Learn about some common mistakes made by native Bulgarian speakers
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Intro |
|---|
| Michael: How do you say "no" in Bulgarian? |
| Yana: And what is a double negative? |
| Michael: At BulgarianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Picture the following situation: Nikola, a highschool student, has just returned home. Upon seeing him, his mother asks, |
| "Did you meet your friends?" |
| Tanya Kamenova: Видя ли се с приятелите ти? (Vidya li se s priyatelite ti?) |
| Dialogue |
| Tanya Kamenova: Видя ли се с приятелите ти? (Vidya li se s priyatelite ti?) |
| Nikola Kamenov: Не, с никого не се видях. (Ne, s nikogo ne se vidyah.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Tanya Kamenova: Видя ли се с приятелите ти? (Vidya li se s priyatelite ti?) |
| Michael: "Did you meet your friends?" |
| Nikola Kamenov: Не, с никого не се видях. (Ne, s nikogo ne se vidyah.) |
| Michael: "No, I didn't meet anyone. " |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, you'll learn how to say "no" in Bulgarian and what the "double negative" is. First, let's review how to make a simple negative sentence. In Bulgarian, you make a negative sentence with the use of the word |
| Yana: не (ne) |
| Michael: which literally means "no." In most cases, you simply add this word before a verb to get its negative form. For instance, if you want to say, "I don't want to eat," you can say |
| Yana: Не искам да ям. (Ne iskam da yam.) |
| Michael: Here, you simply added the word for "no," which is |
| Yana: не (ne) |
| Michael: before the verb |
| Yana: ям (yam) |
| Michael: or "eat." Let's hear that once more. |
| Yana: Не искам да ям. (Ne iskam da yam.) |
| Michael: The word for "no" here is also the very word that you use when answering a yes–no question, which you simply add at the beginning of the sentence. For example, if you're asked, |
| Yana: Искаш ли да ядеш? (Iskash li da yadesh?) |
| Michael: which means "Do you want to eat?" You can respond with: |
| Yana: Не. Не искам да ям. (Ne. Ne iskam da yam.) |
| Michael: "No. I don't want to eat." There are special cases, though, when simply adding the word "no" before the verb does not work, such as in this example: |
| Yana: Нямам кола. (Nyamam kola.) |
| Michael: This means, "I don't have a car." Here, instead of |
| Yana: не (ne), |
| Michael: we used the negation |
| Yana: ня (nya) |
| Michael: which we attached to the verb |
| Yana: имам (imam) |
| Michael: meaning "I have," so that it became |
| Yana: нямам (nyamam) |
| Michael: or "I don't have." Again, keep in mind that this is a special case and it doesn't apply to all verbs. |
| Michael: Now, let's talk about double negation in the Bulgarian language. Double negation is a construction that uses two negative forms in a sentence. In English, a very common example would be "I didn't say nothing." Double negation is accepted in colloquial English, but never in formal or standard English since it is grammatically incorrect. Some dialects use this type of construction to emphasize the negative clause in a sentence. |
| Michael: The same can be said when it comes to Bulgarian. In Bulgarian, double negation is accepted as grammatically correct, but not when it is used instead of a single negative form. Here's an example of a double negative that's grammatically acceptable: |
| Yana: Никой никъде никога нищо не е направил. (Nikoiy nikade nikoga nishto ne e napravil.) |
| Michael: This means "Nobody has ever done anything, anywhere," although it's literally "Nobody nowhere never nothing did not do," which sounds awkward. Here's another one: |
| Yana: Никога не съм бил там. (Nikoga ne sam bil tam.) |
| Michael: This is literally "I never did not go there," but it's translated as "I have never been there." |
| [Recall] |
| Michael: Now let's take a look at our dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Nikola Kamenov says "No, I didn't meet anyone?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Yana as Nikola Kamenov: Не, с никого не се видях. (Ne, s nikogo ne se vidyah.) |
| Michael: This literally means "No, I didn't meet anyone." Here, you can see the main negation word |
| Yana: не (ne) |
| Michael: which means "no," followed by a verb conjugated appropriately. This example illustrates the simple verb negation in Bulgarian. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned how to make a negative sentence in Bulgarian, and how the "double negative" works. In Bulgarian, two negative words in the same sentence don't make a positive, but create the negation. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: Did you know that Bulgaria is one of the few places on Earth where people say "Yes" by shaking their heads and say "No" with a nod, or |
| Yana: кимване (kimvane)? |
| Michael: However, as times have changed, so has this practice. As many Bulgarians have traveled and lived abroad, they have also adopted the universal sign of nodding to say "Yes" and shaking the head to say "No." What's even more interesting is that Bulgarians do use the nod for confirmation, or |
| Yana: потвърждение (potvаrzhdenie) |
| Michael: and the shaking of the head for negation, or |
| Yana: отрицание (otritsanie) |
| Michael: However, that would be a different topic for a different time! |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Yana: До скоро! (Do skoro!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide