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Bulgarian verbs are the most complicated part of Bulgarian grammar, especially when compared with other
Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
. Bulgarian verbs are inflected for person, number and sometimes gender. They also have
lexical aspect In linguistics, the lexical aspect or Aktionsart (, plural ''Aktionsarten'' ) of a verb is part of the way in which that verb is structured in relation to time. For example, the English verbs ''arrive'' and ''run'' differ in their lexical aspect ...
(perfective and imperfective),
voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...
, nine
tenses In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns. The main tenses found in many languages include the past, present, ...
, three moods,These are the indicative, the imperative and the conditional. Additionally, the inferential is treated as a fourth mood by those linguists who do not include it within the evidential system (e.g. Kutsarov 2007, p. 282-286). And there are a few authors who treat ''da''-forms as constituting a conjunctive mood, but the prevailing opinion is against this view (Kutsarov 2007, p.282, Nitsolova 2008, p. 327) four
evidential In linguistics, evidentiality is, broadly, the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement; that is, whether evidence exists for the statement and if so, what kind. An evidential (also verificational or validational) is the particu ...
s and six
non-finite verb A nonfinite verb is a derivative form of a verb unlike finite verbs. Accordingly, nonfinite verb forms are inflected for neither number nor person, and they cannot perform action as the root of an independent clause. In English, nonfinite verbs in ...
al forms. Because the subject of the verb can be inferred from the verb ending, it is often omitted. As there is no infinitive in the contemporary Bulgarian language the basic form of a verb is its present simple tense first person singular form.


Conjugations

There are three
conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics * Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form * Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics * Complex conjugation, the chang ...
s. The conjugation of a verb determined by the final vowel of the verb in the third person singular present simple tense. Verbs of the first conjugation end in e, of the second in и and of the third in а or я.


Aspect

Bulgarian verbs express
lexical aspect In linguistics, the lexical aspect or Aktionsart (, plural ''Aktionsarten'' ) of a verb is part of the way in which that verb is structured in relation to time. For example, the English verbs ''arrive'' and ''run'' differ in their lexical aspect ...
(''вид''). The verbs are either of imperfective (''глаголи от несвършен вид'') or perfective (''глаголи от свършен вид'') aspect. The former describe actions in progress (uncompleted actions) and the latter whole completed actions (actions which have a beginning and an end). So in Bulgarian, an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
verb is usually translated by two verbs (or sometimes by even three, see below). Perfective verbs can be usually formed from imperfective ones by suffixation or prefixation, but when prefixes (or very rarely suffixes) are used the resultant verb often deviates in meaning from the original. There are not any strict rules and irregularities are very common. Nevertheless many verbs can be grouped according to their stem change: : The verbs from one pair are of different conjugations, for example ''кажа'' is from the first conjugation and ''казвам'' from the third. In the past imperfect and the present tense perfective verbs cannot stand alone in an
independent clause An independent clause (or main clause) is a clause that can stand by itself as a ''simple sentence''. An independent clause contains a subject and a predicate and makes sense by itself. Independent clauses can be joined by using a semicolon or ...
, in these tenses such verbs are used only in subordinate clauses.


Secondary imperfective verbs

Very often when a perfective verb is formed from an imperfective one by means of a prefix (or rarely a suffix) this verb can be made again imperfective using a suffix. The resultant verb is called secondary imperfective verb (''вторичен несвършен глагол''). Here are some examples of such verbs: Verbs from the first type describe uncompleted actions (for example the verb ''мета'' could be roughly translated in English as ''to be sweeping''), verbs from the second describe whole, completed actions. Verbs from the third type are a combination between the first two. Although they are imperfective as the initial ones, they preserve the perfective meaning of the second verbs, they are only grammatically imperfective. An explanation of the nuances between the three columns follows: * Initial imperfective – мета (''meta'') – I'm sweeping (continuing action) * Perfective – ще измета / искам да измета – () – I'll sweep up / I want to sweep up (i.e. I'm announcing that the action will be completed – the perfective form cannot exist in the present indicative as, by definition, it refers to a completed action) * Secondary imperfective – измитам – (''izmitam'') – I'm sweeping away ''completely''. (The verbs in this column put the emphasis on the fact that the actions are being carried out in their entirety) Secondary imperfective verbs are used in cases where it's grammatically incorrect to use perfective verbs (there are tenses, the present tense for example, where perfective verbs cannot stand alone in an independent clause) but one wants to use their meaning, or where the action is complete but repeated over time. See below for examples.


