Dialogue

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Vocabulary (Review)

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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 8, Receiving a Bulgarian Souvenir. I’m Jonathan.
Iva: Hello. And I’m Iva!
Jonathan: In this lesson, you'll learn how to say and ask what something is.
Iva: The conversation takes place at Peter’s house.
Jonathan: It’s between Irina and Peter.
Iva: The speakers have been introduced to each other, so now they are using informal speech.
Jonathan: Let’s listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation
Ирина: Питър, това е сувенир от България, заповядай.
Питър: Много благодаря.
Ирина: Не е нищо особено.
Jonathan: Now let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. (slow speed, broken down by syllable)
Ирина: Питър, това е сувенир от България, заповядай.
Питър: Много благодаря.
Ирина: Не е нищо особено.
Jonathan: And Now with the English translation.
Ирина: Питър, това е сувенир от България, заповядай.
Irina: Peter, this is a souvenir from Bulgaria for you.
Питър: Много благодаря.
Peter: Thank you very much!
Ирина: Не е нищо особено.
Irina: Don't mention it.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Jonathan: Okay Iva, let’s talk about the Bulgarian custom of presenting a gift when you’re visiting someone.
Iva: Bulgarians like to give and receive presents, and since there are many holidays in Bulgaria, including birthdays, name days (or saint days), Christianity-related holidays, and so on, people often bring presents when they visit someone’s home.
Jonathan: I know that one tradition is bringing flowers for the hostess, and maybe a bottle of spirits for the host when you visit someone’s home.
Iva: Yes, that’s right.
Jonathan: Is there anything else we need to know about gift-giving?
Iva: Yes, the word that is used for these types of gifts in Bulgarian is “подарък” or “gift”.
Jonathan: Great, good to know! Are you ready to move onto the vocab?
Iva: Yes, let’s go!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Jonathan: Now let’s take a look at the vocabulary in this lesson. The first word we shall see is...
Iva: това
Jonathan: this
Iva: това (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: това
Iva: сувенир
Jonathan: souvenir
Iva: сувенир (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: сувенир
Iva: България
Jonathan: Bulgaria
Iva: България (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: България
Iva: заповядай
Jonathan: Please take it!
Iva: заповядай (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: заповядай
Iva: Много благодаря
Jonathan: Thank you very much
Iva: Много благодаря (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: Много благодаря
Iva: Нищо особено
Jonathan: Nothing special
Iva: Нищо особено (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: Нищо особено
Iva: не
Jonathan: not; no
Iva: не (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: не
Iva: от
Jonathan: from
Iva: от (slow, broken down by syllable)
Iva: от
VOCAB LIST
Jonathan: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What are we starting with?
Iva: The name of my home country, "България".
Jonathan: This is, of course, where the Bulgarian language originated from.
Iva: Yes, the Bulgarian language, or “Български”.
Jonathan: Can you repeat them again for our listeners?
Iva: Of course, "България", Bulgaria, and “Български”, Bulgarian. Sometimes we say “Български език” to emphasize the difference between the Bulgarian language and the adjective “Bulgarian”.
Jonathan: You mean the adjective in the masculine form.
Iva: Yes, because the adjective changes in the different gender forms but the Bulgarian language (when we don’t say the word language) sounds the same as the adjective in masculine.
Jonathan: OK, I think I got it. Could you repeat for the listeners how would you say Bulgarian language?
Iva: “Български език”.
Jonathan: OK. Now what is our next word?
Iva: “Сувенир”.
Jonathan: “Souvenir”. That sounds so similar to the English word!
Iva: Yes, but the intonation is different.
Jonathan: And again we have that hard Slavic “-r”.
Iva: Yep, please remember it.
Jonathan: OK. So the word is of foreign origin, in Bulgarian.
Iva: That’s correct. Just like the word “мерси” which we were talking about in our previous lesson.
Jonathan: And what is the last word you are going to talk about?
Iva: “Нищо особено”.
Jonathan: It means something along the lines of “It’s nothing special”.
Iva: But it is used also to mark the meaning of “Don’t mention it” especially when giving a gift.
Jonathan: I see. Listeners, repeat the phrase after Iva.
Iva: “Нищо особено”. [pause]
Jonathan: Great. Now let’s look at the grammar.
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Jonathan: The focus of this lesson is saying and asking what something is. This is an extension of the last lesson.
Iva: Using “Това е...”
Jonathan: “This is…” Can you say it again? Listeners, listen and repeat.
Iva: “Това е...” [pause]
Jonathan: Could you tell us more about its usage?
Iva: When you want to introduce something or someone, or explain what something is in Bulgarian, you use the phrase “Това е...”
Jonathan: So it’s a set phrase you can say when you’re addressing people, or pointing at inanimate objects. Very useful!
Iva: Yes. You can add the interrogative particle “ли” (“li”) which is very typical for the Bulgarian language.
Jonathan: That is when you want to ask a question about something. Like “Is this [blank]?”
Iva: Yes, it sounds like that in Bulgarian: “Това [blank] ли е?”
Jonathan: Give us an example.
Iva: “Това новата ти кола ли е?”
Jonathan: "Is this your new car?"
Iva: And “Yes, this is my new car.” would be “Да, това е новата ми кола”.
Jonathan: How about the cases when we are not asking a question. Give us an example of that.
Iva: “Това е шопска салата.” x2
Jonathan: “This is шопска салата.” What is шопска салата by the way, Iva?
Iva: Шопска салата is a very delicious traditional Bulgarian salad.
Jonathan: OK, this next one is a really important example.
Iva: “Това е за теб.”
Jonathan: “This is for you”.
Iva: You can use this when you give a present to someone close to you, a friend, family member, boyfriend or girlfriend.
Jonathan: OK. Listeners, repeat that phrase after Iva.
Iva: “Това е за теб.”[pause]
Jonathan: And how would you ask “Is this for me?”
Iva: Again we will use the particle for forming questions, “ли”.
Jonathan: And how will the sentence sound? Listeners, repeat after Iva.
Iva: “Това за мен ли е?”[pause]
Jonathan: Nice! How would you ask if something is something else, for example, “Is this water?”
Iva: Interesting example! Actually we can ask the question without the particle “ли”. “Това е [water]?”
Jonathan: “Is this water?” I notice how your intonation changed when you didn’t use the particle “ли”.
Iva: Yes, without it we can form simpler questions but note that the word order changes. If we use the particle, it will sound like “Това [water] ли е?”
Jonathan: Can you repeat them both, please.
Iva: Without “ли”, “Това е [water]?”
Jonathan: And with “ли”.
Iva: “Това [water] ли е?”
Jonathan: OK, I think we’ll leave it there for this lesson. The listeners can find many more examples in the lesson notes.
Iva: So please make sure to check them....
Jonathan: ...and practice some more!
Iva: OK, see you next time!
Jonathan: Bye everyone!

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