Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Becky: Hello and welcome back to BulgarianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, season 1, lesson 20 - Talking About Your Family in Bulgarian. This is Becky here.
Iva: Zdravei And I’m Iva!
Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask about someone's family in Bulgarian.
Iva: This conversation takes place on the street.
Becky: The conversation is between Maria and James; they are walking around the city.
Iva: They’re friends, so their speech is informal.
Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation.
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Becky: So Maria said her brother had a nickname.
Iva: Like in other languages, Bulgarian has nicknames, which are sometimes also diminutives of the original name.
Becky: Basically, they’re a vocative form of the person’s name.
Iva: In the dialogue, Maria said her brother “Георги” (“Georgi”) was called “Жоро” (“Zhoro”).
Becky: This is a very common name, and it’s usually abbreviated like this. Can you give us some more examples, Iva?
Iva: Another typical Bulgarian name, “Петър” (“Petyr”), changes its form to “Петьо” (“Petio”).
Becky: In an earlier lesson, we had a nickname for the name “Мария” (“Maria”) which was “Маре” (“Mare”).
Iva: “Маре” is also the vocative form, and it’s also kind of a diminutive and cute way to address a girl.
Becky: Bulgarian nicknames can vary a lot.
Iva: Yes, one name can have many variations.
Becky: For example one very common name, “Иван” (“Ivan”) can be modified as a nickname in several ways with varying degrees of diminutive meaning, and connection with the original name:
Iva: So, it can become “Ванко”, “Ваньо”, “Иванчо” and so on.
Becky: Why not try to learn the nicknames of your Bulgarian friends, listeners? Ok, now on to the vocab.
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Becky: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Iva: The first one is “Всички”.
Becky: This is a pronoun that means “all”, “everybody” or “everyone” in English.
Iva: It’s very similar to another pronoun in Bulgarian, “всеки”, which means “each”, “every”, “everybody” or “anybody”.
Becky: Since the forms sound similar, it is easy to confuse them.
Iva: Remember, they are forms in the plural.
Becky: Can you repeat them again for our listeners, please?
Iva: “Всички” [pause] - “all”, “everybody” or “everyone”. And “всеки” [pause] - “each”, “every”, “everybody” or “anybody”.
Becky: OK. What’s next?
Iva: “Казвам”.
Becky: This is an important verb that means “to say”, “to tell” or “to call”.
Iva: And you use it when you introduce your name.
Becky: Oh, I thought it was familiar!
Iva: So the form, “Казвам се (name)”, can be translated in English as “I call myself (name)”.
Becky: It’s the most common way to introduce yourself, right?
Iva: The other way is to say “I am (name)” or in Bulgarian “Аз съм (name)”.
Becky: OK. Now the last word…
Iva: “Сигурно”
Becky: This is an adverb meaning “sure”, “certainly” and so on, but sometimes in Bulgarian expressions the best translation in English will be “must”.
Iva: Yes. That’s because it’s used in cases when something will happen “for sure”, or something must be in a “certain” condition.
Becky: I see. OK. Now onto the grammar!
GRAMMAR POINT
Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask about family members in Bulgarian.
Iva: Yep. When you want to know how many people there are in someone’s family, or if someone has brothers and sisters, there are some set expressions you can use.
Becky: In English, a set expression is “Do you have any brothers and sisters?”
Iva: In Bulgarian, this question usually sounds like this: “Имаш ли братя или сестри?”
Becky: Can you repeat that, Iva?
Iva: “Имаш ли братя или сестри?”
Becky: Listeners, please repeat.
Iva: “Имаш ли братя или сестри?” [pause]
Becky: What can you tell us about this question?
Iva: First we have the verb “имам”, which means “to have”.
Becky: It’s in the second person singular form...
Iva: “имаш”.
Becky: Then we have the particle commonly used in Bulgarian questions, “li”.
Iva: Finally, we add the words for “brothers” and “sisters”, respectively, “братя” and “сестри”.
Becky: If you want to ask someone in a polite way about brothers and sisters, or you are talking to more than one person, you will have to use the second person plural form of the verb “to have”
Iva: which is “имате”.
Becky: The rest of the sentence remains the same. So how does this formal question sound in Bulgarian, Iva?
Iva: “Имате ли братя или сестри?”
Becky: “Do you have brothers or sisters?” - formal.
Iva: Here’s a tip: usually, this form ends in “-те” in Bulgarian.
Becky: So we can say “brothers or sisters”; do we say “brothers and sisters” in Bulgarian?
Iva: Yes, we will use another word instead of “или”.
Becky: So the word “или” which we have in our example means “or” in English. How will it be if we say “Do you have brothers and sisters?”
Iva: “Имаш ли братя и сестри?”
Becky: Do you have any brothers and sisters?
Iva: We can use this sentence in Bulgarian. Here the conjunction “и” means “and”.
Becky: OK. But I think that the formal and the informal sentences are important to remember. Listeners, repeat the formal and informal examples after Iva!
Iva: “Имате ли братя или сестри?” [pause]
Becky: the formal version, “Do you have brothers or sisters?”
Iva: “Имаш ли братя или сестри?” [pause]
Becky: the informal one. Now listeners, make sure to check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned in this lesson.

Outro

Iva: Okay everyone. that’s all from us!
Becky: Thanks for listening, see you next time!
Iva: Bye-bye!

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