Contrasting imperfective, perfective and secondary imperfective verbs

;Adverbial participle * imperfective verb: ''Четейки книгата, срещнах непозната дума'' = "While I was reading the book, I came across an unknown word" (at one single moment of the action I came across an unknown word) * perfective verb: no adverbial participle * secondary imperfective verb: ''Прочитайки книгата, научих много нови неща.'' = "By reading the book, I learned a lot of new things" (during the whole action I learned a lot, so after I had read the book I knew a lot of new things) ;
Present tense The present tense (abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
* imperfective verb: ** ''Чета книга'' = "I read a book, I'm reading a book" (uncompleted action) ** ''Когато чета книга, се удремвам'' = "When I read a book, I become sleepy" (While I'm in the middle of the action; uncompleted action) ** ''Всеки ден чета книга'' = "I read a book every day" (but this does not necessarily mean that I read a whole book, just a part of it; uncompleted repetitive action) * perfective verb: ''Когато прочета книгата, ще ти я върна'' = "When I finish reading the book, I will give it back to you" (when I have read the whole book; completed action) * secondary imperfective verb: ''Всеки ден прочитам една книга'' = "I read a whole book every day" (I begin reading and I finish reading a book every day; completed repetitive action) ; Past imperfect * imperfective verb: ** ''Четях книга'' = "I was reading a book", "I used to read a book" (but not a whole book; uncompleted action) ** ''Когато четях книгата, телефонът звънна'' = "When I was reading the book, the phone rang" (uncompleted action) ** ''Всеки ден четях книга'' = "I used to read a book every day" (but not a whole book, uncompleted repetitive action) * perfective verb: ''Щом прочетях нова книга, започвах да се хваля всекиму'' = "Whenever I finished reading a new book, I started boasting about it to everyone" (completed repetitive action, notice that the verb is in a dependent clause) * secondary imperfective verb: ''Всеки ден прочитах една книга'' = "I used to read a whole book every day" (I used to begin and finish reading a book every day; completed repetitive action, notice that the verb is in an
independent clause An independent clause (or main clause) is a clause that can stand by itself as a ''simple sentence''. An independent clause contains a subject and a predicate and makes sense by itself. Independent clauses can be joined by using a semicolon or ...
) ; Past aorist * imperfective verb: ''Вчера четох една книга'' = "Yesterday, I read a book" (but did not necessarily finish it; uncompleted action) * perfective verb: ''Вчера прочетох една книга'' = "Yesterday, I finished reading a book" (I read a whole book; completed action) * secondary imperfective verb: identical with the past imperfect ; Future tense * imperfective verb: ** ''Ще чета книгата'' = "I will read the book" (but not necessarily the whole book), "I will be reading the book" (uncompleted action) ** ''Всеки ден ще чета книгата'' = "I will read the book every day" (but this does not necessarily mean that I will read the whole book, just a part of it; uncompleted repetitive action) * perfective verb: ''Ще прочета книгата'' = "I will read the whole book just once" (I will begin and I will finish reading the book only one time; single completed action) * secondary imperfective verb: ''Ще прочитам книгата всеки ден'' = "I will read the whole book every day" (I will begin and I will finish reading the book every day; completed repetitive action)


Tenses


Present (praesens)

The present tense is used to: *describe an action that is happening at the moment of speaking; *talk about things that are always true; *talk about habits or things that happen on a regular basis; Imperfective and perfective verbs are conjugated in the same way. Verbs form the present tense according to their conjugation. They take the following personal endings: See Bulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.


Discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation

Although verbs of the first and second conjugation in first person singular end in -а/я, and in third person plural in -ат/ят, when the stress falls on these endings, they are not pronounced а/йа and ат/йат but ъ/йъ and ът/йът instead. The incorrect pronunciation is considered to be an error.


Neologisms

Newly adopted verbs, especially from English, tend to take a –ирам (''–iram'') ending, in which case they only have one form (the imperfective). Since this is not a native suffix (loaned from German verbal suffix ''-ieren''), recent colloquial formations prefer the native suffixes ''–вам'' (''-vam'') and ''–на'' (''–na'') which do form an imperfective/perfective pair. Examples: * стартирам (''startiram'' – to start), инициирам (''initsiiram'' – to initiate), нокаутирам (''nokautiram'' – to knock out), and even страницирам (''stranitsiram'' – to paginate, with a native stem and the German suffix); * кликвам/кликна (''klikvam/klikna'' – to click), даунлоудвам/даунлоудна (''daunloudvam/daunloudna'' – to download), шеървам/шеърна (''shearvam/shearna'' – to fileshare). These verbs, especially the latter group, are extremely new and have not yet made it into the dictionaries.


