The first step of studying a foreign language is learning some common words, so you can start communicating at the most basic level. But you can’t stop at that level, right? To be able to communicate with native Bulgarians, you need to learn more about the Bulgarian sentence word order. 

How do Bulgarians build their sentences? What’s the difference between Bulgarian and English sentence structure? 
BulgarianPod101 will take you to the next level of your Bulgarian language-learning journey by helping you learn Bulgarian sentence structure in this step-by-step guide. After carefully studying it, you should be more confident in your Bulgarian conversations, and you’ll effectively untie your tongue.

Table of Contents

1. Overview of Bulgarian language word order
2. Basic Word Order with Subject, Verb and Object
3. Building Complex Bulgarian Sentences
4. How to change sentence into a yes-or-no question?
5. Bulgarian sentence structure
6. Translation Exercises
7. How BulgarianPod101 Can Help You Untie Your Tongue

1. Overview of Bulgarian Language Word Order

1- What is the basic Bulgarian sentence structure?

Bulgarian is one of many languages that uses the SVO sentence structure, which is typical for about one-third of all languages in the world. The SVO word order stands for Subject-Verb-Object. Other languages in the same category include English, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, and Chinese. This means that English speakers shouldn’t find the basic sentence structure in Bulgarian too complicated.

However, when comparing the Bulgarian sentence structure vs. English sentence structure, Bulgarian is richer in sentence structure options. Indeed, about eighty percent of all Bulgarian sentences follow the SVO structure, but in certain situations, Bulgarian speakers can deviate from the typical word order. This is done when they want to underline the importance of a specific word. Here are some examples.

2- Bulgarian sentence structures list

1. SVO (Subject–Verb–Object):

• Аз говоря български език.
  As govorya balgarski ezik.
  “I speak the Bulgarian language.”

As stated above, this is a typical Bulgarian sentence structure, so you’re always on the safe side if you use it.

2. OVS (Object–Verb–Subject):

• Български език говоря аз.
  Balgarski ezik govorya as.
  “The Bulgarian language speak I.”

Although it’s not typical for English word order, OVS in Bulgarian language sentences is considered correct and it’s commonly used in poems. The same applies for two of the other Bulgarian word orders below: SOV and VOS. These sentence structures aren’t used in everyday speech, but you can see them often in Bulgarian books, so it’s worth knowing about them.

3. SOV (Subject–Object–Verb):

• Аз България обичам.
  As Bulgaria obicham.
  “I Bulgaria love.” = “I love Bulgaria.”

In Bulgarian word order, SOV is commonly used in situations like the one above.

4. VSO (Verb–Subject–Object):

• Обичам аз България.
  Obicham as Bulgaria.
  “Love I Bulgaria.” = “I love Bulgaria.”

Here, the speaker emphasizes his love for Bulgaria. The Bulgarian sentence pattern below can have a similar effect.

5. VOS (Verb–Object–Subject):

• Обичам България аз.
  Obicham Bulgaria as.
  “Love Bulgaria I.” = “I love Bulgaria.”

This flexible word order in Bulgarian is possible thanks to agreement between the subject and the verb. Thе verb ending in Bulgarian changes based on the subject’s person and number, which allows the speaker to change the word order while retaining the same meaning.

2. Basic Word Order with Subject, Verb, and Object

1- Practice Time

A- SVO Structure Exercise

Now, it’s time to practice how to build simple Bulgarian sentences correctly. Let’s start with the most basic Bulgarian word order, which is SVO. It’s easy because it’s the same as the English word order.

How would you say “I study Bulgarian language,” in Bulgarian? As long as you know the words in Bulgarian, you shouldn’t have a problem with ordering them properly.

• “I” — аз (as)
• “Study” — уча (oocha)
• “Bulgarian language” — български език (balgarski ezik) 

Now, try to combine them yourself in a sentence.

Great job!

Let’s try another basic sentence: “He eats an apple.”

• “He” — той (toy)
• “Eats” — яде (yade)
• “An apple” — ябълка (yabalka) 

We recommend that you write these two Bulgarian sentences down. Now you know how to make the most basic Bulgarian sentences using the SVO structure.

