Learn how to use reported speech to talk about the reasons for something
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to BulgarianPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 24 - Can You Take Time Off in Bulgaria? Eric Here. |
| Tina: Здравейте. I'm Tina. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use reported speech when giving reasons. The conversation takes place at a workplace. |
| Tina: It's between Andrey and Raya. |
| Eric: The speakers are an employer and an employee, so they will use formal Bulgarian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Рая: Д-р Господинов, имате ли един момент, моля? |
| Андрей: Да, разбира се, Рая, кажи какво има? |
| Рая: Ами, много ми е неудобно да питам, но се налага. |
| Андрей: Кажи, кажи... |
| Рая: Вижте, баба ми е възрастна, живее сама и вчера ѝ се е случило нещо. Съседи казаха, че са я намерили в безсъзнание. |
| Андрей: Съжалявам да чуя това. По-добре ли е сега? |
| Рая: В момента е в болница и ще трябва да остане там за изследвания. Знам, че започнах стажа само преди 3 седмици, но може ли да си взема утре свободен ден, за да отида при нея? |
| Андрей: Разбира се. Няма никакъв проблем. |
| Рая: Но също така, когато я изпишат, може ли да взема една седмица, за да остана с нея? Тя е сама и се притеснявам. |
| Андрей: Ами, графикът е пълен, но все пак е лято. Мисля, че работата ще намалее и ще се справя сам. |
| Рая: Толкова съм Ви задължена. Неудобно ми е да Ви питам за това, но... |
| Андрей: Разбирам ситуацията. Важното е баба ти да се оправи. Надявам се да не е нищо сериозно. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Raya: Doctor Gospodinov, do you possibly have a minute? |
| Andrey: Yes, of course, Raya, what is it? |
| Raya: Well, I feel so uncomfortable to ask, but I have to. |
| Andrey: Tell me... |
| Raya: You see, my grandmother is quite old, she lives alone and something happened yesterday. Some neighbours said they found her unconscious. |
| Andrey: I am sorry to hear this. Is she better now? |
| Raya: She is in a hospital now and will stay there for some tests. I know I started here just three weeks ago, but is it possible to take a day off tomorrow so that I can go and see her? |
| Andrey: Of course. No problem at all. |
| Raya: Also, when she gets discharged, can I take a week off to stay with her? She is alone and I am concerned about her. |
| Andrey: Well, the schedule is full, but it's summer. I think there will be less work, and I will manage it by myself. |
| Raya: I am so obliged to you. I feel so uncomfortable to ask you, but... |
| Andrey: I get the situation. It's important for your grandmother to get better. I hope it is nothing serious though. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Tina, is it easy to take a day off in Bulgaria? |
| Tina: According to the Bulgarian labor legislation, people working full time can use twenty days of paid leave within one year. Additional days can be added if there are exceptional occasions. |
| Eric: As in the dialogue, are employers understanding if people need to take a sudden short leave? |
| Tina: Yes they are, also because these types of leave are either compensated by overtime work, or from the annual paid leave. And of course, there is also the option of unpaid leave. |
| Eric: Is the unpaid leave stipulated by law? |
| Tina: Yes, it is, but sometimes unregulated practices are employed too. For example, in the construction industry where the work is based on a specific project or order from a client, when there are no current projects, the employees are forced to take unpaid leave till the next assignment. |
| Eric: What happens if an employee takes an unpaid leave without giving enough notice? |
| Tina: According to the law, if an employee misses work for three consecutive days without giving any notice this could be considered a reason for termination of their employment contract. |
| Eric: I see. What’s the Bulgarian for “unpaid leave” |
| Tina: неплатен отпуск |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Tina: неудобен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: uncomfortable, inconvenient |
| Tina: неудобен[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: неудобен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: налага се [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to necessitate, to call for |
| Tina: налага се[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: налага се [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: съсед [natural native speed] |
| Eric: neighbor |
| Tina: съсед[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: съсед [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: безсъзнание [natural native speed] |
| Eric: unconsciousness |
| Tina: безсъзнание[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: безсъзнание [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: изследване [natural native speed] |
| Eric: test, research |
| Tina: изследване[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: изследване [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: стаж [natural native speed] |
| Eric: internship, practice training |
| Tina: стаж[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: стаж [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: свободен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: free, unrestricted |
| Tina: свободен[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: свободен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: изписвам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to discharge, to prescribe |
| Tina: изписвам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: изписвам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: притеснявам се [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to worry, to be worried |
