Learn how to give and understand directions using the imperfect aspect of the verb
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to BulgarianPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 4 - Understanding Bulgarian Directions. Eric here. |
| Tina: Здравейте. I'm Tina. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to give directions using the imperfective aspect of the verb. The conversation takes place over Skype. |
| Tina: It's between Vasil and Irina. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends, so they'll be using informal Bulgarian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Васил: Здрасти, Иринче, как си? Как е на морето? |
| Ирина: Здрасти, Васе. Знаеш, че не съм тук на почивка. Работата върви добре... Научавам много нови неща. Как е при теб? |
| Васил: Горещо... Работя на летище, а не мога да мръдна никъде от София. Исках да те питам за онзи ресторант... |
| Ирина: Където ходихме последно? С лятната градина? В един вътрешен двор? |
| Васил: Точно. Опитвам се да се сетя къде беше. Как да го намеря? |
| Ирина: Не помня номера... От спирката на Канала завиваш наляво по трамвайната линия. Май беше втората пресечка вляво. Тръгваш по нея и се оглеждаш за кафене с червени чадъри. Срещу него трябва да е някъде. Влизаш в нещо като безистен... Имаше табела за зъболекарски кабинет в същата сграда... |
| Васил: Да, да, започвам да си спомням, но беше тъмно, когато ходихме там... |
| Ирина: Наистина, дано го намериш и предай поздрави на компанията. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Vasil: Hi, Irinche, how are you? How is it at the seaside? |
| Irina: Hi, Vase. You know I’m not here on holiday. The work is going well... I’m learning a lot of new things... How is it with you? |
| Vasil: It's hot... I work at the airport, but I cannot move anywhere away from Sofia. I wanted to ask you about that restaurant... |
| Irina: Where we went last time? The one with the summer garden? In a courtyard? |
| Vasil: Exactly. I am trying to remember where it was. How can I find it? |
| Irina: I don’t remember the street number... From the station at the Canal, you turn left along the tram line. It might have been the second block to the left. You turn there and look for a cafe with red umbrellas. It should be somewhere across from it. You enter into something like an arcade... There was a sign about a dentist in the same building... |
| Vasil: Oh yeah, I’m starting to remember, but it was dark when we went there... |
| Irina: That's right, I hope you will find it. Say "hi" for me to the others. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Tina, could you tell us something about holidays and holiday places in Bulgaria? |
| Tina: In Bulgaria there are national holidays throughout almost the whole year. |
| Eric: How do people spend the time off? |
| Tina: People like to take a day or two off and go on a short vacation with their families, especially when the holidays fall near a weekend. |
| Eric: What are the most common destinations? |
| Tina: During the summer, people go to the seaside and during the winter seasons they head to mountain ski resorts. |
| Eric: When you say seaside, I suppose you're referring to the Black Sea coast? |
| Tina: Exactly, but you should know that there's a big difference between the northern and the southern coasts. In the south, the majority of the coastline is covered with beaches and it's the place where “party people” go. |
| Eric: What about the North? |
| Tina: The major city to the north is Varna, which is also famous as the Black Sea capital. The weather is a bit cooler, and the most northern part of the coastline is made up of rocky high cliffs, but it also has the more prestigious resorts like Albena and Golden Sands. |
| Eric: What about the winter destinations? |
| Tina: Most of the ski resorts are in the southern part of the country. Bulgaria also has the highest mountain on the Balkan Peninsula, Rila, which attracts many tourists. Another interesting thing is that most of the ancient Eastern-Orthodox monasteries are located in these mountains. |
| Eric: Listeners, be sure to check out these destinations when you visit Bulgaria! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Tina: нещо [natural native speed] |
| Eric: thing, something |
| Tina: нещо[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: нещо [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: мръдвам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to move, to stir, to budge |
| Tina: мръдвам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: мръдвам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: горещ [natural native speed] |
| Eric: hot |
| Tina: горещ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: горещ [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: градина [natural native speed] |
| Eric: garden |
| Tina: градина[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: градина [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: вътрешен двор [natural native speed] |
| Eric: patio, courtyard |
| Tina: вътрешен двор[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: вътрешен двор [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: трамвайна линия [natural native speed] |
| Eric: tram line |
| Tina: трамвайна линия[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: трамвайна линия [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: пресечка [natural native speed] |
| Eric: cross-street, intersection |
| Tina: пресечка[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: пресечка [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: оглеждам се [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to look around |
| Tina: оглеждам се[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: оглеждам се [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: безистен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: arcade |
| Tina: безистен[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: безистен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Tina: табела [natural native speed] |
| Eric: sign, plate |
| Tina: табела[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: табела [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: лятна градина |
| Eric: meaning "summer garden." |
| Tina: The adjective form of "summer” is летен. лятна is the feminine form of the adjective, in which one of the letters in the root changes. |
| Eric: Is this adjective used in other phrases? |
| Tina: Yes, for example, лятна ваканция or лятно настроение, |