B- OVS Structure Exercise

Let’s try to make things a little bit more complicated. Make both of these Bulgarian sentences using the OVS structure and write them down, too. If you’re not sure how to do it, just follow this English structure: 

“Bulgarian language study I.”

“An apple eats he.”

C- SOV Structure Exercise

And now, let’s try a different Bulgarian sentence structure by placing the object between the subject and verb. In English, the literal translations will sound like:

“I Bulgarian language study.”

“He an apple eats.”

You did a great job practicing Bulgarian sentence structure!

2- Dropping the pronouns in Bulgarian sentences

Unlike English, Bulgarian is a pro-drop language (meaning  “pronoun-dropping”). It features a specific verb ending in all of the forms for singular and plural (i.e. the verbs are conjugated). This gives Bulgarians “the right” to drop the subject in sentences when the subject is a pronoun. This is simply because the subject is implied by the verb ending. Here are some examples:

• Instead of Аз обичам България. (As obicham Bulgaria.), Bulgarians would say: Обичам България. (Obicham Bulgaria.). The verb ending is applied only for first person singular, so the listener knows that the meaning is: “I love Bulgaria.”
• Instead of Ние обичаме България. (Nie obichame Bulgaria.), Bulgarians would say: Обичаме България. (Obichame Bulgaria.) as the verb ending is specific to the first person plural. The listener knows that the meaning is: “We love Bulgaria.”

To make it a bit more complicated, let’s study the following example:

• Ти учиш български език. Често повтаряш нови фрази.
  Ti ucheesh balgarski ezik. Chesto povtaryash novi frazi.
  “You study the Bulgarian language. You often repeat new phrases.”

In Bulgarian, there’s no need for a pronoun in the second sentence; it’s implied by the verb ending. So, in English, it will sound like: “You study Bulgarian language. Often repeat new phrases.”

One exception to this rule is the pronoun in the third person singular. This should be kept in the sentence, as the verb ending for the third person singular is the same for “he” / “she” / “it.” 

→ Learn more about Bulgarian verbs in our Bulgarian grammar introduction, available on BulgarianPod101.com.

3. Building Long but Simple Bulgarian Sentences

If you learn the basics of Bulgarian word order, you’ll find it easier to build your Bulgarian sentences. Here, we’ll learn some Bulgarian sentence structure patterns by adding different parts of speech to the simple Bulgarian sentence structure.

1- Sentences with prepositions

Usually, prepositions in short sentences go after the subject and verb, and before the object. 

• Examples with one preposition:

Аз работя в училище.
As rabotya v uchilishte.
“I work in a school.”

Аз работя като адвокат.
As rabotya kato advokat.
“I work as a lawyer.”

→ Are you interested in learning more occupation names in Bulgarian? Then take a look at our list of 20 common Bulgarian words for occupations.

Sometimes, the preposition may appear near a second object, like this:

Ти учиш български език в училище
Ti uchish balgarski ezik v uchilishte.
“You study Bulgarian language at school.”.

In longer sentences, there can be more than one preposition. You can use two, three, or even more prepositions in one sentence to form your thoughts completely.

• Examples with two prepositions:

Аз работя като адвокат в съда.
As rabotya kato advokat v sada.
“I work as a lawyer in a court.”

Аз работя като преподавател в училище.
As rabotya kato prepodavatel v uchilishte.
“I work as a teacher at school.”

• Examples with three prepositions:

С помощта на BulgarianPod101 уча български език у дома.
S pomoshta na BulgarianPod101 ucha balgarski ezik u doma.
“With the help of BulgarianPod101, I study the Bulgarian language at home.”

Maybe you’ve noticed that there’s no subject in the sentence above. We just drop the pronoun аз (as), meaning “I,” because it’s implied by the verb ending уча, which is used for first person singular.

2- Sentences with adjectives

In Bulgarian word order, it’s simple to add adjectives. This is done the same way it is in English (i.e. before the subject or object, or before both). What might be difficult for a foreigner is that the ending of an adjective changes based on the gender of the noun it describes.

• Adjective before the subject:

Умното дете чете книга.

Umnoto dete chete kniga.

“The clever child reads a book.”

• Adjective before the object:

Детето чете интересна книга.

Deteto chete interesna kniga.

“The child reads an interesting book.”

