Learn the difference between formal and informal language in Bulgarian
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hello and welcome back to BulgarianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, season 1, lesson 3 - Let’s Dispense with the Bulgarian Formalities! My name is Becky. |
| Iva: Zdravei And I’m Iva! |
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to switch from formal to informal language. |
| Iva: This conversation takes place on a plane. |
| Becky: It’s between Maria and James. |
| Iva: The speakers are meeting for the first time, so they were speaking in the formal language. |
| Becky: But now they’ve decided to change to informal language. Ok, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: So Maria and James are talking about going on vacation. |
| Iva: And we’re going to give you some tips on choosing vacation places in Bulgaria. |
| Becky: There are two major season for vacations in Bulgaria - summer and winter. |
| Iva: That’s right. In the summer, the Black sea offers cheap but high-quality vacations in beautiful beach resorts. |
| Becky: Where are the best places? |
| Iva: Some of the best options are Sozopol, Nesebar, Kiten, Sinemoretz, Primorsko, Obzor, Balchik, and Kavarna. |
| Becky: Wow, there are so many! |
| Iva: There are others too! They might be more popular, but quite often they’re too crowded and noisy. |
| Becky: OK, now how about the winter? |
| Iva: The winter sports season is getting more and more popular in Bulgaria, and more comfortable and high-class resorts are opening for tourists. |
| Becky: And again, can you give us some suggestions? |
| Iva: Good places to visit are Bansko, Pamporovo, Borovetz, and Vitosha, near the city of Sofia. |
| Becky: OK! |
| Iva: But wait! There are more! You’ll also find amazing spa resorts like Hisarya, Pavel Banya, Velingrad, and Sapareva Banya, which you can visit any time of the year. |
| Becky: Okay, those were some good tips, listeners! Now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Now let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Iva: The first one is “Проблем” |
| Becky: That sounds familiar. |
| Iva: Yes. It’s the Bulgarian word for “problem”. |
| Becky: Note that its pronunciation is different from the English. |
| Iva: Yes, the stress is on the “e”. |
| Becky: So I’m guessing this word is used in the same types of situations as its English equivalent. |
| Iva: That’s right. |
| Becky: Ok, what’s our next word? |
| Iva: Well…If you want to say “I don’t mind” in Bulgarian, you should use the expression “нямам нищо против!” |
| Becky: Listeners, repeat this expression after Iva. |
| Iva: “нямам нищо против!” |
| Becky: OK, what’s special about this? |
| Iva: It’s made up of the words “нямам” meaning “I don’t have”; “нищо” meaning “nothing”, and “против” meaning “against”. |
| Becky: OK. What’s the next word? |
| Iva: “Пътувам”. |
| Becky: This is a Bulgarian verb meaning “to travel”. |
| Iva: Basically, it can be used with any kind of transport, such as airplane, car, ship, bus, or train. But you use other verbs when you say you are riding a motorbike, or a bicycle. |
| Becky: So this is an important verb to remember. Listeners, repeat after Iva! |
| Iva: “Пътувам”. |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to change the level of formality in a conversation.Iva, what do we say in this case? |
| Iva: Well, this question is a way of asking whether the other person is OK with changing the formality level, right? |
| Becky: That’s right! |
| Iva: In Bulgarian, we use a specific expression, “нека си говорим на "ти"” which literally means “Let us talk on “you””. |
| Becky: More naturally, it’s ‘let us talk while using the second person singular verb and pronoun form.’ |
| Iva: Exactly. |
| Becky: Can you tell us more about it? |
| Iva: In this expression, the word “ти” is the Bulgarian pronoun “you”, in the second person singular form. |
| Becky: OK, let’s break it down some more. |
| Iva: The other words in the expression are “нека” which means “let us”, and is used to invite the other person to change something, in this case – the level of formality. |
| Becky: Got it. And then? |
| Iva: “Си говорим” is a very interesting expression. It means something like “we talk between ourselves”, so it implies that the language level is decided between the two people only. |
| Becky: Could you repeat it for the listeners? |
| Iva: “нека си говорим на "ти"” |
| Becky: Is that the only expression you can use? |
| Iva: Well, there are modified versions of this expression, like “Искаш ли да си говорим на ти?” which literally means “Do you want to talk on “you” (form)”, and also suggest switching from formal to informal language. |
| Becky: I see. |
| Iva: Here, “Искаш ли” means “Do you want to” and is already in the second person singular form. So it is kind of rushing to change into the informal speech. But we suggest using the first version in more formal situations. |
| Becky: Ok, and how can we make this expression even more formal? |
| Iva: In our example from the dialogue, we also have the phrase “ако не е проблем”. |
| Becky: Oh, yes. |
| Iva: It can be used together with the main phrase, “нека си говорим на "ти"”, to ask about changing the level of formality. It makes the whole request sound polite, and not intrusive. |
| Becky: This phrase literally means “if this (it) is not a problem”. And you can use it with the same meaning in other expressions when you need to confirm something is safe and OK to do. |
| Becky: And finally, what are some tips if the person is not OK with switching to the informal language? |
| Iva: You can reply with one of the following expressions: “Разбирам” which means something like “I see” and with “Няма проблем”, the one you can probably guess, literally meaning “That’s no problem”. |
| Becky: I know the last one very well already! |
| Iva: Yes. That is because we have many examples like this in our lesson notes. |
| Becky: So make sure you check them! |
| Iva: Cause practice makes perfect! |
| Becky: That’s right. Ok, that’s all for this lesson. |
Outro |
|---|
| Iva: See you next time, everyone! |
| Becky: Bye-bye! |
| Iva: Bye. |
Comments
Hide