Bulgarian verbs


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, voice, nine tenses, three moods, 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 the contemporary Bulgarian language 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

Bulgarian verbs express lexical aspect. The verbs are either of imperfective or perfective aspect. The former describe actions in progress and the latter whole completed actions. So in Bulgarian, an English verb is usually translated by two verbs. Perfective verbs can be usually formed from imperfective ones by suffixation or prefixation, but when prefixes 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:
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 this verb can be made again imperfective using a suffix. The resultant verb is called secondary imperfective verb. Here are some examples of such verbs:
Initial imperfective verbPerfective verbSecondary imperfective verbMeaning
метаизметаизмитамto sweep
вадяизвадяизваждамto take out
лъжаизлъжаизлъгвамto tell a lie
мажанамажанамазвамto spread, to smear
учанаучанаучавамto learn
пишанапишанаписвамto write
четапрочетапрочитамto read
мърдаммръднамръдвамto move
топятопнатопвамto dip

Verbs from the first type describe uncompleted actions, 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:
Secondary imperfective verbs are used in cases where it's grammatically incorrect to use perfective verbs 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
;Present tense
;Past imperfect
;Past aorist
;Future tense

[|Present tense] (praesens)

The present tense is used to:
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:
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.
The incorrect pronunciation is considered to be an error.

Neologisms

Newly adopted verbs, especially from English, tend to take a –ирам ending, in which case they only have one form. Since this is not a native suffix, recent colloquial formations prefer the native suffixes –вам and –на which do form an imperfective/perfective pair. Examples:
These verbs, especially the latter group, are extremely new and have not yet made it into the dictionaries.

[|Past imperfect] (imperfectum)

Past Imperfect 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 :
These endings are added to the past imperfect basis. See Bulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.

[|Past aorist] (aoristus)

Past aorist expresses an action that happened at a specific time in the past. Both imperfective and perfective verbs have such tense.
Similarly, as in past imperfect, verbs have past aorist basis to which the following personal endings are added :
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 verbMeaningWith a perfective verbMeaning
Вчера 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:
But imperfective verbs both in past imperfect and past aorist can express actions that have long duration and therefore both tenses can be used to say that one action happened at the same time as another. One should always keep in mind that past aorist means that the action began and stopped, and past imperfect that the action was in progress. Compare the sentences :
SentenceMeaning
Докато децата играеха навън, едно от тях си счупи крака.While the kids were playing outside one of them broke his/her leg.
Децата си прекараха чудесно, докато играха навън.The kids had a great time playing outside. Literal translation: The kids had a great time while they played outside.
Децата играха навън, докато не заваля.The kids played outside until it started raining.
Децата играеха навън. Изведнъж заваля, но продължиха да играят.The kids were playing outside. Suddenly, it started raining but they continued to play.

Present perfect (perfectum)

expresses an action which happened in the past, but the precise moment when it happened is not specified. It is either not known or not important. What is important is the result of the action. The tense has a lot in common with the English [|present perfect].
Present perfect is made up of the verb съм, conjugated in present tense, and the [|past active aorist participle] of the main verb. Not only person and number, but also gender must be taken into account in the process of conjugating. In other words, the corresponding indefinite forms of the participle are used according to the gender and number of the subject. For the position of the verb съм see word order.
Example :
In contrast with English, in Bulgarian the present perfect can be used even if the moment when the action happened is specified. In such cases the importance of the action or its result is emphasized:
expresses an action that happened before another past action. It is made up of the past tense of съм and the past active aorist participle of the main verb. Again as in present perfect the participle agrees in number and gender with the subject. For the position of the verb съм see word order.
Example :
Rarely the past perfect can be used for actions that happened at an indefinite time in the past but very long ago, especially in sentences containing the phrase "someone sometimes said":
The future tense is formed with the particle ще and the present simple tense. In contrast with the other tenses negation is not expressed with the particle не, but with the construction няма да + the present tense. Forms with не are also possible but they are found mainly in the poetry.
Example :
The verb съм forms the future in two ways. The first one with its present tense, and the second one with its special future form - бъда. The latter is more common:

Future perfect (futurum secundum exactum)

expresses an action which is to take place in the future before another future action. It is made up of the future tense of the verb съм and the past active aorist participle of the main verb which agrees in number and gender with the subject.
Example :

Past future tense

Past future tense or future in the past expresses an action which was to be completed in the past but was future as regards another past action. It is made up of the past imperfect of the verb ща "will, want", the particle да "to" and the present tense of the main verb. Negation is expressed with the construction нямаше да + the present tense, although forms with не are also possible but found mainly in the poetry.
Example :
The verb съм forms the future in the past in two ways. The first one with its present tense, and the second one with бъда. The latter is more common.

