Learn how to apologize and confirm whether there is no problem after an accident
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Intro |
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| Jonathan: Hello and welcome to the Absolute Beginner series at BulgarianPod101.com. This is season 1, lesson 14, It’s no Problem in Bulgaria. I’m Jonathan. |
| Iva: Hello. And I’m Iva! |
| Jonathan: In this lesson, you'll learn how to apologize and say that there’s no problem resulting from an event that has taken place. |
| Iva: This conversation again takes place at Peter’s house. |
| Jonathan: And it’s between Irina and Peter. |
| Iva: As we know, the speakers know each other so their speech is informal. |
| Jonathan: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
| (washing dishes) |
| Питър: Ирина, наистина много благодаря. |
| Ирина: Няма защо. А! (sound of glass breaking) Съжалявам! |
| Питър: Добре ли си? |
| Ирина: Аз съм добре. Но... чашата.... |
| Питър: Няма проблем. |
| Ирина: Наистина съжалявам. |
| Jonathan: Now let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. (slow speed, broken down by syllable) |
| (washing dishes) |
| Питър: Ирина, наистина много благодаря. |
| Ирина: Няма защо. А! (sound of glass breaking) Съжалявам! |
| Питър: Добре ли си? |
| Ирина: Аз съм добре. Но... чашата.... |
| Питър: Няма проблем. |
| Ирина: Наистина съжалявам. |
| Jonathan: And now with the English translation. |
| (sound of washing dishes) |
| Peter: Irina, thank you very much! |
| Irina: It's nothing. Oh! (sound of glass breaking) I'm sorry! |
| Peter: Are you okay? |
| Irina: I'm fine! But...the glass... |
| Peter: It's okay. |
| Irina: I'm really sorry. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jonathan: Iva, can you tell us if there’s any cultural significance to breaking a glass? |
| Iva: Of course. In Bulgaria, as well as in other countries, broken glass brings luck. |
| Jonathan: Really? That’s good! |
| Iva: So if you happen to break something in Bulgaria, don’t worry – people won’t get mad at you. |
| Jonathan: I can’t believe it’s that easy! |
| Iva: Of course, it’s a matter of good manners to say “Excuse me” or “I am sorry”, but basically this accident won’t bring any bad feelings. |
| Jonathan: And you should know by now how to say these in Bulgarian, thanks to these Absolute Beginner lessons. |
| Iva: Yes, that’s right! Actually, this concept applies to broken porcelain too. As a matter of fact, Bulgaria’s neighbor Greece has a tradition of breaking plates as a form of celebration. |
| Jonathan: That’s true. And in Bulgaria? |
| Iva: There is a similar style of partying in some traditional Bulgarian restaurants too. |
| Jonathan: Just in case, you’ll learn how to say you’re sorry later on in the lesson. Okay, now onto the vocab! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jonathan: Now let’s take a look at the vocabulary in this lesson. The first word we shall see is... |
| Iva: но |
| Jonathan: but |
| Iva: но (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: но |
| Iva: чаша |
| Jonathan: glass; cup |
| Iva: чаша (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: чаша |
| Iva: наистина |
| Jonathan: Really; indeed |
| Iva: наистина (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: наистина |
| Iva: няма |
| Jonathan: (there is) no |
| Iva: няма (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: няма |
| Iva: проблем |
| Jonathan: problem |
| Iva: проблем (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: проблем |
| Iva: Добре ли си |
| Jonathan: Are you OK? |
| Iva: Добре ли си (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: Добре ли си |
| Iva: Няма защо |
| Jonathan: It’s nothing; There is no reason |
| Iva: Няма защо (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: Няма защо |
| Iva: аз |
| Jonathan: I |
| Iva: аз (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: аз |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Jonathan: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Iva: The first one is “Няма проблем”. |
| Jonathan: It’s the Bulgarian equivalent of the English “No problem”. |
