Learn how to ask about something using question words that mean "when," "where," and the like
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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 13, Finding a Bulgarian Bathroom. I’m Jonathan. |
| Iva: Hello. And I’m Iva! |
| Jonathan: In this lesson you'll learn how to ask about something using question words like when, where, etc. |
| Iva: This conversation takes place at Peter’s house. |
| Jonathan: It’s between Martin, Irina and Peter. Martin and Irina have been invited to dinner at Peter’s house. |
| Iva: And the speakers know each other so their speech is informal. |
| Jonathan: Ok, let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
| Мартин и Ирина: Беше много вкусно! |
| Мартин: (stomach rumbling) Аа... Извинявам се, къде е тоалетната? |
| Питър: Тоалетната е там. |
| Мартин: Там? Мерси. (runs off) |
| Jonathan: Now let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. (slow speed, broken down by syllable) |
| Мартин и Ирина: Беше много вкусно! |
| Мартин: (stomach rumbling) Аа... Извинявам се, къде е тоалетната? |
| Питър: Тоалетната е там. |
| Мартин: Там? Мерси. (runs off) |
| Jonathan: And now with the English translation. |
| Martin and Irina: It was very delicious! |
| Martin: (stomach rumbling) Umm, excuse me. Where's the bathroom? |
| Peter: The bathroom is over there. |
| Martin: Over there? Thanks. (runs off) |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jonathan: OK, so now we know how to ask about the bathroom in Bulgarian. |
| Iva: Being able to ask about it is very important, because sometimes in restaurants and other places, the signs for the restrooms look different. |
| Jonathan: How so? |
| Iva: Well, there is the usual red and blue color for women and men; the women and men silhouettes; the sign “WC”; or even sometimes the sign “00” (zero-zero?). |
| Jonathan: Okay, that’s good to know! What other cultural information do we have here? |
| Iva: Another important cultural tip is about how to get important information. |
| Jonathan: Asking direct questions like the ones starting with “wh-” question words in English is very common. |
| Iva: In Bulgarian too – it is not considered rude or too direct. You can ask about things you don’t understand, and you’ll get a polite answer. |
| Jonathan: Yes, but as in English,don’t forget to use the “golden” words like “thank you” and “please”. |
| Iva: Exactly. Again, they are “благодаря” and “моля” in Bulgarian and you can get all the information you need with them! |
| Jonathan: Let’s move onto the vocab! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jonathan: Now let’s take a look at the vocabulary in this lesson. The first word we shall see is... |
| Iva: много |
| Jonathan: very much |
| Iva: много (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: много |
| Iva: вкусно |
| Jonathan: tasty; delicious |
| Iva: вкусно (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: вкусно |
| Iva: тоалетна |
| Jonathan: toilet; restroom |
| Iva: тоалетна (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: тоалетна |
| Iva: къде |
| Jonathan: where |
| Iva: къде (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: къде |
| Iva: там |
| Jonathan: there |
| Iva: там (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: там |
| Iva: извинявам се |
| Jonathan: Excuse me |
| Iva: извинявам се (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: извинявам се |
| Iva: мерси |
| Jonathan: thanks |
| Iva: мерси (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: мерси |
| Iva: бях |
| Jonathan: was |
| Iva: бях (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: бях |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Jonathan: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Iva: The first one from this dialogue should be “тоалетна”. |
| Jonathan: Of course. And this means “restroom”, right Iva? |
| Iva: Right. Although in English and other languages there are more many words for the ‘restroom,’ in Bulgarian this is the only one. |
| Jonathan: So it’s easy to remember! |
| Iva: But please note that it is pronounced differently than the English word “toilet”. |
| Jonathan: Can you repeat it for our listeners please? |
| Iva: “тоалетна”. |
| Jonathan: So if we want to ask “where is the restroom”.. how do you say “where” in Bulgarian? |
| Iva: “Къде”. |
| Jonathan: Can you tell us more about this word? |
| Iva: Sure! Note that the Bulgarian question words start with the letter “к-” where the English ones usually start with “wh-”. |
| Jonathan: For example? |
| Iva: So “кога”, when, “кой”, who, “какво”, what, “колко”, how much, and “Къде”, meaning “where”. |
| Jonathan: We’ll go over these words and how to make questions with them in the grammar section. OK, what’s the third vocab point? |
| Iva: “Там”. It’s a demonstrative adverb meaning “there” or “over there”. |
| Jonathan: And how do we say “here”? |
| Iva: In Bulgarian “here” is “тук”. |
| Jonathan: Easy! |
| Iva: It’s even easier than you think! Again, some of the most common adverbs start with the same letter – “т”. |
| Jonathan: Really? What are some examples? |
| Iva: For example “толкова”, “тогава”; meaning “this much” and “then”. |
| Jonathan: OK, I think we’ve had lots of new words in this lesson. |
| Iva: Yes, but I think they’re easy to remember. |
| Jonathan: Just keep practicing with us! All right, now it’s time for some grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Jonathan: Ok, in this lesson you’ll learn how to ask about something, using the words for ‘where’, ‘when, and so on. |
| Iva: In Bulgarian, we use a question word and “е” plus the word we are asking about. |
| Jonathan: So to ask questions in Bulgarian, you must use the question words like “where”, “when”, “how”, etc. |
| Iva: Exactly. Then we add the auxiliary verb in its correct form. |
| Jonathan: And at the end we put the object we are asking about, right? |
| Iva: Yes, that’s right. |
| Jonathan: Please give us some examples Iva. How would you ask “What is the time?” in Bulgarian? |
| Iva: If you want to ask this question, it will be “Колко е часът?” where “колко” literally means “how much”. |
| Jonathan: As we’ve said, most Bulgarian question words start with the letter “к”. |
| Iva: Yes. “кой”, “who”, “къде”, “where”, “кога”, “when”, “кога”, “how”, “какво”, “what”, “колко”, “how much” and “защо”, which is “why”. |
| Jonathan: So remember that when we ask such questions in Bulgarian, we usually put the question word first, then add the auxiliary verb in its appropriate form, and then the noun we are asking about. |
| Iva: For example, “Къде е изходът?” means “Where is the exit?” |
| Jonathan: Remember to practice the question words, because the structure doesn’t really change, and once you know them you can ask any kind of question in Bulgarian. |
| Iva: Yes, and when you are a foreigner in Bulgaria and you need information, it is OK to ask as many questions as you can. |
| Jonathan: But don’t forget that it is better to use the words that will make your question more polite. |
| Iva: And we’ve already talked about some of these in this series. |
| Jonathan: But could you repeat some for our listeners? |
| Iva: Sure! For example, “Извинете, кога ще пристигне влака?” |
| Jonathan: What does it mean? |
| Iva: “Excuse me, when will the train arrive?” |
| Jonathan: OK, I think that’s enough for our listeners for now. |
| Iva: Yes, but please practice what you’ve learned in this lesson. |
| Jonathan: And we’ll see you for the next one. |
| Iva: Yes, bye everyone! |
| Jonathan: See you next time! |
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