• Adjectives before the subject and object:

 Умното дете чете интересна книга.

Umnoto dete chete interesna kniga.

“The clever child reads an interesting book.”

Sometimes, the adjective might be separated from the subject by the verb “to be.” Yet, it still has to agree with the gender and the number of the noun it relates to.

• Книгата е интересна. 

Knigata e interesna.

“The book is interesting.”

• Детето е умно и добро.

Deteto e umno i dobro.

“The child is clever and good.”

3- Sentences with adverbs

Hooray! Bulgarian adverbs don’t change like adjectives do. In fact, they modify the adjectives, verbs, and even other adverbs. Here are examples:

• Adverbs as adjective modifiers:

Българският език е много труден.

Balgarskiyat ezik e mnogo truden.

“The Bulgarian language is very difficult.”

• Adverbs as verb modifiers:

Много искам да науча български език.

Mnogo iskam da naucha balgarski ezik.

“I really want to learn the Bulgarian language.”

• Adverbs as adverb modifiers:

Искам да науча български език много бързо.

Iskam da naucha balgarski ezik mnogo barzo.

“I want to learn the Bulgarian language very fast.”

→ If you indeed want to learn Bulgarian quickly and in a fun way, you can take advantage of BulgarianPod101’s YouTube channel.

4. How to Change Sentences into Yes-or-No Questions

It’s easy to turn both declarative and negative Bulgarian sentences into yes-or-no questions. You just need to add the particle ли after the verb. Let’s see the examples.

Declarative sentences:

• Ти учиш български език в училище.

Ti uchish balgarski ezik v uchilishte.

“You study the Bulgarian language at school.”

• Детето чете интересна книга.

Deteto chete interesna kniga.

“The child reads an interesting book.”

Interrogative sentences made from the above declarative sentences:

• Ти учиш ли български език в училище?

Ti uchish li balgarski ezik v uchilishte?

“Do you study the Bulgarian language at school?”

• Детето чете ли интересна книга?

Deteto chete li interesna kniga?

“Does the child read an interesting book?”

Negative sentences:

• Ти не учиш български език в училище.

Ti ne uchish balgarski ezik v uchilishte.

“You don’t study the Bulgarian language at school.”

• Детето не чете интересна книга.

Deteto ne chete interesna kniga.

“The child doesn’t read an interesting book.”

Interrogative sentences made from the above negative sentences:

• Ти не учиш ли български език в училище?

Ti ne uchish li balgarski ezik v uchilishte?

“Don’t you study the Bulgarian language at school?”

• Детето не чете ли интересна книга?

Deteto ne chete li interesna kniga?

“Doesn’t the child read an interesting book?”

5. Bulgarian Sentence Structure

1- Four types of sentences

Now, it’s time to learn the four types of Bulgarian sentence structures. We’ve already mentioned some of them, but here’s a list of all of them together with examples:

Declarative Sentence

• Ти учиш български език.

Ti uchish balgarski ezik.

“You study the Bulgarian language.”

Interrogative Sentence

• Ти учиш ли български език?

Ti uchish li balgarski ezik.

“Do you study the Bulgarian language?”

Еxclamatory Sentence

• Колко хубаво, че учиш български език!

Kolko huvabo che uchish balgarski ezik!

“How nice that you study the Bulgarian language!”

Imperative Sentence

• Учи български език!

Uchi balgarski ezik!

“Study the Bulgarian language!”

2- Simple Bulgarian sentences

It’s easy to recognize the simple sentence, as it expresses one thought and consists of only one subject and one verb. Simple sentences could be short or long:

Short simple sentence (SV)

• Аз уча.

As ucha.

“I study.”

The longer simple sentences still contain one subject and one verb, but other parts of the sentence are also included:

Long simple sentence (SVO)

• Аз уча български език в училище.

Az ucha balgarski ezik v uchilishte.

“I study the Bulgarian language at school.”

→ BulgarianPod101 can help you learn many more simple Bulgarian sentences that are used in daily life, so you can start practicing your Bulgarian right away! 

3- Complex Bulgarian sentences

The complex sentence has more than one verb and contains two or more thoughts united in a single sentence. Complex sentences could be with two, three, or more verbs. Here are some examples:

Complex sentence with two verbs:

• Аз преподавам английски език, а ти учиш български език.

