Learn how to find out if the bus you're riding will stop at your destination
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Здравейте (zdraveyte). Hello and welcome to BulgarianPod101.com. This course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Bulgaria. You will be surprised at how far a little Bulgarian will go. Now before we jump in, remember to stop by BulgarianPod101.com. And there, you’ll find the accompanying PDF, additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
Lesson focus |
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| Lesson 21 - Riding a Bus 1—Will this bus go to...? |
| The bus is an important means of transportation. However, before you get on the bus you probably want to confirm if the bus is going to your destination. We can accomplish this by asking "Will this bus go to...?" and then add in a destination. In this lesson, we'll use Central Bus Station Sofia. |
| In Bulgarian, "station" is станция (stantsia). |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: станция (stantsia) |
| Here it is once again: станция (stantsia) |
| Our desired destination is Central Bus Station Sofia. |
| In Bulgarian, "Will this bus go to Central Bus Station Sofia?" is: Отива ли този автобус до Централна автогара София? (Otiva li tozi avtobus do Tsentralna avtogara Sofia?) |
| Отива ли този автобус до Централна автогара София? (Otiva li tozi avtobus do Tsentralna avtogara Sofia?) |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: Отива ли този автобус до Централна автогара София? (Otiva li tozi avtobus do Tsentralna avtogara Sofia?) |
| Here it is once again: Отива ли този автобус до Централна автогара София? (Otiva li tozi avtobus do Tsentralna avtogara Sofia?) |
| The first word, отива (otiva), is the third person singular form of the verb "go." |
| Let's break down this word and hear it one more time: отива (otiva) |
| отива (otiva) |
| This is followed by our good old friend, the particle ли (li), which is used to form questions and doesn't have an independent meaning outside of context. |
| Here it is once again, short and easy: ли (li) |
| Next we have този (tozi), which means "this" and is used before masculine nouns in the singular. |
| този (tozi) |
| този (tozi) |
| And here is the masculine noun in the singular we'd be talking about, автобус (avtobus), which is "bus." |
| автобус (avtobus) |
| автобус (avtobus) |
| This is followed by the preposition до (do), which stands for "to" in this expression. |
| Let’s hear it again: до (do) |
| до (do) |
| So to recap here, we have: отива ли този автобус до... (Otiva li tozi avtobus do...) |
| This phrase cannot be translated literally as there is no direct English equivalent to the particle li. The closest translation would be "is this bus going to ..." |
| Let's take a look at the next word, централна (tsentralna), which means “central.” |
| централна (tsentralna) |
| централна (tsentralna) |
| This is followed by автогара (avtogara), which stands for "bus station." |
| Here it is in syllables: автогара (avtogara) |
| автогара (avtogara) |
| Finally, София (Sofia) is the name of the Bulgarian capital where you can find the bus station in question. The internationally accepted spelling of the word is S,o,f,i,a but a spelling that reflects more closely the native pronunciation would be S,o,f,i,y,a. |
| So let’s hear it again: София (Sofia) |
| София (Sofia) |
| Altogether, we have: Отива ли този автобус до Централна автогара София? (Otiva li tozi avtobus do Tsentralna avtogara Sofia?) |
| which can be interpreted as "Is this bus going to Central Bus Station Sofia?" |
| Once you have the right bus, there are a few things you need to know about riding it. During your stay in Bulgaria you will encounter several options: |
| Public transportation buses within urban areas: |
| In this situation, your should buy a ticket before you get on a bus or any other means of public transport. There is a multitude of deals like single-ride tickets and monthly cards available at ticket offices and booths. Just to give you an idea, at the moment of this recording (May 2008), a single-ride ticket costs about 55 US cents in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Also, a new fare collection system based on E-cards is expected soon in Sofia. |
| Now, let's move on to intercity bus services: |
| Here you can choose from a variety of private companies as well as a state-operated services. |
| Generally, private companies offer much more modern air-conditioned buses at very competitive prices. For example, when my girlfriend Eva and I were on holiday last summer, we chose a private bus service for our journey from Sofia to the Black Sea resort town of Kiten (Китен). Our comfortable six-hour ride cost about 48 US dollars for a round trip for both of us. Different companies have different regulations so your best bet here would be buying your ticket in advance from Central Bus Station Sofia or the office of the particular company. Let me remind you that payments in Bulgaria are generally made in cash. Some of the offices may not accept credit card transactions. |
Outro |
| Very well! To wrap up today's lesson, we’d like for you to practice what you just learned. I’ll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase, and you’re responsible for saying it out loud. You’ll have few seconds before I give you the answer. So, Успех! (Uspeh!) that means "Good luck!" in Bulgarian. Ok, here we go! |
| "Station" - Stansia |
| Stansia |
| Stansia |
| "Will this bus go to Central Bus Station Sofia?" - Otiva li tozi avtobus do Centralna gara Sofiya? |
| Otiva li tozi avtobus do Centralna gara Sofiya? |
| Otiva li tozi avtobus do Centralna gara Sofiya? |
| All right. That’s going to do it for today. Remember to stop by BulgarianPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, make sure to leave a comment. Довиждане (dovizhdane)! |
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