| Iva: And it’s used in the same situations as in English. |
| Jonathan: So it’s easy to remember! |
| Iva: But please keep in mind that the Bulgarian pronunciation of “problem” is different from the English. |
| Jonathan: Can you say it again for our listeners please? Listeners, repeat after Iva. |
| Iva: “проблем”. [pause] |
| Jonathan: OK. What’s next? |
| Iva: “Няма защо”. |
| Jonathan: And its meaning is? |
| Iva: Something like “There is no reason” or “It’s nothing” and it’s used in the same way. |
| Jonathan: So we use it to answer an apology or to confirm that some event has not caused any trouble. |
| Iva: Exactly. Bulgarian people also use it often as a reply to “thank you”. |
| Jonathan: Can you give us an example? |
| Iva: Yes, how about this one – you say “благодаря”, and the other person says “няма защо”. |
| Jonathan: Listeners, repeat after Iva. |
| Iva: “благодаря” [pause], “няма защо”. [pause] |
| Jonathan: OK, what is the last phrase we’ll look at? |
| Iva: “Наистина съжалявам”. |
| Jonathan: Oh, that sounds like a really sincere apology! |
| Iva: It is the most sincere way to express you are sorry in Bulgarian. |
| Jonathan: It literally means “I am really sorry” and it is the best way to express regret. |
| Iva: Just to give you more information about it - it is made up of the adverb “наистина” and the verb “съжалявам” which you already know. |
| Jonathan: OK, again, listeners repeat after Iva. |
| Iva: “Наистина съжалявам”. [pause] |
| Jonathan: Ok, great. Now let’s move to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Jonathan: In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to ask if something or someone is OK. |
| Iva: It is a simple and necessary topic of any language. We put an adverb; then the particle for making questions “ли”, and then the auxiliary verb “си” or “сте”. |
| Jonathan: And the whole sentence is? |
| Iva: For example, “Добре ли си?” |
| Jonathan: "Are you OK?" Please repeat it Iva. |
| Iva: “Добре ли си?” |
| Jonathan: So to summarize, when asking a question about a condition like “Are you OK?” or “Is there a problem?”, you must use an adverb which indicates what are you asking about, then the particle used to form questions “ли”, and then the corresponding form of the auxiliary verb. |
| Iva: Note that in Bulgarian, unlike English, the verb form for second person singular and plural is not the same. |
| Jonathan: You mean “you”, right? |
| Iva: Yes, in Bulgarian it is “си” for singular, or “сте” for plural. |
| Jonathan: OK, got it. Can you repeat those for our listeners? |
| Iva: “си”/ singular and “сте”/ plural. |
| Jonathan: Also in this construction, the Bulgarian version does not include the pronoun, right? |
| Iva: For example “Are you OK?” in Bulgarian sounds like “Are OK?” because by the verb form we can guess if the phrase is in singular or plural and which person it is referring to. |
| Jonathan: It is a very basic Bulgarian phrase, so learning the auxiliary verb forms plus adjectives can help you build a lot of sentences that ask about condition. |
| Iva: Remember to add the particle for forming questions “ли” since it is an essential part of this phrase. |
| Jonathan: Without it and without the proper intonation (raising your voice when asking questions) the sentence will sound like a statement “You are OK.” instead of “Are you OK?” |
| Iva: “Добре си.” |
| Jonathan: “You are OK.” What else can we say about this? |
| Iva: In this construction you can use adverbs, adjectives or pronouns to ask similar questions. |
| Jonathan: Give us an example, please. |
| Iva: “Жаден ли си?” |
| Jonathan: Which means? |
| Iva: “Are you thirsty?” And I am using the masculine form of the adjective “thirsty”. |
| Jonathan: Can you repeat it for our listeners and give us the other forms? |
| Iva: “Жаден” is masculine; “жадна” and “жадно” for feminine and neutral respectively. |
| Jonathan: So as in other cases, the feminine form ends in “-а” and the neutral in “-о”. |
| Iva: Yep, it’s that easy! |
| Jonathan: OK, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Iva: Thanks everyone, see you next time! |
| Jonathan: Bye-bye! |
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