Learn how to use the imperative form
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to BulgarianPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 18 - A Trip to the Bulgarian Dentist. Eric Here. |
| Tina: Здравейте. I'm Tina. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the imperative form, which would be used by your dentist. The conversation takes place at the dentist's office. |
| Tina: It's between Gergana and Andrey. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends, so they will use informal Bulgarian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Андрей: Заповядай! |
| Гергана: Здрасти, Андро! Много благодаря, че ме изчака. |
| Андрей: Казах ти, няма проблем. Дай сега да видим каква е ситуацията. Къде те боли? |
| Гергана: Предпоследният зъб горе вляво. Споменах ти за случката. Паднах на едни стълби. Беше ми леко замаяно след това. Добре, че Митко ме взе вечерта. Не знам дали е свързано, но след това започна да ме боли този зъб. Когато пия студено и когато дъвча. |
| Андрей: Добре. Отвори сега уста... Това е малко въздух, може да заболи... Сега студена вода... |
| Гергана: Ох, заболя. |
| Андрей: Разбирам. Но всичко ми изглежда наред. Може да е просто от удара, болката да е от друго място, но се пренася по нерва и ти създава дискомфорт. |
| Гергана: Ясно. |
| Андрей: Предлагам ти засега да изчакаме. Ще дойдеш да погледна отново след 3-4 дена. Дотогава не натоварвай много зъбите от тази страна. Дъвчи на дясната. Няколко пъти на ден можеш да натриваш венеца с малко паста за зъби. Това трябва да успокои нещата. |
| Гергана: Добре, дано да мине само с това. Ако може от сега да запишем час... |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Andrey: Welcome! |
| Gergana: Hi, Andro! Thank you very much for waiting for me. |
| Andrey: I told you, it is quite fine. Let me see now what the situation is. Where do you feel pain? |
| Gergana: The tooth before the last one, top left. I mentioned about the incident. I fell down some stairs. I felt slightly dizzy afterwards. At least Mitko picked me up in the evening. I do not know whether it is related, but later, this tooth started to hurt me. When I drink something cold, and when chewing. |
| Andrey: All right. Open your mouth now... It's a little air, it might hurt... And now cold water... |
| Gergana: Ouch, it hurts. |
| Andrey: I see. But everything looks fine for me. It might just be the blow. It hurts somewhere, but the pain travels along the nerve and creates this discomfort. |
| Gergana: I see. |
| Andrey: Let's wait for now. You will come back in three-four days and I will take a look again. Until then, do not overtax the teeth on this side. Try to chew on the right one. Several times a day, you can rub the gum with some toothpaste. It should soothe it down. |
| Gergana: All right, I hope it will be enough. If we can make the appointment now... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Tina, could you tell us something about dental services in Bulgaria? |
| Tina: The dental health insurance provided by the national healthcare system in Bulgaria is very limited and quite inadequate for people with more severe dental problems. This means that most Bulgarians consider dental services to be private.. |
| Eric: What are the costs? |
| Tina: Prices might sometimes be considered high for the local market, but are still cheap according to the Western European standards, so in recent years medical and dental tourism has started. This is also because the quality of the services is quite high. |
| Eric: That’s quite interesting. Is there anything we should know before going to the dentist in Bulgaria? |
| Tina: Most often, dentists require an appointment time to be set, but they admit urgent cases as well. |
| Eric: It may also be good to learn some related vocab, can you give us some? |
| Tina: For example, постоянна пломба |
| Eric: "a permanent inlay”. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Tina: изчаквам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to wait for someone, to await |
| Tina: изчаквам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: изчаквам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: давам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to give |
| Tina: давам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: давам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: предпоследен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: second to last, the one before the last |
| Tina: предпоследен[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: предпоследен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: случка [natural native speed] |
| Eric: event, happening |
| Tina: случка[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: случка [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: замаян [natural native speed] |
| Eric: dizzy, lightheaded |
| Tina: замаян[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: замаян [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: дъвча [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to munch, to chew |
| Tina: дъвча[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: дъвча [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: заболявам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to start to hurt |
| Tina: заболявам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: заболявам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: болка [natural native speed] |
| Eric: pain, hurt |
| Tina: болка[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: болка [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: засега [natural native speed] |
| Eric: for now |
| Tina: засега[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: засега [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Tina: натривам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to rub in |
