Learn how to ask about someone's age
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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 17, Asking About Ages in Bulgarian. I’m Jonathan. |
| Iva: Hello. And I’m Iva! |
| Jonathan: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask about somebody's age in Bulgarian. |
| Iva: As usual, the conversation takes place at Peter’s house. |
| Jonathan: The conversation is between Martin, Irina and Peter. They are having fun with baby Sarah. |
| Iva: And as you already know, they know each other so their speech is informal. |
| Jonathan: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
| Ирина: Хей, Питър, къде е малката Сара? |
| Питър: Тук е. |
| Ирина: (in a soft voice) О, колко е сладка... |
| Мартин: Мъничка е, нали. На колко годинки е? |
| Питър: На една годинка е. (Sarah starts to cry). |
| Ирина: Извинявай, извинявай. Шумни ли сме? Съжалявам! |
| Jonathan: Now let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. (slow speed, broken down by syllable) |
| Ирина: Хей, Питър, къде е малката Сара? |
| Питър: Тук е. |
| Ирина: (in a soft voice) О, колко е сладка... |
| Мартин: Мъничка е, нали. На колко годинки е? |
| Питър: На една годинка е. (Sarah starts to cry). |
| Ирина: Извинявай, извинявай. Шумни ли сме? Съжалявам! |
| Jonathan: And now with the English translation. |
| Irina: Hey, Peter, where's little Sarah? |
| Peter: She's over here. |
| Irina: (in a soft voice) Ah, how cute! |
| Martin: She's so small, isn't she? How old is she? |
| Peter: One year old. |
| (Sarah starts to cry) |
| Irina: Oh, I'm sorry, so sorry! Are we loud? I'm sorry! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jonathan: OK, Iva, what can you tell us about age in Bulgaria? |
| Iva: Bulgarian etiquette about asking people’s age is basically the same as it is in other countries. It’s OK to ask young people and the elderly, but when you’re asking women you should be careful. |
| Jonathan: OK, that’s important, isn’t it? |
| Iva: Well, some women will not find it offensive and respond but others might get offended. |
| Jonathan: And if something goes wrong, you should already know how to apologize in Bulgarian! |
| Iva: I hope our listeners won’t find themselves in this situation though! |
| Jonathan: Anyways, what else can you tell us about ages, Iva? |
| Iva: In Bulgaria, people are officially considered adults at the age of 18. |
| Jonathan: So does that mean that if you are 18, you don’t need to show your ID when shopping for certain things..? |
| Iva: Well, some shops won’t sell alcohol or cigarettes to people under the age of 20, and they will often ask for some kind of ID. So be prepared if you’re under 20! |
| Jonathan: In Bulgaria you can start doing driving lessons at the age of 16, and get a license for a motorbike by the age of 17. |
| Iva: And after you turn 18, you can drive a car in Bulgaria. |
| Jonathan: Great! Is there anything else? |
| Iva: Yes, a very interesting thing – statistics show that there are many centenarians in Bulgaria. |
| Jonathan: I think I’ve heard that before actually! |
| Iva: Some say that this is because the environment in Bulgaria is well-protected, and because Bulgarian food is very healthy. |
| Jonathan: And I think some even relate this fact to a single dietary tradition in Bulgaria – the famous Bulgarian yogurt. |
| Iva: That’s true! |
| Jonathan: Okay, now 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: къде |
| Jonathan: where |
| Iva: къде (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: къде |
| Iva: тук |
| Jonathan: here |
| Iva: тук (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: тук |
| Iva: колко |
| Jonathan: how much; how many |
| Iva: колко (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: колко |
| Iva: на |
| Jonathan: of |
| Iva: на (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: на |
| Iva: години |
| Jonathan: years |
| Iva: години (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: години |
| Iva: шумен |