Past imperfect (imperfectum)

Past Imperfect (Минало несвършено време) is used to talk about a temporary situation that existed at or around a particular time in the past. It also expresses past actions that were frequent, repeated, permanent or always true. Its most common use is in story telling to provide a background to other actions which are usually expressed with verbs in the past aorist. In this use it means that the action had begun and was in progress when the other happened, we do not know whether it stopped or not. Both imperfective and perfective verbs have past imperfect. They are conjugated in the same way. Verbs form the past imperfect with the following endings (they are the same for all conjugations): These endings are added to the past imperfect basis. See Bulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.


Past aorist (aoristus)

Past aorist (Минало свършено време) expresses an action that happened at a specific time in the past. Both imperfective and perfective verbs have such tense (there is no difference in their conjugation). Similarly, as in past imperfect, verbs have past aorist basis to which the following personal endings are added (they are the same for all conjugations): See Bulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.


Imperfective and perfective verbs

Although imperfective and perfective verbs are conjugated in the same way in the past aorist, there is difference in their meaning. Compare the sentences:


Past imperfect or past aorist

Usually the difference between the two tenses is very clear: *past imperfect is used for habits, things that were always true, actions that happened many times or for background for other actions. *past aorist is used for single actions that have a beginning and an end. But imperfective verbs both in past imperfect and past aorist can express actions that have long duration and therefore both tenses can be used to say that one action happened at the same time as another. One should always keep in mind that past aorist means that the action began and stopped, and past imperfect that the action was in progress. Compare the sentences (they all contain the imperfective verb играя that expresses an action with some duration, but depending on the tense the sentences have different meaning):


Present perfect (perfectum)

Present perfect The present perfect is a grammatical combination of the present tense and perfect aspect that is used to express a past event that has present consequences. The term is used particularly in the context of English grammar to refer to forms like " ...
(in Bulgarian минало неопределено време, past indefinite tense) expresses an action which happened in the past, but the precise moment when it happened is not specified. It is either not known or not important (in contrast with past aorist). What is important is the result of the action. The tense has a lot in common with the English present perfect. Present perfect is made up of the verb съм, conjugated in present tense, and the
past active aorist participle The past is the set of all events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience ...
of the main verb. Not only
person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...
(first, second, third) and
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
, but also
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
must be taken into account in the process of conjugating. In other words, the corresponding indefinite forms of the participle (masculine, feminine, neuter, singular, plural) are used according to the gender and number of the subject. For the position of the verb съм see
word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
. Example (''чета'', to read): In contrast with English, in Bulgarian (very rarely) the present perfect can be used even if the moment when the action happened is specified. In such cases the importance of the action or its result is emphasized: *''Снощи до два часа съм гледал телевизия и тази сутрин съм станал в шест, затова съм изключително изтощен.'' = "Last night, I watched TV until 2 o'clock and this morning, I got up at six, so I'm extremely exhausted."


Past perfect

Past perfect The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, is a type of verb form, generally treated as a grammatical tense in certain languages, relating to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time i ...
(in Bulgarian минало предварително време, "past preliminary tense") expresses an action that happened before another past action. It is made up of the past tense of съм and the
past active aorist participle The past is the set of all events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience ...
of the main verb. Again as in
present perfect The present perfect is a grammatical combination of the present tense and perfect aspect that is used to express a past event that has present consequences. The term is used particularly in the context of English grammar to refer to forms like " ...
the participle agrees in number and gender with the subject. For the position of the verb съм see
word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
. Example (''чета'', to read): Rarely the past perfect can be used for actions that happened at an indefinite time in the past but very long ago, especially in sentences containing the phrase "someone sometimes said": *''Някой някога беше казал, че любовта ще спаси света.'' = "Someone once said that love will save the world."


