb (вторичен несвършен глагол). Here are some examples of such verbs:
Initial imperfective verb Perfective verb Secondary imperfective verb Meaning мета измета измитам to sweep вадя извадя изваждам to take out лъжа излъжа излъгвам to tell a lie мажа намажа намазвам to spread, to smear уча науча научавам to learn пиша напиша написвам to write чета прочета прочитам to read мърдам мръдна мръдвам to move топя топна топвам to dip
Verbs from the first type describe uncompleted actions (for example the verb мета could be roughly translated in English as to be sweeping), verbs from the second describe whole, completed actions. Verbs from the third type are a combination between the first two. Although they are imperfective as the initial ones, they preserve the perfective meaning of the second verbs, they are only grammatically imperfective.
An explanation of the nuances between the three columns follows: Initial imperfective – мета (meta) – I'm sweeping (continuing action) Perfective – ще измета / искам да измета – () – I'll sweep up / I want to sweep up (i.e. I'm announcing that the action will be completed – the perfective form cannot exist in the present indicative as, by definition, it refers to a completed action) Secondary imperfective – измитам – (izmitam) – I'm sweeping away completely. (The verbs in this column put the emphasis on the fact that the actions are being carried out in their entirety)
Secondary imperfective verbs are used in cases where it's grammatically incorrect to use perfective verbs (there are tenses, the present tense for example, where perfective verbs cannot stand alone in an independent clause) but one wants to use their meaning, or where the action is complete but repeated over time. See below for examples.
Contrasting imperfective, perfective and secondary imperfective verbs Adverbial participle imperfective verb: Четейки книгата, срещнах непозната дума = "While I was reading the book, I came across an unknown word" (at one single moment of the action I came across an unknown word) perfective verb: no adverbial participle secondary imperfective verb: Прочитайки книгата, научих много нови неща. = "By reading the book, I learned a lot of new things" (during the whole action I learned a lot, so after I had read the book I knew a lot of new things) Present tense imperfective verb: Чета книга = "I read a book, I'm reading a book" (uncompleted action) Когато чета книга, се удремвам = "When I read a book, I become sleepy" (While I'm in the middle of the action; uncompleted action) Всеки ден чета книга = "I read a book every day" (but this does not necessarily mean that I read a whole book, just a part of it; uncompleted repetitive action) perfective verb: Когато прочета книгата, ще ти я върна = "When I finish reading the book, I will give it back to you" (when I have read the whole book; completed action) secondary imperfective verb: Всеки ден прочитам една книга = "I read a whole book every day" (I begin reading and I finish reading a book every day; completed repetitive action) Past imperfect imperfective verb: Четях книга = "I was reading a book", "I used to read a book" (but not a whole book; uncompleted action) Когато четях книгата, телефонът звънна = "When I was reading the book, the phone rang" (uncompleted action) Всеки ден четях книга = "I used to read a book every day" (but not a whole book, uncompleted repetitive action) perfective verb: Щом прочетях нова книга, започвах да се хваля всекиму = "Whenever I finished reading a new book, I started boasting about it to everyone" (completed repetitive action, notice that the verb is in a dependent clause) secondary imperfective verb: Всеки ден прочитах една книга = "I used to read a whole book every day" (I used to begin and finish reading a book every day; completed repetitive action, notice that the verb is in an independent clause) Past aorist imperfective verb: Вчера четох една книга = "Yesterday, I read a book" (but did not necessarily finish it; uncompleted action) perfective verb: Вчера прочетох една книга = "Yesterday, I finished reading a book" (I read a whole book; completed action) secondary imperfective verb: identical with the past imperfect Future tense imperfective verb: Ще чета книгата = "I will read the book" (but not necessarily the whole book), "I will be reading the book" (uncompleted action) Всеки ден ще чета книгата = "I will read the book every day" (but this does not necessarily mean that I will read the whole book, just a part of it; uncompleted repetitive action) perfective verb: Ще прочета книгата = "I will read the whole book just once" (I will begin and I will finish reading the book only one time; single completed action) secondary imperfective verb: Ще прочитам книгата всеки ден = "I will read the whole book every day" (I will begin and I will finish reading the book every day; completed repetitive action)
Tenses
Present (praesens) The present tense is used to: describe an action that is happening at the moment of speaking; talk about things that are always true; talk about habits or things that happen on a regular basis;
Imperfective and perfective verbs are conjugated in the same way.
Verbs form the present tense according to their conjugation. They take the following personal endings: Personal endings Person 1st conjugation 2nd conjugation 3rd conjugation Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural 1st -а/я -м -а/я -м -м -ме 2nd -еш -ете -иш -ите -ш -те 3rd – е -ат/ят – и -ат/ят – -т
See Bulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.
Discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation
Although verbs of the first and second conjugation in first person singular end in -а/я, and in third person plural in -ат/ят, when the stress falls on these endings, they are not pronounced а/йа and ат/йат but ъ/йъ and ът/йът instead. Discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation Correct spelling Incorrect pronunciation Correct pronunciation Incorrect spelling чет четт чет четтлет леттлет летт The incorrect pronunciation is considered to be an error.
Neologisms Newly adopted verbs, especially from English, tend to take a –ирам (–iram) ending, in which case they only have one form (the imperfective). Since this is not a native suffix (loaned from German verbal suffix -ieren), recent colloquial formations prefer the native suffixes –вам (-vam) and –на (–na) which do form an imperfective/perfective pair. Examples: стартирам (startiram – to start), инициирам (initsiiram – to initiate), нокаутирам (nokautiram – to knock out), and even страницирам (stranitsiram – to paginate, with a native stem and the German suffix); кликвам/кликна (klikvam/klikna – to click), даунлоудвам/даунлоудна (daunloudvam/daunloudna – to download), шеървам/шеърна (shearvam/shearna – to fileshare). These verbs, especially the latter group, are extremely new and have not yet made it into the dictionaries.
Past imperfect (imperfectum)
Past Imperfect (Минало несвършено време) is used to talk about a temporary situation that existed at or around a particular time in the past. It also expresses past actions that were frequent, repeated, permanent or always true. Its most common use is in story telling to provide a background to other actions which are usually expressed with verbs in the past aorist. In this use it means that the action had begun and was in progress when the other happened, we do not know whether it stopped or not.
Both imperfective and perfective verbs have past imperfect. They are conjugated in the same way.
Verbs form the past imperfect with the following endings (they are the same for all conjugations): Personal endings Past Imperfect Person Number Singular Plural First -х -хме Second -ше -хте Third -ше -ха These endings are added to the past imperfect basis. See Bulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.
Past aorist (aoristus) Past aorist (Минало свършено време) expresses an action that happened at a specific time in the past. Both imperfective and perfective verbs have such tense (there is no difference in their conjugation).
Similarly, as in past imperfect, verbs have past aorist basis to which the following personal endings are added (they are the same for all conjugations):
Personal endings Past Aorist Person Number Singular Plural First -х -хме Second – -хте Third – -ха
See Bulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.
Imperfective and perfective verbs Although imperfective and perfective verbs are conjugated in the same way in the past aorist, there is difference in their meaning. Compare the sentences:
With an imperfective verb Meaning With a perfective verb MeaningВчера четох една книгаYesterday, I read a book but I did not finish itВчера прочетох една книгаYesterday, I finished reading a book/I read a whole book.
Past imperfect or past aorist Usually the difference between the two tenses is very clear: