Learn how to express your apologies
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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 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! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| 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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