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! |
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