Learn how to point at something to learn the Bulgarian word for the item
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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 8, Receiving a Bulgarian Souvenir. I’m Jonathan. |
| Iva: Hello. And I’m Iva! |
| Jonathan: In this lesson, you'll learn how to say and ask what something is. |
| Iva: The conversation takes place at Peter’s house. |
| Jonathan: It’s between Irina and Peter. |
| Iva: The speakers have been introduced to each other, so now they are using informal speech. |
| Jonathan: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
| Ирина: Питър, това е сувенир от България, заповядай. |
| Питър: Много благодаря. |
| Ирина: Не е нищо особено. |
| Jonathan: Now let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. (slow speed, broken down by syllable) |
| Ирина: Питър, това е сувенир от България, заповядай. |
| Питър: Много благодаря. |
| Ирина: Не е нищо особено. |
| Jonathan: And Now with the English translation. |
| Ирина: Питър, това е сувенир от България, заповядай. |
| Irina: Peter, this is a souvenir from Bulgaria for you. |
| Питър: Много благодаря. |
| Peter: Thank you very much! |
| Ирина: Не е нищо особено. |
| Irina: Don't mention it. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jonathan: Okay Iva, let’s talk about the Bulgarian custom of presenting a gift when you’re visiting someone. |
| Iva: Bulgarians like to give and receive presents, and since there are many holidays in Bulgaria, including birthdays, name days (or saint days), Christianity-related holidays, and so on, people often bring presents when they visit someone’s home. |
| Jonathan: I know that one tradition is bringing flowers for the hostess, and maybe a bottle of spirits for the host when you visit someone’s home. |
| Iva: Yes, that’s right. |
| Jonathan: Is there anything else we need to know about gift-giving? |
| Iva: Yes, the word that is used for these types of gifts in Bulgarian is “подарък” or “gift”. |
| Jonathan: Great, good to know! Are you ready to move onto the vocab? |
| Iva: Yes, let’s go! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jonathan: Now let’s take a look at the vocabulary in this lesson. The first word we shall see is... |
| Iva: това |
| Jonathan: this |
| Iva: това (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: това |
| Iva: сувенир |
| Jonathan: souvenir |
| Iva: сувенир (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: сувенир |
| Iva: България |
| Jonathan: Bulgaria |
| Iva: България (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: България |
| Iva: заповядай |
| Jonathan: Please take it! |
| Iva: заповядай (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: заповядай |
| Iva: Много благодаря |
| Jonathan: Thank you very much |
| Iva: Много благодаря (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: Много благодаря |
| Iva: Нищо особено |
| Jonathan: Nothing special |
| Iva: Нищо особено (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: Нищо особено |
| Iva: не |
| Jonathan: not; no |
| Iva: не (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: не |
| Iva: от |
| Jonathan: from |
| Iva: от (slow, broken down by syllable) |
| Iva: от |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jonathan: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What are we starting with? |
| Iva: The name of my home country, "България". |
| Jonathan: This is, of course, where the Bulgarian language originated from. |
| Iva: Yes, the Bulgarian language, or “Български”. |
| Jonathan: Can you repeat them again for our listeners? |
| Iva: Of course, "България", Bulgaria, and “Български”, Bulgarian. Sometimes we say “Български език” to emphasize the difference between the Bulgarian language and the adjective “Bulgarian”. |
| Jonathan: You mean the adjective in the masculine form. |
| Iva: Yes, because the adjective changes in the different gender forms but the Bulgarian language (when we don’t say the word language) sounds the same as the adjective in masculine. |
| Jonathan: OK, I think I got it. Could you repeat for the listeners how would you say Bulgarian language? |
| Iva: “Български език”. |
| Jonathan: OK. Now what is our next word? |
| Iva: “Сувенир”. |
| Jonathan: “Souvenir”. That sounds so similar to the English word! |
| Iva: Yes, but the intonation is different. |
| Jonathan: And again we have that hard Slavic “-r”. |
| Iva: Yep, please remember it. |
| Jonathan: OK. So the word is of foreign origin, in Bulgarian. |
| Iva: That’s correct. Just like the word “мерси” which we were talking about in our previous lesson. |
| Jonathan: And what is the last word you are going to talk about? |