Past future perfect

Past future perfect or future perfect in the past expresses a past action which is future with respect to a past action which itself is prior to another past action. It is made up of the past imperfect of ща "will, want", the particle да "to", the present tense of the verb съм "be" and the past active aorist participle of the main verb, which agrees in number and gender with the subject.
Example :

Voice

The voice in Bulgarian adjectives is presented not through the auxiliary verb, as it is in English, but rather by the ending on the past participle; the auxiliary remains съм :
Modal distinctions in subordinate clauses are expressed not through verb endings, but through the choice of complementizer - че or да . The verbs remain unchanged. Thus:
The imperative has its own conjugation - usually by adding -и or -ай to the root of the verb:
The so-called conditional refers to a possible action, which is usually intentional and under the control of a subject. It is formed by a special form of the auxiliary 'съм', and the aorist active participle of the main verb:

Evidentials

Bulgarian verbs are inflected not only for aspect, tense and modality, but also for evidentiality, that is, the source of the information conveyed by them. There is a four-way distinction between the unmarked forms, which imply that the speaker was a witness of the event or knows it as a general fact; the inferential, which signals general non-witness information or one based on inference; the renarrative, which indicates that the information was reported to the speaker by someone else; and the dubitative, which is used for reported information if the speaker doubts its veracity. This can be illustrated with the four possible ways of rendering in Bulgarian the English sentence 'The dog ate the fish' :
Indicative:
Inferential:
Renarrative:
Dubitative:
On a theoretical level, there are alternatives to treating those forms as the four members of a single evidential category. Kutsarov, for example, posits a separate category, which he terms 'type of utterance', proper to which is only the distinction between forms expressing speaker's own statements, and forms that retell statements of another. The inferential is then viewed as one of the moods, and the dubitative - as a renarrative inferential, whose dubitative meaning, albeit more frequent, is only secondary. Another view is presented by Gerdzhikov – in his treatment there are two distinctive features involved - subjectivity and renarrativity. The indicative is unmarked for both, while the inferential is marked for subjectivity, the renarrative for renarrativity, and the dubitative for both subjectivity and renarrativity.

Forms

An evidential for a given tense is formed by taking the past active participle of the verb of the corresponding indicative tense, and adding a form of the auxiliary verb съм. For the inferential and the renarrative it is its present tense form, which, however, is omitted in the 3rd person of the renarrative; hence inferential and renarrative forms are generally not distinguished in the 1st and 2nd person. The dubitative is formed from the renarrative by adding the past active participle of the verb съм. An example paradigm is given in the following table. Given for reference are some tenses of the indicative. Whenever there are participles involved, they are given in their masculine form, but they have different forms for the three genders in the singular.
Additionally, there are also a few rare forms for some of the future tenses. In some cases, there are less common forms in which the auxiliary ще remains impersonal instead of being inflected for person and number; thus for the inferential and renarrative future/future in the past rare forms of the type ще съм четя̀л are possible alongside the more common forms of the type щя̀л съм да чета̀, for the inferential future perfect in the past - ще съм бѝл чѐл alongside the usual щя̀л съм да съм чѐл, and for the dubitative future/ future in the past - rare forms of the type ще съм бѝл четя̀л in addition to the more common forms of the type щя̀л съм бѝл да чета̀. Also, the negative form of the dubitative future perfect/future perfect in the past can be either ня̀мало било̀ да съм чѐл, or ня̀мало съм бил да съм чѐл.

Participles

Past active aorist participle

Past active aorist participle is used to form the present perfect, in the renarrative and conditional mood and as an adjective. It is formed by adding -л to the past aorist basis, but additional alterations of the basis are also possible. The indefinite feminine, neuter and plural forms take respectively the endings -а, -о and -и after the masculine form. The definite forms are formed from the indefinite by adding the definite articles -ят/я for masculine participles, та for feminine participles, то for neuter participles and те for plural participles
See Bulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.