Learn how to describe something, such as the weather, by using adjectives
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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 15, Talking About the Weather in Bulgarian. I’m Jonathan. |
| Iva: Hello. And I’m Iva! |
| Jonathan: In this lesson, you'll learn how to describe something by using adjectives. For example, when you’re talking about the weather. |
| Iva: This conversation again takes place outside. |
| Jonathan: Again, the conversation is between Martin, Irina and Peter. |
| Iva: We know that the speakers are friends already so their speech is informal. |
| Jonathan: OK, let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
| Мартин: Добро утро! А-а, горещо е. Калифорнийското лято е горещо, нали? |
| Питър: В България лятото горещо ли е? |
| Мартин: Да. |
| Ирина: Лятото в България е горещо и сухо. |
| Питър: И сухо? |
| Jonathan: Now let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. (slow speed, broken down by syllable) |
| Мартин: Добро утро! А-а, горещо е. Калифорнийското лято е горещо, нали? |
| Питър: В България лятото горещо ли е? |
| Мартин: Да. |
| Ирина: Лятото в България е горещо и сухо. |
| Питър: И сухо? |
| Jonathan: And now with the English translation. |
| Martin: Good morning! Ah~ it's so hot! |
| :Summer in California is hot, isn't it? |
| Peter: Is summer in Bulgaria hot too? |
| Martin: Yeah. |
| Irina: Summer in Bulgaria is hot and dry. |
| Peter: And dry? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jonathan: So Iva, before jumping into this lesson’s details why don’t we have a chat about the weather? |
| Iva: Ok! Well, in Bulgaria there are four seasons, but they vary depending on the place, and the recent changes to the climate. |
| Jonathan: As far as I know, there are both continental and Mediterranean climates in Bulgaria, with the continental being dominant and stronger during the winter. This results in a lot of snowfall, and that’s what makes winter sports in Bulgaria so good! |
| Iva: That’s right! And the Mediterranean climate, which is mostly in the southern part of Bulgaria, dominates during the second half of summer, and produces hot and dry weather. |
| Jonathan: So that makes Bulgaria perfect for a summer vacation! |
| Iva: Yes. I must also say that the Balkan Mountains act as a barrier, so the north of Bulgaria is colder than the south. And finally, the Black Sea doesn’t influence the weather much; it only affects the immediate area along its coastline. |
| Jonathan: But it’s a wonderful place to go if you want to relax by the seaside. |
| Iva: That’s right! |
| Jonathan: Thanks for the climate information for our listeners! |
| Iva: You’re welcome, “няма защо!” |
| Jonathan: Now 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: добро |
| Jonathan: good; nice; right |
| Iva: добро (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: добро |
| Iva: утро |
| Jonathan: morning |
| Iva: утро (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: утро |
| Iva: лято |
| Jonathan: summer |
| Iva: лято (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: лято |
| Iva: горещо |
| Jonathan: hot |
| Iva: горещо (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: горещо |
| Iva: сухо |
| Jonathan: dry |
| Iva: сухо (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: сухо |
| Iva: България |
| Jonathan: Bulgaria |
| Iva: България (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: България |
| Iva: нали |
| Jonathan: right |
| Iva: нали (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: нали |
| Iva: в |
| Jonathan: in |
| Iva: в (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: в |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Jonathan: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s first? |
| Iva: “Добро утро”. |
| Jonathan: This is one of the three common ways to greet someone. |
| Iva: It is the Bulgarian way to say “Good morning”. |
| Jonathan: And again for our listeners,.. |
| Iva: “Добро утро”. |
| Jonathan: Actually, it literally means “good morning”. |
| Iva: Yep. But note that although “утро” means “morning”, it has a little bit of a poetic meaning; the more common word for “morning” is “сутрин”. |
| Jonathan: OK. Listeners, repeat after Iva. Good morning. |
| Iva: “Добро утро”. [pause] |
| Jonathan: What’s next? |
| Iva: Next we have “Лято” which is one of the four seasons in Bulgaria - summer. |
| Jonathan: Listeners, repeat after Iva. |
| Iva: “Лято”. [pause] |
| Jonathan: Can you tell us the names of the other three seasons? |
| Iva: The other three are “есен”, “зима”, and “пролет”, respectively “autumn”, “winter”, and “spring”. |
| Jonathan: OK, and once again all the four in their order, please. |
| Iva: “пролет”, (spring) “лято”, (summer)“есен”, (autumn), “зима” (winter). |
| Jonathan: Okay! Now let’s go to the grammar! |
Lesson focus |
| Jonathan: In this lesson, we are going to learn how to describe something using adjectives. In English, we say "[A] is…” and then we add an adjective. |
| Iva: Yes. And when we form simple sentences with adjectives in Bulgarian we use the same structure as in English. |
| Jonathan: Can you give us an example? |
| Iva: Let’s imagine we want to say “The weather is nice.” In Bulgarian it will have the same structure - “Времето е хубаво.” |
| Jonathan: “The weather is nice.” Listeners, repeat after Iva. |
| Iva: “Времето е хубаво.” [pause] |
| Jonathan: So to form these simple kinds of sentences we use a noun, then the auxiliary verb in its correct form, and then the corresponding adjective. |
| Iva: The corresponding form of the adjective depends on what gender the noun is. |
| Jonathan: So the sentence “The weather is nice” is in neutral, right? |
| Iva: Yes, listeners please note that in Bulgarian the adjectives change according to the gender and also change their singular or plural form. |
| Jonathan: OK, so can you give us an example in plural? |
| Iva: Before doing so, I must say that the dictionary form of the adjectives is usually in masculine, but the feminine and neutral forms quite often have the typical vowel endings “-а” for the feminine and “-о” for the neutral. Also the plural usually ends in the vowel “-и”. |
| Jonathan: OK, that is how our listeners can remember them easily. What is your example? |
| Iva: “Децата са жадни.” This means “The children are thirsty.” |
| Jonathan: I noticed that this example doesn’t have the ending vowel “-и”. |
| Iva: That is because the noun “дете” is neutral. Maybe you can understand this by thinking about how in English “child” and “children” are also special forms. |
| Jonathan: Anyway, just remember that though there might be some exceptions, learning this basic rule as a starting point can help you recognize the correct form of the adjective. |
| Iva: And of course, the plural form of the adjective requires the plural form of the auxiliary verb. But because we’ve talked about the forms, the listeners shouldn’t have a problem finding the correct one for these types of sentences with adjectives. |
| Jonathan: Can give another example? |
| Iva: “Мъжът е тъжен”. One note here - the definite article is always necessary regardless of the noun’s position in the sentence. Even Bulgarians make this common mistake and forget to use the correct definite article in the masculine form when the noun is at the end of the sentence. |
| Jonathan: So this sentence is incorrect in which case? |
| Iva: If we say “Мъжа е тъжен.” |
| Jonathan: Listeners, repeat the correct one after Iva. |
| Iva: “Мъжът е тъжен”. [pause] It means “The man is sad.” |
| Jonathan: OK, but we are always cheerful, aren’t we? |
| Iva: That’s right! |
| Jonathan: That’s going to do it for this lesson, everyone! So see you next time! |
| Jonathan: Bye! |
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