Future (futurum primum)

The
future tense In grammar, a future tense (abbreviated ) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French ''aimera'', meaning ...
(in Bulgarian бъдеще време) is formed with the
particle In the Outline of physical science, physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small wikt:local, localized physical body, object which can be described by several physical property, physical or chemical property, chemical ...
ще (derived from the verb ща, "to want") and the present simple tense (ще always stands before the present forms). In contrast with the other tenses negation is not expressed with the particle не, but with the construction няма да + the present tense. Forms with не are also possible but they are found mainly in the poetry. Example (''чета'', to read): The verb съм forms the future in two ways. The first one with its present tense, and the second one with its special future form – бъда. The latter is more common:


Future perfect (futurum secundum exactum)

Future perfect The future perfect is a verb form or construction used to describe an event that is expected or planned to happen before a time of reference in the future, such as ''will have finished'' in the English sentence "I will have finished by tomorrow." ...
(in Bulgarian бъдеще предварително време, future preliminary tense) expresses an action which is to take place in the future before another future action. It is made up of the future tense of the verb съм (in this tense the form with бъда is less common than the usual one) and the
past active aorist participle The past is the set of all events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience ...
of the main verb which agrees in number and gender with the subject. Example (''чета'', to read):


Future-in-the-past

Past future tense or future in the past (in Bulgarian бъдеще време в миналото, future tense in the past) expresses an action which was to be completed in the past but was future as regards another past action. It is made up of the past imperfect of the verb ща "will, want", the particle да "to" and the
present tense The present tense (abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
of the main verb. Negation is expressed with the construction нямаше да + the present tense, although forms with не are also possible but found mainly in the poetry. Example (''чета'', to read): The verb съм forms the future in the past in two ways. The first one with its present tense, and the second one with бъда (''щях да съм'' and ''щях да бъда''). The latter is more common.


Future-in-the-past perfect

Past future perfect or future perfect in the past (in Bulgarian бъдеще предварително време в миналото, future preliminary tense in the past) expresses a past action which is prior to a past action which itself is future with respect to another past action. It is made up of the past imperfect of ща "will, want", the particle да "to", the present tense of the verb съм "be" (in other words, the past future tense of съм, but not the form with бъда) and the
past active aorist participle The past is the set of all events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience ...
of the main verb, which agrees in number and gender with the subject. Example (''чета'', to read):


Voice

The
voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...
in Bulgarian adjectives is presented not through the auxiliary verb, as it is in English ("I ''have'' eaten" – active; "I ''was'' eaten" – passive), but rather by the ending on the
past participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
; the auxiliary remains ''съм'' ("to be"): *
Active Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name * HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...
– ''ударил съм... – udaril săm...'' – I have hit... *
Passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of on ...
– ''бил съм'' ''ударен – bil săm udaren'' – I have been hit ::''See also
Participles In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
, below.''


Mood

Modal distinctions in subordinate clauses are expressed not through verb endings, but through the choice of
complementizer In linguistics (especially generative grammar), complementizer or complementiser (glossing abbreviation: ) is a functional category (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause into the subject or object of a s ...
– ''че (che)'' or ''да (da)'' (which might both be translated with the
relative pronoun A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause. It serves the purpose of conjoining modifying information about an antecedent referent. An example is the word ''which'' in the sentence "This is the house which Jack built." Here the ...
"that"). The verbs remain unchanged.In ordinary sentences, the imperfective
aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
is most often used for the indicative, and the perfective for the subjunctive, but any combination is possible, with the corresponding change in meaning. * eg iskam da stanesh (perfective) / iskam da stavash (imperfective) – i want you to get up. The latter is more insisting, since the imperfective is the more immediate construction.
Thus: *
Indicative A realis mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Most ...
– че – ** e.g. ''знам, че си тук – znam, che si tuk'' – I know that you are here; *
Subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality ...
– да – ** e.g. ''настоявам да си тук – nastoyavam da si tuk'' – I insist that you be here. The imperative has its own conjugation – usually by adding ''-и'' or ''-ай'' (''-i'' or ''-ay'') to the root of the verb: * e.g. sit – ''сядам → сядай'' ( –
imperfective The imperfective (abbreviated or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a gen ...
), or ''седна → седни'' (''sedna → sedni'' –
perfective The perfective aspect (abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imp ...
).