| Jonathan: noisy; loud |
| Iva: шумен (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: шумен |
| Iva: сладък |
| Jonathan: cute; sweet |
| Iva: сладък (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: сладък |
| Iva: мъничък |
| Jonathan: tiny; small |
| Iva: мъничък (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: мъничък |
| 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? |
| Iva: First we are going to talk about “На”. |
| Jonathan: It’s a Bulgarian preposition with many meanings. |
| Iva: Yes. The most common include “of” (as in this lesson); “to”; “on”; “in”; “for”; “at”; “by” and others. |
| Jonathan: Wow, that’s kind of difficult to memorize. |
| Iva: Well, based on the nouns it’s attached to, you can guess its meaning. |
| Jonathan: I see. And in this lesson it means “of”. |
| Iva: Yes, that’s it. |
| Jonathan: What is next? |
| Iva: “Сладък”. |
| Jonathan: Oh, such a nice word! |
| Iva: Indeed it is! Its first meaning in Bulgarian is “sweet”, but is also very often used as “cute”. |
| Jonathan: It’s an adjective, right? Can you tell us all the forms in the different genders? |
| Iva: Yes. They are “сладък” (masculine), “сладичка” (feminine), “сладичко” (neutral), and “сладички” in the plural. |
| Jonathan: Wait a second, “сладък” is like “сладичка”? |
| Iva: That’s right! Actually its diminutive form is “сладичък” and “сладичка”, “сладичко”, and “сладички” are all diminutive forms. |
| Jonathan: I see now, it’s because we are talking about a cute baby! |
| Iva: Exactly! That is why our last word, “Мъничък” means “tiny” but also is in diminutive form. |
| Jonathan: The diminutive form of the adjective for “small”, right? |
| Iva: Yes - small is “малък” in Bulgarian, but when it(s used to describe things that are very small and cute we say “Мъничък”. |
| Jonathan: Ok, got it!. |
| Iva: I think that’s all for the vocabulary and phrases now. |
| Jonathan: Now about the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
| Jonathan: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask about ages. |
| Iva: In the dialogue, we had “На колко годинки е?” |
| Jonathan: This one is for babies, isn’t it? |
| Iva: Yes, because the word for “years” is again in its diminutive form, “годинки”. |
| Jonathan: OK, could you repeat the whole sentence again for our listeners? |
| Iva: “На колко годинки е?” |
| Jonathan: And how do we ask the same question about grown-ups? |
| Iva: “На колко години е?” |
| Jonathan: It’s that simple. |
| Iva: Wait, but this question doesn’t sound natural for grown-ups. |
| Jonathan: Why is that? |
| Iva: Because we ask “How old is she/he” when we ask about babies mainly because they cannot speak yet. |
| Jonathan: Ahh, right. So when we ask someone who is older we usually say “How old are YOU”, right? |
| Iva: Yes! So in Bulgarian this is “На колко години си?” |
| Jonathan: Please, repeat that for our listeners, Iva. |
| Iva: “На колко години си?” |
| Jonathan: So here the auxiliary verb changes from “е” meaning “is” to “си” meaning “are”. |
| Iva: Yes, and note that this “are” in Bulgarian is the one used only for second person singular. |
| Jonathan: So if we ask two or more people, or if we ask in a polite way about age we will use the plural form. |
| Iva: That’s right! And the sentence changes to “На колко години сте?” |
| Jonathan: It might not be heard often, but just for practice, repeat it again please. |
| Iva: “На колко години сте?” |
| Jonathan: And the informal one… |
| Iva: “На колко години си?” |
| Jonathan: OK, for more examples, listeners, please check our lesson notes. |
| Iva: And practice by asking friends, “На колко години си?” |
| Jonathan: What could be the answer, Iva? |
| Iva: Well, for example “На 22”. |
| Jonathan: “На колко години си?” |
| Iva: “На-а…”. Ok, let’s skip that part. |
| Jonathan: OK (laughs). Listeners, make sure you check the lesson notes for more practice. |
| Iva: And stay tuned for the next lesson. |
| Jonathan: Bye everyone! |
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