Learn how to use interjections as natural responses
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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 16, This is, umm, a Bulgarian Lesson about Interjections! I’m Jonathan. |
| Iva: Hello. And I’m Iva! |
| Jonathan: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use interjections as a natural response in conversation. |
| Iva: The conversation takes place at Peter’s house. |
| Jonathan: And it’s between Irina and Peter; they are looking at a photo album. |
| Iva: And they know each other already so their speech is informal. |
| Jonathan: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
| Питър: Това е семейният ми албум. |
| Ирина: Иха..(turns pages). |
| : Това кой е? |
| Питър: Това е по-малката ми сестра. |
| Ирина: Еее, много е симпатична. |
| : А това? |
| Питър: А, ами... това съм аз. |
| Ирина: Я, толкова си млад! |
| Jonathan: Now let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. (slow speed, broken down by syllable) |
| Питър: Това е семейният ми албум. |
| Ирина: Иха..(turns pages). |
| : Това кой е? |
| Питър: Това е по-малката ми сестра. |
| Ирина: Еее, много е симпатична. |
| : А това? |
| Питър: А, ами... това съм аз. |
| Ирина: Я, толкова си млад! |
| Jonathan: And now with the English translation. [Only English needs to be read here] |
| Peter: This is my family's photo album. |
| Irina: Neat~ (sound of turning pages) |
| : Who's this? |
| Peter: This is my younger sister. |
| Irina: Hmm, she's cute! |
| : Who's this? |
| Peter: Oh, uhh...that's me. |
| Irina: What! You're so young! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jonathan: OK, now.. ummm.... |
| Iva: It’s time for a word on Bulgarian interjections. |
| Jonathan: Yes! |
| Iva: One of the most common interjections in Bulgarian is the simple “А”. |
| Jonathan: When do you use it? |
| Iva: It might express surprise, a change in subject, hesitation, and much more. |
| Jonathan: A universal “А”. |
| Iva: Yes. There are also others that express direct emotions. |
| Jonathan: Tell us about those please. |
| Iva: We have “Oh” – “Ах”; “Hooray” - “Ура”; “Oh my God” – “О, боже”; “Wow” – “Ау” or desire/command like “Hey” – “Хей”; “No” – “Не” and many others. |
| Jonathan: Oh, there’s so many! Can you give us some hints about these? |
| Iva: It’s important to remember the intonation because the same interjection might mean two different things, like “Аха” which can mean “Yeah?” and “I see!” |
| Jonathan: “Аха”, I mean “I see”. |
| Iva: Very often the interjections are not just sounds (vowels or vowels plus consonants) but whole words like nouns, adjectives and verbs. |
| Jonathan: We have those in English too. |
| Iva: Yes. Quite often the nouns are in the Vocative case form like “Oh my Gosh” or “mother”, in Bulgarian “Боже мой” and “майчице”. |
| Jonathan: OK. How about the ones known as onomatopoeia? |
| Iva: We also have them – “bang” and “plop”, in Bulgarian “бам” and “цоп” and so many more… |
| Jonathan: Learning how to use them could be great fun because their usage makes conversations more vivid and enjoyable. |
| Iva: Definitely! |
| Jonathan: Okay, let’s move 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: семеен |
| Jonathan: family (adjective) |
| Iva: семеен (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: семеен |
| Iva: албум |
| Jonathan: album |
| Iva: албум (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: албум |
| Iva: кой |
| Jonathan: who |
| Iva: кой (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: кой |
| Iva: сестра |
| Jonathan: sister |
| Iva: сестра (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: сестра |
| Iva: по-малък |
| Jonathan: younger |
| Iva: по-малък (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: по-малък |
| Iva: симпатичен |
| Jonathan: cute; handsome |
| Iva: симпатичен (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: симпатичен |
| Iva: ами |
| Jonathan: well |
| Iva: ами (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: ами |
| Iva: млад |
| Jonathan: young |
| Iva: млад (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: млад |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Jonathan: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s first, Iva? |
| Iva: “Кой”. |
| Jonathan: It is a Bulgarian pronoun used like the English equivalent “who”. |
| Iva: Yes, that’s right. Listeners, repeat, “Кой”. [pause] |
| Jonathan: Note that in Bulgarian, the pronoun has masculine, feminine and neutral, as well as different singular and plural forms. |
| Iva: These are as follows: “кой”, “коя”, “кое” and “кои”. |
| Jonathan: The masculine, feminine and neutral, and the plural forms. |
| Iva: That’s right. |
| Jonathan: And the second word? |
| Iva: “Сестра”. |
| Jonathan: OK, that means “sister” in Bulgarian, right? |
| Iva: Yes. And “Brother” in Bulgarian is “брат”. |
| Jonathan: These are very easy to remember since they sound a bit like the English words. |
| Iva: I’ll repeat them for our listeners: “Сестра”. And “брат”. |
| Jonathan: Do you have brothers and sisters, Iva? |
| Iva: Yes. I have a “брат”. |
| Jonathan: Ah, you have a brother! So you are a “Сестра”. |
| Iva: Yes! |
| Jonathan: Okay, and our last word? |
| Iva: “Симпатичен”. |
| Jonathan: Listeners, repeat after Iva. |
| Iva: “Симпатичен” [pause] |
| Jonathan: This is a common way to say that something is “cute”, “nice”, “neat”, but also “handsome” for men. |
| Iva: Listeners, make sure you practice these simple words! |
| Jonathan: And now let’s move on to the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
| Jonathan: OK, this grammar point should be fun. You’ll be learning interjections in Bulgarian. |
| Iva: Yes, a lot of interjections coming your way! |
| Jonathan: "wow; (“иха;) well... (ами); what? (я); oh! (о); huh? (ee); great! (страхотно); really? (наистина); sure! ( вярно); yeah! (така ли)" |
| Iva: Well, I must say that there are just as many Bulgarian interjections as in English and many other languages. |
| Jonathan: Learning how to use them and respond in a more natural way to a friend in conversation is crucial for improving your Bulgarian. |
| Jonathan: So can you tell us some basic information or hints about them? |
| Iva: One note about them is that interjections are usually used when we have a pause in our speech, before answering a question, or when expressing surprise, agreement, joy, discontent, doubt and any other emotional reaction. |
| Jonathan: Let’s give an example. Like “Yeah, I agree on…”. |
| Iva: That will be “Мхм, съгласен съм за...” |
| Jonathan: That sounds very familiar! |
| Iva: But sometimes one interjection in Bulgarian can mean several things, for example “А”, depending on the length, the intonation and the position in the sentence. |
| Jonathan: OK, give us some examples. |
| Iva: “А, какво е това?” |
| Jonathan: "Oh, what is this?" |
| Iva: Yes, but “А” can also mean “umm”. |
| Jonathan: Let’s look at the examples from the dialogue. Irina sees the picture of Peter’s sister and says... |
| Iva: Еее, много е симпатична. |
| Jonathan: “Hmm, she’s cute”. And then Peter shows Irina an old picture of himself, and he says... |
| Iva: А, ами... това съм аз. |
| Jonathan: “Oh, um, that’s me.” To which Irina says... |
| Iva: Я, толкова си млад! |
| Jonathan: “What! You’re so young!” So as you can see, we had a lot of different examples in the dialogue. |
| Iva: Yes, that’s right. To see even more examples, I recommend checking the notes for the full list of Bulgarian interjections. |
| Jonathan: OK. Listeners, that’s all from us! |
| Iva: Я, толкова бързо! |
| Jonathan: You mean “What! So fast?” |
| Iva: Yes! OK, that’s it for this lesson. Bye everyone! |
| Jonathan: Until next time! |
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