| Tina: притеснявам се[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: притеснявам се [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Tina: задължен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: obliged, obligated |
| Tina: задължен[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: задължен [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: кажи, какво има? |
| Eric: meaning "tell me what is the matter?" |
| Tina: This sentence is used to invite another person to share a problem or issue, and usually expresses the concern of the speaker. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Tina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Влез, кажи, какво има, нещо спешно ли е? |
| Eric: ..which means "Come in, tell me, what is the matter, is it something urgent?" |
| Tina: Depending on the intonation used to say the phrase and the context, it might convey a feeling of concern and solicitude, or annoyance. For example, Пак ли си ти, кажи, какво има този път? |
| Eric: which means "It is you again, tell me, what is the problem this time?" Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Tina: изписвам (от лечебно заведение) |
| Eric: meaning "to discharge (from a medical institution), to prescribe (drugs)" |
| Tina: The meaning changes depending on the context. The verb itself is made up of the prefix из- implying something wholesome, and the verb пиша "to write". In its immediate use, the verb indicates that something is written out in whole or used up as for paper. For example, Лекцията беше дълга, изписах цели 10 страници. |
| Eric: meaning "the lecture was quite long, I wrote out 10 full pages." Can you give us an example also with the other meaning? |
| Tina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Докторът ми изписа само витамини и ми препоръча една дълга почивка. |
| Eric: .. which means "The doctor prescribed me only vitamins and recommended a long rest." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use reported speech when giving reasons. When we want to talk about what someone else said, we use reported speech. |
| Tina:As there are not so many tenses in Bulgarian, it is not difficult to report what other people say. The only difference is whether the person reporting it has received the message directly, then we have the direct narration, or not, then we have the indirect narration. |
| Eric: As in English, there is a slight difference in how we introduce a statement or a question in reported speech. |
| Tina: If it’s a statement, we may use expressions like той каза, че or тя твърди, че |
| Eric: respectively meaning “he said that” and “she states that” |
| Tina: If it’s a question, we may use expressions like тя пита дали |
| Eric: meaning “she asks whether”. Tina, let’s give some examples of changing direct speech to reported speech now. |
| Tina: Sure. For example “Обичам фъстъци.” |
| Eric: meaning “I love peanuts” |
| Tina: becomes “Дейв казва, че (той) обича фъстъци.” |
| Eric: meaning "Dave says that he loves peanuts." |
| Tina: Here is another Ще отидем да играем на площадката. |
| Eric: meaning "We will go play at the playground." |
| Tina: becomes Децата ми казват, че (те) ще отидат да играят на площадката. |
| Eric: Which means "The children are telling me that they will go play at the playground. "When reporting someone else’s words, we usually keep the tense of the reported sentence the same, with the only exception of past tenses. Then, the reported statement would keep the same tense, but will change to renarrative mood, because the speaker has not been a witness to the event, and he/she is retelling someone else’s statement. |
| Tina: The other change occurs in the person—it changes from 1st person to 3rd person, and the respective conjugation forms of the verb need to change. |
| Eric: The examples we saw did not use backshift because the verb was always in present tense. However, it is more common for us to hear reported speech using simple past verbs like "he told me," or "she said," When we do this, we have to change the tense of the original statement. |
| Tina: Here are the same sentences – if you are directly reporting you say Дейв каза, че (той) обича фъстъци. If you are indirectly reporting you say Дейв каза, че (той) обичал фъстъци. or Дейв казал, че (той) обичал фъстъци. |
| Eric: They mean "Dave said that he loved peanuts." In the first case you are directly reporting, using past tense, and changing only the first part of the sentence. In the latter two sentences, you are indirectly reporting and both the first part and the second part of the sentence change. |
| Tina: Right, in Дейв каза, че (той) обичал фъстъци. Only обичал is in the renarrative mood, expressing uncertainty, we mean: this is what he said but I do not know whether it is true or not. In “Дейв казал, че (той) обичал фъстъци.” both казал and обичал are in the renarrative mood. |
| Eric: It is as if the speaker has not directly received the statement and can never be certain about it. |
| Tina: Here is another example using the renarrative mood also in the first part: Той казал, че тестът бил труден. |
| Eric: Literally meaning “He (is reported to have) said that the test had been difficult.” Ok, let’s wrap up this lesson by giving some more examples. |
| Tina: Тя е сигурна, че ти е казала. |
| Eric: "She is sure that she has told you." |
| Tina: Те ми предадоха, че са изпратили отчета. |
| Eric: "They told me that they had sent the report." |
| Tina: Знам, че си получил съобщението ми. Защо нямам още отговор? |
| Eric: "I know that you have received my message. Why don't I have a reply yet?" |
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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