Learn how to ask "Can you speak English?," a question that will certainly prove useful traveling through Bulgaria
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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 8 - Can you speak English? |
| In this lesson, we will cover yet another extremely important phrase: "Can you speak English?" Using this phrase as opposed to just starting to speak English at someone is important for many reasons. For one, if the party you're speaking to doesn't understand English, at least they will be able to understand what you're asking in Bulgarian. Also, it shows a lot of respect to demonstrate that you took the effort to learn even a tiny bit of the language. |
| For these reasons, and many more, we are going to cover this phrase. In Bulgarian, "Can you speak English?" is Говорите ли английски? (Govorite li angliyski?) |
| Говорите ли английски? (Govorite li angliyski?) |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: Говорите ли английски? (Govorite li angliyski?) |
| Here it is once again: Говорите ли английски? (Govorite li angliyski?) |
| The first word, говорите (govorite), means "speak" in the polite second person plural form of the verb. We use this when we talk to people we don't know or in formal situations. As it's in the plural, you can also use this form to address a group of people. |
| Let's break down this word and hear it one more time: говорите (govorite) |
| говорите (govorite) |
| This is followed by ли (li), which is a particle used to make questions and doesn't have an independent meaning. |
| ли (li) |
| The third word, английски (angliyski) means "English.” |
| английски (angliyski) |
| Which in syllables is: английски (angliyski) |
| So alltogether, we have Говорите ли английски? (Govorite li angliyski?) |
| This phrase cannot be translated literally as there is no direct English equivalent to the Bulgarian question particle ли (li). |
| However, a rough version would sound something like: "Speak you English?" |
| Now let's try a different language. How about German? |
| "Can you speak German?" Говорите ли немски? (Govorite li nemski?) |
| Говорите ли немски? (Govorite li nemski?) |
| The word for German is немски (nemski). |
| Let's break down this word and hear it one more time: немски (nemski) |
| немски (nemski) |
| Here just the word for the language changes. The rest is the same. |
Outro |
| Okay, 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! |
| "Can you speak English?" - Govorite li angliyski? |
| Govorite li angliyski? |
| Govorite li angliyski? |
| "Can you speak German?" - Govorite li nemski? |
| Govorite li nemski? |
| Govorite li nemski? |
| 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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