Bulgarian grammar: Article

From UniLang Wiki

In Bulgarian the definite article is attached to the end of the word:

Masculine nouns: -a/-ът or -я/-ят [spelling rule, both can be read strong (-т pronounced) or weak (without -т), NB: -а/-я here stands for -ъ/-йъ]
e.g. мъжът (the man), котаракът (the tomcat), учителят (the teacher)

Masculine adjectives: -ия/-ият [same spelling rule as masculine nouns]
e.g. новият (the new [one]), глупавият (the stupid [one])

Feminine nouns/adj and all (!) nouns on -а: -та
e.g. жената (the woman), котката (the cat), бащата (the father), децата (the children)

Neuter nouns/adj: -то
e.g. детето (the child), котето (the kitten), слънцето (the sun)

Plural nouns/adj: -те
e.g. мъжете (the men), жените (the women), бащите (the fathers)

In complex adjective(s)+noun phrases the first adjective gets the article, e.g.

малкото умно дете (the small clever child) 
смелата млада жена (the brave young woman) 
приятният любезен мъж (the nice polite men) 
новите смешни обувки (the new funny shoes) 

Adjectives with a definite article are something normal and used without any help words, e.g. English 'the new one' is Bulgarian 'новият'.

Most pronouns (without the personal ones) are declined like adjectives, e.g. моят/моята/моето/моите (*the my [one], masc/fem/neut/plural), няколкото (*the a few). This is used to form relative pronouns: къде (where?) => където (where, as in 'I found it on the same place, where they ...').

No obligatory indefinite articles exists, their functions are performed by the words един/една/едно/едни (one,masc/fem/neut/plural) and някакъв/някаква/някакво/някакви (some, masc/fem/neut/plural). Some noun phrases sound weird w/out one of those words, some don't.

>> Languages >> Bulgarian >> Bulgarian grammar

Personal tools