Learn how to use the past imperfect
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to BulgarianPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 14 - An Unfortunate Accident in Bulgaria. Eric here. |
| Tina: Здравейте. I'm Tina. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the past imperfect when talking about an accident. The conversation takes place on the street. |
| Tina: It's between Dimitar and Gergana. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends, so they’ll use informal Bulgarian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Димитър: (по телефона) Хей, какво става? Къде си, чакам те отвън? |
| Гергана: (по телефона) Не питай... До 10 мин съм при теб. |
| Димитър: (след малко време) Бебо, какво се е случило? Защо така куцаш? |
| Гергана: Остави се, след като се чухме, отскочих навън за един сандвич. Пред офиса две коли се бяха ударили. Докато ги гледах, взех че се спънах. Паднах по стълбите. Скъсах си новите панталони. |
| Димитър: Остави панталоните, какво е това на лицето ти? |
| Гергана: Ударих си главата в перилата, за капак на всичко. |
| Димитър: Отиде ли на доктор, да нямаш сътресение? |
| Гергана: Няма страшно. Една-две синини. Важното е, че всичко отмина. |
| Димитър: О, милото ми. Хайде да се прибираме. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Dimitar: (on the phone) Hi, what's happening? Where are you, I’m waiting for you outside. |
| Gergana: (on the phone) Don't ask... I'll be with you in 10 min. |
| Dimitar: (after some time) Babe, what's happened? Why are you limping? |
| Gergana: Oh dear, after we talked on the phone, I ran down for a sandwich. In front of the office, two cars had crashed. While I was looking at them, I tripped over something. I fell down the stairs. I ripped my new pants. |
| Dimitar: Forget the pants, what is that on your face? |
| Gergana: I bumped my head against the banisters, on top of everything. |
| Dimitar: Did you go to see a doctor? You might have a concussion. |
| Gergana: Don't bother. It’s a bruise or two. Everything's over, that's what's important. |
| Dimitar: Oh, my dear. Let's go home. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: There was an article in The Economist titled “The Rich, the Poor, and Bulgaria,” which reported on research that focussed on the relationship between economic well-being and happiness. Tina, have you heard about it? |
| Tina: Yes, the article had an unexpected impact as it became a topic of discussion in the country and made people more aware of some cultural traits of Bulgarians. For example, the tendency of Bulgarians to talk about their worries, and the way they easily share their life stories. |
| Eric: So long-distance buses or trains would be a good place to make friends with Bulgarian people... |
| Tina: You’ll definitely find someone to talk to! In general, most Bulgarian people have not just one close confidant, but rather share different bits of their lives with different people. |
| Eric: So, as they said in that article, being in Bulgaria is like being immersed in collective “psychotherapy." |
| Tina: Right, and in fact, going to see a specialist when you are troubled is still not very common in Bulgaria. People prefer to talk things over with friends. |
| Eric: I see. If we ever want to complain and share our troubles with a Bulgarian friend, what could we say? |
| Tina: You could start by saying Момент, да ти се оплача... |
| Eric: "Hold on, let me complain to you for a bit ..." Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Tina: отвън [natural native speed] |
| Eric: outside |
| Tina: отвън[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: отвън [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: куцам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to limp |
| Tina: куцам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: куцам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: чувам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to hear |
| Tina: чувам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: чувам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: отскачам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to run to, to slip across to |
| Tina: отскачам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: отскачам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: удрям [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to hit, to bump, to crash (cars) |
| Tina: удрям [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: удрям [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: спъвам се [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to trip over, to stumble over |
| Tina: спъвам се[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: спъвам се [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: падам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to fall down, to come off |
| Tina: падам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: падам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: скъсвам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to tear, to rip |
| Tina: скъсвам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: скъсвам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: сътресение [natural native speed] |
| Eric: concussion |
| Tina: сътресение[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: сътресение [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Tina: синина [natural native speed] |
| Eric: bruise |
| Tina: синина[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: синина [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Tina: чувам се |