| Eric: which respectively mean "summer vacation" and “summer mood.” Can you give us an example using this adjective? |
| Tina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Предпочитам да ни настаните в лятната градина на ресторанта. |
| Eric: ..which means "I prefer that we be seated in the summer garden of the restaurant." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Tina: мръдвам за малко |
| Eric: meaning "to get away for a moment." |
| Tina: мръдвам is the imperfective form and мръдна is the perfective form of the intransitive verb meaning "to stir”, “to budge, or “to move." The expression мръдвам за малко or да мръдна за малко will be used only in an informal conversational setting. |
| Eric: And it indicates that a person will be away for a very short time. In English it would be "to slip away," or "to go [somewhere] real quick." Can you give us an example? |
| Tina: For example, you can say.. Имам ужасно главоболие, ще мръдна за малко до аптеката. |
| Eric: .. which means "I have a terrible headache, I have to go to the pharmacy real quick." |
| Tina: When used in an informal conversation meaning "to slip away" or "to go [somewhere] real quick", the verb мръдна can often be substituted with отскачам or да отскоча in the perfective form. However, отскачам is a transitive verb and requires that the destination be specified, for example, Имам ужасно главоболие, ще отскоча за малко до аптеката. |
| Eric: "I have a terrible headache, I have to go to the pharmacy real quick." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to give directions using the imperfective aspect of the verb. Basically, there are two ways to give directions in Bulgarian, in a polite and in a conversational manner. |
| Tina: The first way is when you are directly helping someone navigate in the moment. In those cases, the preferred grammatical form to use is the imperative mood. |
| Eric: The other way to give directions applies to our dialogue. |
| Tina: In the dialogue, Irina was giving directions using imperfective verbs. This is the preferred way to give complex directions or to generally let someone know how to reach a place. It can be used either when the directions will be followed immediately or in the future. |
| Eric: How can we decide which to use? |
| Tina: Here’s a tip - the imperative mood is used when the question would be “Where is...?” Imperfective verbs are used when the question would be “What is the way to find...?” |
| Eric: Let’s give a couple of examples, starting with some directions in the imperative mood. |
| Tina: For example, if you are asked Извинете, дали има банков клон някъде наблизо? |
| Eric: Which means “Excuse me, is there a bank office nearby?” |
| Tina: You can answer Да, продължете напред и на кръстовището завийте вдясно. Ще видите банката от лявата си страна. |
| Eric: “Yes, go straight ahead and turn right at the intersection. You will see the bank on your left side.” |
| Tina: On the other hand, if you are asked Извинете, казаха ми, че наблизо има банков клон. Как да стигна до него? |
| Eric: meaning “Excuse me, I was told that there is a bank nearby. How can I get there?” |
| Tina: You can answer Да, значи, продължавате напред и на кръстовището завивате вдясно. Ще видите банката от лявата си страна. |
| Eric: “Yes, well, go straight ahead and turn right at the intersection. You will see the bank on your left side.” Now let’s see the imperfective and perfective aspects in more detail. As we learned in Lesson 2, all Bulgarian verbs have either a perfective or an imperfective aspect. |
| Tina: The imperfective aspect indicates an action in progress, and the focus is on the action itself. |
| Eric: The perfective aspect implies that the action has a beginning and a definite end, and the focus is on the action itself, or its completion. Sometimes, the perfective form of the verb is totally different than the original one. |
| Tina: That’s the case with вървя and отида, which both can be translated as “to go” or “to walk.” |
| Eric: Other times, the seemingly perfective form of the verb might have a totally different meaning than the main one. |
| Tina: Yes, like гледам and изгледам which can be translated as “to look over, to eye” and “to give someone a black look” respectively. The aspect has no equivalent grammatical form in English, and sometimes it can seem quite complicated. |
| Eric: So let’s examine it in more detail. Sometimes, the basic imperfective verbs do not have an immediate pair in the perfective aspect. The perfective verb gets created by adding a prefix to the main verb. When the perfective form is created by adding a prefix to the main verb, the new verb can also have its own imperfective form, which is called secondary imperfective. |
| Tina: For example, the perfective form of правя, meaning “to do,” is направя and the secondary imperfective is направям |
| Eric: As we mentioned in Lesson 2, when speaking in present tense, people use verbs in the imperfective aspect. |
| Tina: Also, if you connect the verb with another one indicating the stage of progression of the action, for example, започвам да, which means “to start to,” then it clearly indicates that the verb has an imperfective aspect. |
| Eric: Perfective verbs in the present tense are usually used in combination with other verbs which indicate need, completion, or the fact of being able to perform the action, such as “to have to" or "should.” |
| Tina: For example, Стара съм и започвам да забравям. |
| Eric: “I am old and I am starting to forget.” |
| Tina: In this sentence, забравям is imperfective. Here's another example. Този момент беше важен и не мога да го забравя. |
| Eric: Which means “This moment was important and I cannot forget it.” |
| Tina: In this sentence, забравя is perfective. The next sentence is Този документ е важен и не трябва да го забравяш, когато подготвяш презентацията си. |
| Eric: “This document is important and you should not forget it when you are preparing your presentation.” |
| Tina: In this example, забравяш is imperfective. |
| Eric: Listeners, in the lesson notes you can find a table with a list of pairs of imperfective and perfective verbs. Let’s wrap up with some sample sentences with directions. |
| Tina: Продължавате напред и на кръстовището завивате вдясно |
| Eric: "Go straight ahead and turn right at the intersection." |
| Tina: Завийте наляво по коридора и ще видите рецепцията и изхода от сградата. |
| Eric: "Turn left down the hall and you will see the reception desk and the exit of the building." |
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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