Learn how to tell time in Bulgarian
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Intro |
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| Michael: How do you ask for the time in Bulgarian? |
| Yana: And how do you tell the time? |
| Michael: At BulgarianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: during a school break, Sasha Lee asks her classmate, Sofiya Stefanova, about the time. They don't want to be late for their next class. Sasha asks, |
| "What time is it?" |
| Sasha Lee: Колко е часът? (Kolko e chasat?) |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: Колко е часът? (Kolko e chasat?) |
| Sofiya Stefanova: Часът е три и петнайсет. (Chasat e tri i petnayset.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: Колко е часът? (Kolko e chasat?) |
| Michael: "What time is it?" |
| Sofiya Stefanova: Часът е три и петнайсет. (Chasat e tri i petnayset.) |
| Michael: "It's a quarter past three." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Asking the time is one of the most fundamental things to learn in Bulgarian. In this lesson, you will learn how to ask for the time and answer questions about it. Before you can ask for the time, though, you need to know the Bulgarian numbers. In addition, you should also learn the basic vocabulary related to time—such as hours, minutes, and seconds. In this lesson, we will cover all of those words and you can get some practice saying them! |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's start with a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Sasha asks "What time is it?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Yana as Sasha Lee: Колко е часът? (Kolko e chasat?) |
| Michael: There is only one way to ask the time in Bulgarian, which makes it easy to remember! Start with the word meaning "how much" |
| Yana: колко (kolko), |
| Michael: then say the verb "is" |
| Yana: е (e) |
| Michael: followed by the word meaning "the hour" |
| Yana: часът (chasat) |
| Michael: This word is constructed from the words "hour" |
| Yana: Час (chas) |
| Michael: and the article "the" |
| Yana: ът (at) |
| Michael: In other words, you are literally asking "How much is the hour?" Let's hear it again. |
| Yana: Колко е часът? |
| Michael: Next, let's learn how to answer. To give the time to the exact hour in Bulgarian, simply learn this formula. First, say the word meaning "the hour" |
| Yana: Часът (chasat) |
| Michael: followed by the verb "is" |
| Yana: e (e) |
| Michael: and then add the time. So, if the time is eleven o'clock, it will sound like this |
| Yana: Часът е единайсет. (Chasat e edinayset.) |
| Michael: Literally, "The hour is eleven." Simple, right? Let's practice with some other answers. If the time is five o'clock, you say |
| Yana: Часът е пет. (Chasat e pet.) |
| Michael: "It's five o'clock." And if it's one o'clock, you say |
| Yana: Часът е един. (Chasat e edin.) |
| Michael: Note: unlike the rest of the numbers, which are natural numbers such as "eleven," or "five" |
| Yana: единайсет (edinayset) or пет (pet) |
| Michael: for the numbers one and two you need to use a different form. When stating the hour, instead of using their natural number form |
| Yana: едно (edno) or две (dve) |
| Michael: you should decline them as adjectives, so "one o'clock" is |
| Yana: един часá (edin chasá) |
| Michael: and "two o'clock" is |
| Yana: два часá (dva chasá). |
| Michael: That's good! Now, what if the time is half past the hour? In Bulgarian, the word for "half" is |
| Yana: половина (polovina) |
| Michael: And to say half past the hour, we start with the same construction as before, followed by the words "and half," For example, "It's half past nine" will be |
| Yana: Часът е девет и половина. (Chasat e devet i polovina.) |
| Michael: Literally, this means: "The hour is nine and a half." Let's practice another one. If the time is half past two, you say |
| Yana: Часът е два и половина. (Chasat e dva i polovina.) |
| Michael: Literally: "The hour is two and a half." The time in Bulgarian is, fortunately, quite straightforward! |
| Next, let's see how to say quarter past the hour. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Do you remember the second sentence in the dialogue? Do you remember how Sofiya says |
| "It's a quarter past three."? |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Yana as Sofiya Stefanova: Часът е три и петнайсет. (Chasat e tri i petnayset.) |
| Michael: In Bulgarian, we don't use the word "quarter" to say "quarter past," Instead, we say "and fifteen" |
| Yana: и петнайсет (i petnayset) |
| Michael: So, once again, we start with |
| Yana: Часът е (Chasat e) |
| Michael: followed by the hour. Finally, we say "and fifteen," Let's hear once again how to say "It's a quarter past three." |
| Yana: Часът е три и петнайсет. (Chasat e tri i petnayset.) |
| Michael: Literally, "The hour is three and fifteen." Let's try one more! See if you know what the following time is |
| Yana: Часът е два и петнайсет. (Chasat e dva i petnayset.) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: Did you get it right? This means "It's quarter past two." In Bulgarian, you can use the same formula for any time past the hour. So, "It's five past nine" is |
| Yana: Часът е девет и пет. (Chasat e devet i pet.) |
| Michael: Now, let's learn how to say the time to the hour. Quarter to the hour is exactly the same as quarter past, except for one word, and that is "minus," |
| Yana: без (bez) |
| Michael: which replaces the word meaning "and," |
| Yana: и (i) |
| Michael: After all, it's like subtracting fifteen minutes instead of adding them. I'm sure you can guess where this is going! To say it is a quarter to the hour, we say "the hour minus fifteen." Therefore, "It's quarter to four" will be |
| Yana: Часът е четири без петнайсет. (Chasat e chetiri bez petnayset). |
| Michael: Literally, "It's four o'clock minus fifteen." Let's try one more. |
| Yana: Часът е дванайсет без петнайсет. (Chasat e dvanayset bez petnayset.) |
| Michael: This means: "It's quarter to twelve," You might be wondering why we have not used the words "minutes" or "seconds," You don't really need them to say the time in Bulgarian. Still, you should know these words. So, here is "minutes" |
| Yana: минути (minuti) |
| Michael: and here is "seconds" |
| Yana: секунди (sekundi) |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned how to ask for the time in Bulgarian. You also learned how to say the time to the exact hour, past the hour and before the hour. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: A common practice in English is using the designations AM and PM to specify what part of the day it is. Although you may also do this in Bulgarian, it's more common to use the words "morning." "afternoon." and "evening" |
| Yana: сутрин, следобед, вечер (sutrin, sledobed, vecher) |
| Michael: For example, here is how to say "It's ten in the evening" |
| Yana: Часът е десет вечерта. (Chasat e deset vecherta.) |
| Michael: As in English, you can even leave out the verb and simplify it, like this: |
| Yana: Десет вечерта. (Deset vecherta) |
| Michael: For practice, here is "Nine in the morning" |
| Yana: Девет сутринта. (Devet sutrinta.) |
| Michael: and here is "Three in the afternoon." |
| Yana: Три следобед. (Tri sledobed.) |
| Michael: Note, unlike "in the morning" and "in the evening," the word meaning "in the afternoon" |
| Yana: следобед (sledobed) |
| Michael: doesn't need the suffix of the definite article |
| Yana: -а (-a) |
| Michael: We have one last alternative option for you! Bulgarians use the 24-hour clock a lot, so don't feel awkward if you hear |
| Yana: Часът е двайсет и два. (Chasat e dvayset i dva.) |
| Michael: This means "It's twenty-two." In other words, it is 10 PM. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Yana: До скоро! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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