Conditional mood

The so-called conditional refers to a possible action, which is usually intentional and under the control of a subject. It is formed by a special formHistorically, it is the aorist form. of the auxiliary 'съм' (to be), and the aorist active participle of the main verb:


Evidentials

Bulgarian verbs are inflected not only for
aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
, tense and
modality Modality may refer to: Humanities * Modality (theology), the organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations * Modality (music), in music, the subject concerning certain diatonic scales * Modaliti ...
, but also for
evidentiality In linguistics, evidentiality is, broadly, the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement; that is, whether evidence exists for the statement and if so, what kind. An evidential (also verificational or validational) is the particul ...
, that is, the source of the information conveyed by them. There is a four-way distinction between the unmarked (indicative) forms, which imply that the speaker was a witness of the event or knows it as a general fact; the inferential, which signals general non-witness information or one based on inference; the renarrative, which indicates that the information was reported to the speaker by someone else; and the dubitative, which is used for reported information if the speaker doubts its veracity. This can be illustrated with the four possible ways of rendering in Bulgarian the English sentence 'The dog ate the fish' (here denotes the aorist active participle): Indicative: Inferential: Renarrative: Dubitative: On a theoretical level, there are alternatives to treating those forms as the four members of a single evidential
category Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses * Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally *Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) *Category (Kant) *Categories (Peirce) * ...
. Kutsarov, for example, posits a separate category, which he terms 'type of utterance' (''вид на изказването''), proper to which is only the distinction between forms expressing speaker's own statements (indicative, inferential), and forms that retell statements of another (renarrative, dubitative). The inferential is then viewed as one of the moods, and the dubitative – as a renarrative inferential, whose dubitative meaning, albeit more frequent, is only secondary. Another view is presented by Gerdzhikov – in his treatment there are two distinctive
features Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...
involved – subjectivity and renarrativity. The indicative is unmarked for both, while the inferential is marked for subjectivity, the renarrative for renarrativity, and the dubitative for both subjectivity and renarrativity.


Forms

An evidential for a given tense is formed by taking the past active participle of the verb (or auxiliary, if there is one) of the corresponding indicative tense, and adding a form of the auxiliary verb ''съм'' (to be). For the inferential and the renarrative it is its present tense form, which, however, is omitted in the 3rd person of the renarrative; hence inferential and renarrative forms are generally not distinguished in the 1st and 2nd person. The dubitative is formed from the renarrative by adding the past active participle of the verb ''съм'' (to be). An example paradigm is given in the following table.It is based on , and Given for reference are some tenses of the indicative (these are the imperfect, aorist, perfect, future in the past and future perfect in the past). Whenever there are participles involved, they are given in their masculine form, but they have different forms for the three genders in the singular.Exceptions are the auxiliary ня̀мало in all negative future and future perfect forms, and ня̀мало било̀ in the negative future (perfect) dubitative, which always remain in the neuter singular. Additionally, there are also a few rare forms for some of the future tenses. In some cases, there are less common forms in which the auxiliary ''ще'' remains impersonal instead of being inflected for person and number; thus for the inferential and renarrative future/future in the past rare forms of the type ''ще съм четя̀л'' are possible alongside the more common forms of the type ''щя̀л съм да чета̀'', for the inferential future perfect in the past – ''ще съм бѝл чѐл'' alongside the usual ''щя̀л съм да съм чѐл'', and for the dubitative future/ future in the past – rare forms of the type ''ще съм бѝл четя̀л'' in addition to the more common forms of the type ''щя̀л съм бѝл да чета̀''. Also, the negative form of the dubitative future perfect/future perfect in the past can be either ''ня̀мало било̀ да съм чѐл'', or ''ня̀мало съм бил да съм чѐл''.


Non-finite verb forms


Present active participle

Usage limited, can be used only attributively


Past active participle

Past active aorist
participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
(минало свършено деятелно причастие) is used to form the present perfect, in the renarrative and
conditional mood The conditional mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual. It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
and as an adjective. It is formed by adding -л (this is its
masculine Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...
indefinite form) to the past aorist basis (first person singular past aorist tensе but without the final х), but additional alterations of the basis are also possible. The indefinite
feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...
, neuter and
plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
forms take respectively the endings -а, -о and -и after the masculine form. The
definite In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
forms are formed from the indefinite by adding the
definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
s -ят/я for masculine participles, та for feminine participles, то for neuter participles and те for plural participles : ''See also
Voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...
above'' See Bulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.


Past active renarrative participle

Can be used only predicatively


Past passive participle


Present active adverbial participle

Usage limited


Action nouns


Action nouns ending in -не

Can be formed only from imperfective verbs


Action nouns ending in -ние

Can be formed from both imperfective and perfective verbs


Present passive participle

Obsolete; used only as adjective in modern Bulgarian


Infinitive

Obsolete


Notes


References


Bibliography

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulgarian Verbs
Verbs A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descrip ...
Indo-European verbs