Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

Intro

Jonathan: Hello and welcome to the Absolute Beginner series at BulgarianPod101.com. This is season 1, lesson 4, Don’t Get off on the Wrong Foot in Bulgaria! I’m Jonathan.
Iva: This is Iva here.
Jonathan: In this lesson we are going to talk about how to apologize in Bulgarian.
Iva: This conversation takes place on a crowded bus.
Jonathan: It’s between two people.
Iva: And the speakers don’t know each other, so their speech is formal.
Jonathan: Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUES
[crowd of people]
Jonathan: Ох!
: Ааа...извинете.
Iva: Да?
Jonathan: Кракът ми...
Iva: О, съжалявам!
Jonathan: Now let’s hear the conversation one time slowly.
[crowd of people]
Jonathan: Ох!
: Ааа...извинете.
Iva: Да?
Jonathan: Кракът ми...
Iva: О, съжалявам!
Jonathan: And Now with the English translation.
Iva: Ох! Ааа...извинете.
Jonathan: Ouch! Umm...excuse me.
Iva: Да?
Jonathan: Yes?
Iva: Кракът ми...
Jonathan: My foot...
Iva: О, съжалявам!
Jonathan: Oh, I'm sorry!
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Jonathan: Iva, can you tell us more about Bulgarian manners when saying “sorry”?
Iva: Sure. Bulgarians apologize a lot and easily accept apologies. There is even a special holiday, connected with the Christian religion, when people apologize to their family and close friends for things that happened in the past twelve months.
Jonathan: Wow, really?? When do you celebrate it?
Iva: This special day is called “Proshka” or “Forgiveness” and is celebrated on a day one week before the start of the Great Easter Fast.
Jonathan: I see, so according to the Orthodox Christian religion, to begin the whole process of cleaning your spirit, you should first ask for forgiveness and forgive the ones you love.
Iva: Exactly! But even if they’re not religious, Bulgarians will try to be careful with their manners on a daily basis. and if you are being unintentionally pushed or stepped on on the bus you can expect to hear an apology at least in the most common form.
Jonathan: So make sure to show good manners so that your stay in Bulgaria is as pleasant as it can be!
VOCAB LIST
Jonathan: Now let’s take a look at the vocabulary in this lesson. The first word we shall see is...
Iva: Ох!
Jonathan: Ouch!
Iva: Ох! (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: Ох!
Iva: Ааа...
Jonathan: Umm...
Iva: Ааа... (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: Ааа...
Iva: Извинете
Jonathan: Excuse me
Iva: Извинете (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: Извинете
Iva: да
Jonathan: yes
Iva: да (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: да
Iva: крак
Jonathan: foot
Iva: крак (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: крак
Iva: ми
Jonathan: mine
Iva: ми (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: ми
Iva: Съжалявам
Jonathan: I’m sorry
Iva: Съжалявам (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: Съжалявам
Iva: О
Jonathan: Ah; Oh
Iva: О (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: О
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Jonathan: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Iva: OK, let’s first take a look at the interjection “Ох!”
Jonathan: “Ouch!” This must be the easiest word so far in the Absolute Beginner series!
Iva: That’s true. Remember that the Bulgarian word that expresses you are in pain is “Ох!” and sometimes the “-h” sound is almost silent when people say it.
Jonathan: OK, make sure to keep that in mind, listeners.
Iva: Next is “Ааа...”.
Jonathan: This is an interjection that means something like the English “Umm...”
Iva: It is used in the same way as ‘ummm’ at the beginning a sentence when you want to introduce a new topic, and so on.
Jonathan: Sometimes Bulgarians use another vowel to express the same sound and sentence meaning though, right?
Iva: Yes. “Ъъъ...”.
Jonathan: What is the difference?
Iva: “Ааа...” is more common and sounds less informal.
Jonathan: Is there something else?
Iva: Well, our last one is “Да”.
Jonathan: Seems easy but tell us more about it.
Iva: “Да” in Bulgarian can be used as an interjection meaning “yes”, “yep”, and so on.
Jonathan: Does it have any other uses?
Iva: Yes, as a conjunction meaning “that”, “as to”, “and”, “shall”, “let”, etc.
Jonathan: How can we tell the difference?
Iva: Just look at its position in the sentence!
Jonathan: OK, ”Ааа...” let’s move on to the grammar!
GRAMMAR POINT
Jonathan: The focus of this lesson is how to say “Excuse me” and “I am sorry”.
Iva: As we said, there are many ways.
Jonathan: But let us just focus on the two main ones.
Iva: Yes, “Извинете” and “Съжалявам”.
Jonathan: How would you say “Excuse me, is this bus number…”
Iva: Let’s try with bus number 84. It goes all the way from Sofia airport to the center of the city.
Jonathan: OK, so “Excuse me, is this bus number 84?” is…
Iva: “Извинявам се, това автобус номер 84 ли е?”
Jonathan: Okay, so there is no major difference if you use “Извинете” or “Извинявам се”, right?
Iva: “Извинете” is more formal since it is in plural. And of course you use it when talking to more than one person.
Jonathan: OK. What’s next?
Iva: “Съжалявам, но не мога да дойда.” x2
Jonathan: And this means?
Iva: “I am sorry but I cannot come.”
Jonathan: The actual apology part here is when you say “Съжалявам”.
Iva: That’s right.
Jonathan: And when you want to leave the table or the room for a while, what will you say?
Iva: “Моля, извинете ме.”
Jonathan: Which means?
Iva: “Please excuse me.”
Jonathan: That is a universal phrase!
Iva: So listeners, repeat this one! “Моля, извинете ме.”
Jonathan: Is this formal?
Iva: Yes, and it includes the commonly used word “моля”.
Jonathan: Which means “please”...
Iva: ...But we are going to talk about it later.
Jonathan: OK, Iva how would you excuse yourself when you are not able to do something?
Iva: You mean something like expressing regret?
Jonathan: Yes. How about saying “I am sorry but I cannot come”?
Iva: “Съжалявам, но не мога да дойда.”
Jonathan: “I am sorry…”, which as we know is...
Iva: “Съжалявам…”
Jonathan: “…but I cannot come”...
Iva: но не мога да дойда.”
Jonathan: Great! Now you can excuse yourself in many ways.
Iva: That’s how Bulgarian is!

Outro

Jonathan: OK, listeners, that does it for now. Make sure you check out the other examples and explanations in the lesson notes!
Iva: Yes, because they will help you practice more.
Jonathan: Bye everyone!

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