Bulgarian conjugation

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Bulgarian conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a Bulgarian verb from its principal parts by inflection. It is affected by person, number, gender, tense, mood and voice. Bulgarian verbs are conventionally divided into three conjugations according to the thematic vowel they use in the present tense:

  • 1st conjugation: verbs using the vowel е (/ɛ/).
  • 2nd conjugation: verbs using the vowel и (/i/).
  • 3rd conjugation: athematic verbs, stems end in а or я.

In a dictionary, Bulgarian verbs are listed with their first-person-singular-present-tense form, due to the lack of an infinitive. This form is called the citation form.

Bulgarian verbs are conjugated using the formula:

where thematic vowel and inflection suffix are only optional. The stem of the verb is what is left of the citation form after removing its final letter. Sometimes in the course of conjugation, the stem may undergo some alterations. In this article, any alteration of the stem is coloured in blue, the thematic vowels are coloured in red, and the inflectional endings in green.

Personal endings

Below are the endings for all finite forms:

Tense/Mood Conjugation Singular Plural
1st person 2nd person 3rd person 1st person 2nd person 3rd person
Present First -a (/ɐ/1 or /ɤ/2)
-я (/jɐ/1 or /jɤ/2)
3 (/m/)
-ш (/ʃ/) -∅ -м (/m/) -те (/t̪ɛ/) -ат (/ɐt̪/1 or /ɤt̪/2)
-ят (/jɐt̪/1 or /jɤt̪/2)
Second
Third -м (/m/) -ме (/mɛ/) -т (/t̪/)
Past Imperfect All three -х (/x/) -ше (/ʃɛ/) -хме (/xmɛ/) -хте (/xt̪ɛ/) -ха (/xɐ/)
Past Aorist -∅
Imperative All three - -∅ - - -те (/t̪ɛ/) -

1 When unstressed.

2 When stressed.

3 Only some irregular first conjugation verbs.

Non-finite form endings

These are the endings for the non-finite forms:

Indefinite Definite
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Masculine
subject form
Masculine
object form
Feminine Neuter Plural
Present Active Participle /ʃt̪/-ща /ʃt̪ɐ/-що /ʃt̪o̝/-щи /ʃt̪i/-щият /ʃt̪ijɐt̪/-щия /ʃt̪ijɐ/-щата /ʃt̪ɐt̪ɐ/-щото /ʃt̪o̝t̪o̝/-щите /ʃt̪it̪ɛ/
Past Active Aorist Participle /ɫ/-ла /ɫɐ/-ло /ɫo̝/-ли /li/-лият /lijɐt̪/-лия /lijɐ/-лата /ɫɐt̪ɐ/-лото /ɫo̝t̪o̝/-лите /lit̪ɛ/
Past Active Imperfect Participle -----
Past Passive Participle /n/
/t̪/
-на /nɐ/
-та /t̪ɐ/
-но /no̝/
-то /t̪o̝/
-ни /ni/
-ти /t̪i/
-ният /nijɐt̪/
-тият /t̪ijɐt̪/
-ния /nijɐ/
-тия /t̪ijɐ/
-ната /nɐt̪ɐ/
-тата /t̪ɐt̪ɐ/
-ното /no̝t̪o̝/
-тото /t̪o̝t̪o̝/
-ните /nit̪ɛ/
-тите /t̪it̪ɛ/
Verbal noun ---не /nɛ/-ния /nijɐ/
-нета /nɛt̪ɐ/
----нето /nɛt̪o̝/-нията /nijɐt̪ɐ/
-нетата /nɛt̪ɐt̪ɐ/
Adverbial participle -йки /jkʲi/

Thematic vowels

Below is a table of the thematic vowels. They are inserted between the stem and the ending.

Tense/Mood First Second Third
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd
Present е (/ɛ/) и (/i/)
Past Imperfect Yat vowel: я (/ja/), а (/a/), or е (/ɛ/)
Past Aorist о (/o̝/)
е (/ɛ/)
а (/ɐ/ or /a/) Yat: я (/ja/) я (/jɐ/ or /ja/) и (/i/) Yat: я (/ja/) а (/a/)
Imperative и (/i/), е (/ɛ/), й (/j/) й (/j/)

Finite forms

Non-finite forms

Bibliography

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