Learn how to recognize an implied subject in Bulgarian
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Intro |
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| Michael: Is it common to omit the subject in Bulgarian sentences? |
| Yana: If so, why? |
| Michael: At BulgarianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Sofiya is in a bookstore with her friend, Sasha. She points to a book and says, |
| "See that book?" |
| Sofiya Stefanova: Виждаш ли онази книга? (Vizhdash li onazi kniga?) |
| Dialogue |
| Sofiya Stefanova: Виждаш ли онази книга? (Vizhdash li onazi kniga?) |
| Sasha Lee: Интересна ли е? (Interesna li e?) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sofiya Stefanova: Виждаш ли онази книга? |
| Michael: "See that book?" |
| Sasha Lee: Интересна ли е? |
| Michael: "Is it interesting?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Omitting the subject is possible in so-called ‘pro-drop languages. ' Pro-drop languages are languages where omitting the pronoun, or the subject, doesn't affect the information conveyed by the sentence. You can observe this, for instance, in Slavic and Romance languages. |
| Bulgarian is also pro-drop. The verbs in Bulgarian change according to person and number, therefore even if you omit the personal pronoun, you will still be able to understand who the subject of the conversation is. It is actually very common in spoken language, both in informal and formal situations. Let's have a look at some sentences where the subject can be omitted. For example, if an interviewer asks: |
| Yana: Бихте ли се представили? (Bihte li se predstavili?) |
| Michael: This literally means "Would introduce yourself?" but translates as "Would you introduce yourself?" |
| Did you hear how she dropped the personal pronoun? The sentence still makes sense without it, so it's okay to do so. Now, imagine the interviewee's response: |
| Yana: Казвам се Калин. (Kazvam se Kalin.) |
| Michael: This means something like "name is Kalin" but translates as "My name is Kalin." |
| We clearly understand who the subject is, even with the dropped pronoun. |
| There are a few cases, though, when the personal pronoun CANNOT be omitted, or the sentence won't make sense. In third person singular, the verb form of the three genders is the same. So, for example, we can say: |
| Yana: Той отиде на кино. (Toy otide na kino.) |
| Michael: "He went to the cinema." |
| But we cannot just say: |
| Yana: Отиде на кино. (Otide na kino) |
| Michael: "Went to the cinema," because it is not clear who we are talking about. |
| Also, it's not acceptable to omit the personal pronoun in written formal speech—especially in novels, articles, formal emails, and so on. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue now. Do you remember how Sofiya says "See that book?" |
| (4-second pause) |
| Yana as Sofiya Stefanova: Виждаш ли онази книга? (Vizhdash li onazi kniga?) |
| Michael: The subject here, though implied, is "you." or |
| Yana: ти (ti) |
| Michael: If you express the subject, the question will be |
| Yana: Ти виждаш ли онази книга? (Ti vizhdash li onazi kniga?) |
| Michael: And here is the original question: |
| Yana: Виждаш ли онази книга? (Vizhdash li onazi kniga?) |
| Michael: This literally means "See that book?" but translates as "Do you see that book?" In Bulgarian, you can omit the subject because the verb form is inflected for number and person. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "Is it interesting?" |
| (4-second pause) |
| Yana as Sasha Lee: Интересна ли е? (Interesna li e?) |
| Michael: Well, the literal translation here is "Is interesting?" As you can hear, no subject is mentioned. So, let's concentrate on the implied subject of this sentence, which is "it," or |
| Yana: тя (tya) |
| Michael: as "book" is feminine in Bulgarian. In this context, we call it a dummy subject because the word "it" replaces the word "book." Bulgarian is a verb-second, or a subject-verb-object language, which means that the verb has to always be in the second position in the main clause. But, in spoken language, it is acceptable and most common to just drop the subject altogether. |
| [SUMMARY] |
| Michael: We learned in today's lesson that you should never omit the subject while using formal written Bulgarian. However, when it comes to spoken or colloquial language, the subject can usually be dropped without losing the meaning of the sentence. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: One last thing before we go: similarly to English, we can drop the subject in the imperative mood. If we use the imperative for the second person singular, or plural, usually we drop the subject, because the conjugated verb implies the subject of the sentence. For example: |
| Yana: Не яж ябълката! (Ne yazh yabalkata!) |
| Michael: this means "Don't eat the apple!" when used in second person singular. The same sentence referring to a second person plural is |
| Yana: Не яжте ябълката! (Ne yazhte yabalkata!) |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Yana: До скоро! (Do skoro!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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