| Eric: meaning "to hear oneself." |
| Tina: чувам се is the reflexive form of the verb чувам,"to hear." This verb is usually used in the phrase чувам се с някого (по телефона), where с is the conjunction "with," някого is the indefinite pronoun "someone, anyone" in masculine in the accusative, and по телефона literally means "on the phone." |
| Eric: The phrase is quite colloquial. |
| Tina: Yes, and people leave out the по телефона in informal conversations. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this verb? |
| Tina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Всяка вечер тя се чува по телефона с майка си. |
| Eric: ..which means "Every evening she has a talk on the phone with her mother." |
| Tina: In a formal context, the verb разговарям meaning "to talk,” or “to have a talk," is better. As in, разговарям с някого по телефона. |
| Eric: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Tina: отскачам до |
| Eric: meaning "to run to" |
| Tina: отскачам is an imperfective verb meaning "to bounce." Its perfective form is отскоча. When used with the preposition до meaning "to," it means "to go quickly to" somewhere. |
| Eric: The phrase is only used in informal contexts. Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Tina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Ще отскочиш ли до магазина да купиш мляко, моля? |
| Eric: .. which means "Would you please run to the store to buy some milk?" |
| Tina: An alternative expression in informal contexts would be отивам набързо до магазина, |
| Eric: "to go quickly to the shop." In a formal conversation, though, the more explicit expression is better. |
| Tina: And that’s отивам за кратко до магазина, "to go briefly to the store." |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the past imperfect when talking about an accident. When talking about unexpected accidents, in Bulgarian we use different past tenses based on whether we witnessed the event or are retelling something that we have heard. |
| Tina: If we were present at the accident, most of our story will be told in past imperfect tense. If we are asking questions for more details, we use the past aorist tense. |
| Eric: In Lesson 8 we introduced the past aorist tense, which in some of its applications might be compared to the English simple past tense. The tense in Bulgarian most closely related to the English continuous past is the past imperfect tense. It’s used in three very specific situations. |
| Tina: The first and most common use is to talk about a particular situation which happened at a specific moment in the past. Very often, it’s used to set the background of a story. For example, Когато се запознахме, той все още живееше с родителите си. |
| Eric: “When we met, he was still living with his parents.” What’s the second use? |
| Tina: The past imperfect is also used to express past actions which were usual or repetitive, but then all the verbs of the consecutive actions will be in past imperfect. For example, Когато бях ученик, всяка сутрин се будех в 6 ч. |
| Eric: “When I was a student, I used to wake up at 6 am.” |
| Tina: Finally, it also has one very specific modal use, when the speaker wants to ask for a reminder, implying that the speaker was already aware of the details. For example Вие как се казвахте? |
| Eric: ”What was your name?” Okay, now let’s see the conjugation. Both imperfective and perfective verbs have past imperfect forms. They are conjugated following the same “formula” as past aorist. |
| Tina: The conjugation patterns in past imperfect are significantly simpler than the ones in past aorist. |
| Eric: Listeners, in the lesson notes you will find the conjugation tables for the three different groups of verbs. Let’s see more examples, which will help us to better understand both the past imperfect and the past aorist. |
| Tina: We use the past imperfect to express that an action was happening in the past and has not been completed at the moment of speaking. В 8 часа вечерта, той все още гледаше телевизия. |
| Eric: "At eight in the evening he was still watching TV." |
| Tina: It can also be used to express two actions occurring at the same time in the past. Когато работеше, той всеки ден ходеше пеша до работа. |
| Eric: “When he was employed, he used to walk to work every day.” |
| Tina: It also expresses habitual actions that used to occur in the past. For example, Когато тя беше малка, ходеше всяка ваканция при баба си и дядо си. |
| Eric: "When she was little, she used to go to stay with her grandparents every holiday." |
| Tina: On the other hand, you use the past aorist to express an action that occurred and was completed in the past. Той гледа телевизия до 8 ч. вечерта. |
| Eric: "He watched TV till eight in the evening." |
| Tina: or to express two actions that were completed in the past and occurred one after the other. Излязох с приятели, след като приключих с домашните си. |
| Eric: "I went out with my friends after I finished my homework." Now, let’s take a look at how we can use them together. |
| Tina: You use both the past imperfect and past aorist together to express two past actions - the past imperfect action that was happening during the time of speaking, and the past aorist that was a sudden or completed action. For example, Той беше в кухнята, когато телефонът иззвъня. |
| Eric: Which means “Не was in the kitchen when the phone rang.” |
| Tina: Телефонът звънеше, но той не го чуваше. |
| Eric: “The phone was ringing, but he was not hearing it.” |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Tina: До скоро! |
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