| Tina: натривам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: натривам [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Tina: дай сега да |
| Eric: meaning "Let's (do something) now " |
| Tina: Breaking this down, дай is the imperative form in singular of the verb давам, "to give"; it is also used as an exclamation for invitation; сега is the adverb "now", and да is the particle from the da-form of the verbs and indicates that a verb is needed to follow the phrase. |
| Eric: The phrase is quite colloquial and can be used mainly among people who know each other in an informal context. Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Tina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Събрахме се най-сетне, дайте сега да погледнем какво остава да се свърши. |
| Eric: ..which means "We got together finally, let's take a look now at what is still left to be done." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Tina: записвам час |
| Eric: meaning "to make an appointment” at a doctor or hairdresser, for example. |
| Tina: Breaking this down, записвам is the transitive imperfective verb meaning "to write down,” “to note down", and час is a noun and means "an hour". When used as a reflexive verb, записвам се, the verb changes its meaning to "to enrol,” or “to join". |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Tina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Спешно е, можеш ли да ми запишеш час за консултация с адвоката за 18 ч. днес? |
| Eric: .. which means "It is urgent, can you book an appointment for consultation with the lawyer for 6 pm today?" |
| Tina: When used with the reflexive pronoun in Dative си, as in записвам си, it means "to take notes, to write down (for oneself)", it can be used in both formal and informal contexts. |
| Eric: This is most often used when any kind of appointment is needed, as in seeing a doctor, or going to a hairdresser, a notary, and so on. Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn about the imperative form used by your dentist. When you need to follow instructions, it’s really important to know and be able to understand the imperative form. |
| Tina: When you go to the dentist in particular, they prefer to use verbs in their imperative form, because of shortness and simplicity, although the context is formal. |
| Eric: But generally, it is impolite to use the imperative form with people you don't know. |
| Tina: If you add моля meaning “please”, it becomes a more polite request. |
| Eric: Depending on the intonation, verbs in the imperative mood can be used as an invitation to other people, even in a context where more politeness is required, as in the services industries, for example... |
| Tina: Кажете, мога ли да ви помогна с нещо? |
| Eric: which means “Tell me, can I help you somehow?” Ok, let’s take a look now at how to build the imperative form in singular and plural. Because the imperative request or order is directly addressed to one person or a group of people, it has only two conjugations – in the second person singular and plural respectively. |
| Tina: All verbs, regardless of their conjugation group, build up the imperative following the same simple pattern: the verb stem followed by the suffix. |
| Eric: The suffixes are different depending on whether the verb stem ends in a vowel or a consonant. If the stem ends with a vowel... |
| Tina: The imperative singular suffix is -й, and the plural is -йте. For example, стоя meaning “to stand”, becomes стoй and стойте |
| Eric: If the stem ends with a consonant... |
| Tina: The imperative singular suffix is -и, the plural is -ете, for example помоля meaning “to ask”, becomes помоли and помолете |
| Eric: If you remember that the stem of the verbs in the Conjugation 3 group always ends in a vowel, it’ll be easy to remember the rule to create the imperative for this group. |
| Tina: But there are some rare exceptions. For example, вляза which means “to enter” in the imperative forms becomes влез and влезте. |
| Eric: Listeners, you’ll find the other exceptions listed in the lesson notes. Now let’s take a look at the complex imperative forms. |
| Tina: The complex imperative forms are built up using additional particles, which allow for imperative forms to be constructed for other persons and numbers. |
| Eric: Which are these particles? |
| Tina: да, нека, нека да, хайде, хайде да and the more colloquial дай and дайте да. |
| Eric: Could you give us some examples? |
| Tina: Yes, please remember that the verb following these particles is in its respective present tense form, for example Това да стои тук! |
| Eric: “This should stay here!” |
| Tina: Нека влязат! |
| Eric: “Let them come in” |
| Tina: When using нека and нека да, most often the expressions have a more polite connotation. |
| Eric: The same applies for the negative form of the Imperative. |
| Tina: Simple negative imperative forms are built up using negative particles, such as не, недей, недей да |
| Eric: Could you also list the negative particles? |
| Tina: They are не, недей, недей да, нека да не, хайде да не |
| Eric: Could you give us some examples? |
| Tina: Не бъди такъв инат! |
| Eric: “Don’t be so stubborn!” |
| Tina: Недей забравя срещата утре! |
| Eric: “Do not forget about the meeting!” |
| Tina: Negative imperative forms can also be built using the words стига си/сте meaning “stop doing” |
| Eric: The imperative mood, as we already mentioned, is used in some very specific situations – like when asking or telling others what to do, when issuing an order, an invitation, or a piece of advice. Doctors, fitness trainers, and instructors use the command phrases a lot in their speech as well. |
| Tina: Yes, we had some examples in the dialogue, Дай сега да видим каква е ситуацията. |
| Eric: meaning “Let me see what the situation is now.” |
| Tina: Добре. Отвори сега уста... |
| Eric: “All right. Open your mouth now... “ |
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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