Learn how to suggest doing something together
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hello and welcome back to BulgarianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, season 1, lesson 14 - Let’s Go Shopping in Bulgaria! I’m Becky. |
| Iva: Zdravei Iva here! |
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to suggest doing some activity in Bulgarian. |
| Iva: This conversation takes place at a beauty salon. It’s a continuation from our last lesson |
| Becky: So it’s between Maria and Petia. Petia is trying to cheer up Maria |
| Iva: Yes. And of course, the speakers are good friends, so their speech is informal. |
| Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: So in this lesson, Petia suggested that the two go shopping together. |
| Iva: Let’s hear some interesting facts and tips about shopping in Bulgaria. |
| Becky: OK. To be able to shop in Bulgaria, you need to have some cash in the Bulgarian currency, leva. |
| Iva: One lev is approximately 0.68 US dollars, as of August 2013 |
| Becky: You can use credit cards for shopping at most stores and restaurants in the capital, but if you go to the countryside, this might be difficult. |
| Iva: Bulgarian fruits and vegetables are relatively cheap when they’re in season, and you can find a lot of street markets that offer a big variety. |
| Becky: Big supermarkets like Billa, METRO and so on are also very popular in Sofia and in the major cities across the country. |
| Iva: Shopping for clothes can be a very nice but challenging activity, because you need to figure out your Bulgarian size. Usually, they are equivalent to the European sizes. |
| Becky: And by the way, there are some fashionable Bulgarian brands around. |
| Iva: That’s right! |
| Becky: Finally, buying souvenirs should be very easy, because there are many souvenir shops in the major tourist spots. |
| Iva: But it’s worth checking and comparing the prices of these shops before you choose where to buy. |
| Becky: Those are some useful tips! Ok, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Iva: The first word we have is “Ходя”. |
| Becky: This is an important and frequently used Bulgarian verb that means “to go” or “to walk”. |
| Iva: Yes, and the difference between the usages can be understood from the context. |
| Becky: Can you explain that with an example? |
| Iva: Sure. When it means “to go”, it requires the preposition “to”, which in Bulgarian is “на”. So “I go to school” is “Ходя на училище”. |
| Becky: Repeat that for our listeners, please Iva! |
| Iva: “Ходя на училище”. |
| Becky: When it means “to walk”, it’s used without a preposition, or with the preposition “on” which is “по” po in Bulgarian. |
| Iva: Exactly. For example, “I walk on the bridge” is “Ходя по моста”. |
| Becky: And again, listeners, repeat the sentence after Iva. |
| Iva: “Ходя по моста”.[pause] |
| Becky: Great! What’s next? |
| Iva: “Уикенд” |
| Becky: Oh, that’s an easy one! |
| Iva: For sure! It’s the Bulgarian word meaning “weekend”. |
| Becky: There’s no other originally Bulgarian word which means directly “weekend”. |
| Iva: Sometimes a more descriptive phrase can be used - “края на седмицата” - which means “the end of the week”. |
| Becky: It’s more casual to use “уикенд” though. |
| Iva: Yes. And the last word is “Пазар”. |
| Becky: This is a noun that means “shopping”. |
| Iva: And it also means “shopping area” or “market” but its more casual usage is as “shopping”. |
| Becky: The shopping can be any type – from buying groceries from the supermarket, to buying clothes or furniture from big malls. |
| Iva: Yes, Bulgarians usually say “I go shopping” which is an informal phrase translated in Bulgarian as “отивам на пазар”. |
| Becky: (Name), can you repeat it for our listeners? |
| Iva: Yes. “Отивам на пазар”. “I go shopping” |
| Becky: OK, that’s enough! Let’s move on to the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to suggest doing some activity in Bulgarian. |
| Iva: If you want to suggest doing something together with someone in a more informal situation in Bulgarian, you have to use one type of expression that is used a lot. |
| Becky: And it’s the exact equivalent of the English, “Let’s~ (do something)” and it implies doing it with the other person you are talking to. |
| Iva: This is understood from the form of the Bulgarian verb, which is in the first person plural form. |
| Becky: So for example, we can have the following sentence in Bulgarian: |
| Iva: “Хайде да гледаме този филм!” |
| Becky: It means “Let’s watch this movie!” |
| Iva: Yes, once again, “Хайде да гледаме този филм!” |
| Becky: Can you tell us more about it? |
| Iva: The first word, “хайде” is an interjection used to say something similar to the English “let’s” or “come on”. |
| Becky: The way we’re using it in this type of sentence though is closer to the meaning of “let’s”. |
| Iva: In the example sentence, we also have the verb form “да гледаме” which means “(we) to watch” and it uses the first person plural form of the verb “to watch”, which is “гледам”. |
| Becky: Listeners, repeat the two forms after Iva. |
| Iva: “to watch”, “гледам”. “(We) to watch”, “да гледаме”. |
| Becky: Note that “movie” in Bulgarian is masculine. |
| Iva So the pronoun “този” is also in the masculine form.. |
| Becky: Even though we’ve said that this type of expression is used mainly in informal situations, it’s not wrong to use it in formal ones too. You might hear this kind of suggestion in formal situations too. As in English, it should match the tone of the conversation. |
| Iva: If you want to say, for example, “Let’s discuss this topic later” in a formal situation, you should use formal language. |
| Becky: How does this sound in Bulgarian, Iva? |
| Iva: “Нека да обсъдим този въпрос по-късно”. |
| Becky: That sounds quite formal. |
| Iva: Yes. The verb form, “да обсъдим”, remains the same. |
| Becky: In the first person plural, right? |
| Iva: Yes. Also, we have the word “нека” instead of “хайде” in the beginning. |
| Becky: And that word means something like “let”. |
| Iva: That’s right. It’s used in more formal sentences. But you can see that the whole sentence sounds more formal because of the context. |
| Becky: Note that in this type of sentence, you can suggest that the other person should do something, so the meaning changes from “let us (do something together)” to something like “why don’t you (do something)” or “could you (do something)”. |
| Iva: This type of usage is more common for informal Bulgarian. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example? |
| Iva: For example: “Хайде да отидеш до супера?” which means “Can you go to the supermarket?” |
| Becky: Ah, I can imagine a situation when a mother is sending her son to the supermarket. |
| Iva: Exactly! |
| Becky: Ok, that’s going to do it for this lesson. Don’t forget, we have more examples in the lesson notes. |
| Iva: So don’t forget to check them for more details. |
Outro |
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| Becky: Thanks for listening, and see you next time. |
| Iva: Bye-bye. |
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