As prepodavam angliyski ezik, a ti uchish balgarski ezik.

“I teach the English language and you study the Bulgarian language.”

Complex sentence with three verbs

• Аз преподавам английски език, а ти учиш български език и се упражняваш.

As prepodavam angliyski ezik, a ti uchish balgarski ezik i se uprazhnyavash.

“I teach the English language, and you study the Bulgarian language and practice.”

6. Translation Exercises

It’s time to practice! You’re just a few steps from being able to build your own Bulgarian sentences, so take your pen and try to do the exercises below by yourself. Alfred Adler has a great thought:

“Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!“

Don’t worry, we’ll give you the answers at the end of this article.

Step 1.

Translate the following sentence into Bulgarian, following the SVO structure:

You read a book.

Step 2.

Now, try to make your Bulgarian sentence using the OVS structure:

A book read you.

Step 3.

One more structure to practice is the OSV structure. Try it now:

A book you read.

Step 4.

Now, turn the SVO sentence into a question. A tip: just add the particle ли.

Do you read a book?

Step 5.

Now, let’s add some other parts to the sentence to make it longer. Translate the following:

You read an interesting book.

You read a new book in the library.

You often read an interesting book at home.

Step 6.

Now, let’s make a question from the last sentence:

Do you read an interesting book at home?

Step 7.

The last exercise is to make a complex sentence. Are you ready?

You read a new book in the library and I study the Bulgarian language at home.

Bonus exercise: 

Let’s add BulgarianPod101 into the picture. It should sound like this:

You read a new book in the library and I study the Bulgarian language at home with BulgarianPod101. 

7. How BulgarianPod101 Can Help You Untie Your Tongue

BulgarianPod101 prepared this Bulgarian sentence word order guide for you to help you start combining Bulgarian words you’ve learned so far into sentences. We believe that you’re now much more confident in building Bulgarian sentences than before. However, practice is the best teacher. Practice with your Bulgarian friends, while you shop in the market, while you’re reading a book, or while listening to a Bulgarian song.

However, if you need personal guidance to help you perfect your conversational Bulgarian, BulgarianPod101 is also here to help. You can take advantage of a Bulgarian language expert with our MyTeacher program by upgrading to Premium PLUS. Your coach will lead you step-by-step through the Bulgarian grammar and help you successfully overcome all the challenges you now have.

Now, you can check your answers below and let us know in the comments how you did and if you found it difficult. Also let us know how you feel about Bulgarian sentence structure now. Are you still struggling with it or do you find it easier now? We look forward to hearing from you, and we’ll help out the best we can! 

Answers to the translation exercises

Step 1. SVO

“You read a book.”

Ти четеш книга.

Ti chetesh kniga.

Step 2. OVS 

“A book read you.”

Книга четеш ти.

Kniga chetesh ti.

Step 3. OSV 

“A book you read.”

Книга ти четеш.

Kniga ti chetesh.

Step 4. SVO into a question

“Do you read a book?”

Ти четеш ли книга?

Ti chetesh li kniga.

Step 5. Simple long sentences

“You read an interesting book.”

Ти четеш интересна книга.

Ti chetesh interesna kniga.

“You read a new book in the library.”

Ти четеш нова книга в библиотеката.

Ti chetesh nova kniga v bibliotekata.

“You often read an interesting book at home.”

Ти често четеш интересна книга у дома.

Ti chyesto chyetyesh intyeryesna knigua oo doma.

Step 6. Long question

“Do you read an interesting book at home?”

Ти четеш ли интересна книга у дома?

Ti chesto chetesh interesna kniga u doma.

Step 7. Complex sentence

“You read a new book in the library and I study the Bulgarian language at home.”

Ти четеш нова книга в библиотеката, а аз уча български език у дома.
Ti chetesh nova kniga v bibliotekata, a az ucha balgarski ezik u doma.

Bonus exercise: 

“You read a new book in the library and I study the Bulgarian language at home with BulgarianPod101.”

Ти четеш нова книга в библиотеката, а аз уча български език у дома с BulgarianPod101.

Ti chetesh nova kniga v bibliotekata, a az ucha balgarski ezik u doma s BulgarianPod101.