| Iva: “Нищо особено”. |
| Jonathan: It means something along the lines of “It’s nothing special”. |
| Iva: But it is used also to mark the meaning of “Don’t mention it” especially when giving a gift. |
| Jonathan: I see. Listeners, repeat the phrase after Iva. |
| Iva: “Нищо особено”. [pause] |
| Jonathan: Great. Now let’s look at the grammar. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Jonathan: The focus of this lesson is saying and asking what something is. This is an extension of the last lesson. |
| Iva: Using “Това е...” |
| Jonathan: “This is…” Can you say it again? Listeners, listen and repeat. |
| Iva: “Това е...” [pause] |
| Jonathan: Could you tell us more about its usage? |
| Iva: When you want to introduce something or someone, or explain what something is in Bulgarian, you use the phrase “Това е...” |
| Jonathan: So it’s a set phrase you can say when you’re addressing people, or pointing at inanimate objects. Very useful! |
| Iva: Yes. You can add the interrogative particle “ли” (“li”) which is very typical for the Bulgarian language. |
| Jonathan: That is when you want to ask a question about something. Like “Is this [blank]?” |
| Iva: Yes, it sounds like that in Bulgarian: “Това [blank] ли е?” |
| Jonathan: Give us an example. |
| Iva: “Това новата ти кола ли е?” |
| Jonathan: "Is this your new car?" |
| Iva: And “Yes, this is my new car.” would be “Да, това е новата ми кола”. |
| Jonathan: How about the cases when we are not asking a question. Give us an example of that. |
| Iva: “Това е шопска салата.” x2 |
| Jonathan: “This is шопска салата.” What is шопска салата by the way, Iva? |
| Iva: Шопска салата is a very delicious traditional Bulgarian salad. |
| Jonathan: OK, this next one is a really important example. |
| Iva: “Това е за теб.” |
| Jonathan: “This is for you”. |
| Iva: You can use this when you give a present to someone close to you, a friend, family member, boyfriend or girlfriend. |
| Jonathan: OK. Listeners, repeat that phrase after Iva. |
| Iva: “Това е за теб.”[pause] |
| Jonathan: And how would you ask “Is this for me?” |
| Iva: Again we will use the particle for forming questions, “ли”. |
| Jonathan: And how will the sentence sound? Listeners, repeat after Iva. |
| Iva: “Това за мен ли е?”[pause] |
| Jonathan: Nice! How would you ask if something is something else, for example, “Is this water?” |
| Iva: Interesting example! Actually we can ask the question without the particle “ли”. “Това е [water]?” |
| Jonathan: “Is this water?” I notice how your intonation changed when you didn’t use the particle “ли”. |
| Iva: Yes, without it we can form simpler questions but note that the word order changes. If we use the particle, it will sound like “Това [water] ли е?” |
| Jonathan: Can you repeat them both, please. |
| Iva: Without “ли”, “Това е [water]?” |
| Jonathan: And with “ли”. |
| Iva: “Това [water] ли е?” |
| Jonathan: OK, I think we’ll leave it there for this lesson. The listeners can find many more examples in the lesson notes. |
| Iva: So please make sure to check them.... |
| Jonathan: ...and practice some more! |
| Iva: OK, see you next time! |
| Jonathan: Bye everyone! |
Comments
HideWhat do you have with you now? Could you introduce each one using the word Това е?
Hello Erick!
Thank you for the perfect question! Да, приеми този курс като подарък. Той ще ти помогне да говориш български още по-добре. :)
Keep up the great work and enjoy your studies!
Cheers,
Viktoria
Team BulgarianPod101.com
Hello Sandra!
Years ago, people used to bring mainly carnations to funerals. Now, you can see all types of flowers, they just have to be even numbers – 2,4,6, etc. The reason why people picked carnations is that they are cheaper. It was popular to bring carnations to your teacher on the first day at school (for the same reason) but uneven number.
So, you can bring any flowers you like. The only important thing is that they should be UNEVEN numbers for good occasions and EVEN numbers for funerals and similar rituals. Anyway, my advice is to avoid carnations. ;)
I hope this makes sense to you. Keep up the great work and enjoy your studies!
Kind regards,
Viktoria
Team BulgarianPod101.com
Hello,
I've heard that in Bulgaria there is something with the flowers. Some colors are special for when a person lost someone and is in grief. So you you shouldn't give in other situations and also the type of flower is important, and even if it's even or uneven. Is this true and what are the rules? Now I just bring some sweets to be safe ;)
Hi Yeh,
This is really kind of you. Това е ❤️️ от нас специално за Йе.
Cheers,
Viktoria
Team BulgarianPod101.com
Здравейте,това е ❤️️ от Йе,заповядайте.