The Definite articles of Bulgarian

Hello, guys! Today we’ll be talking about the definite articles of Bulgarian.

Grammatically speaking, nouns are parts of speech. They are words that denote a person, an animal, a place, a thing, an idea. The nouns have a very important function and they can take different roles. They could be: subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, predicate nominatives, object complements, etc.

We use a definite article when we are talking about an object that is already familiar to us. In English, we know only one definite article THE which doesn’t change by gender nor form. However, definite articles do change in Bulgarian and today we’ll se how. Here are the forms for the definite article for the masculine, feminine, and neuter gender, and for the plural:

1. Masculine nouns:

For the masculine nouns there are two forms of the definite article, depending on the role of the noun in the sentence: object or subject.

Nominative form	Definite article short form -а/-я	Definite article long form -ат/-ят
ключ	ключа	ключът
сандвич	сандвича	сандвичът
учител	учителя	учителят

When the noun takes the role of the subject, it receives the long definite article. When the noun takes the role of the object, it receives the short one.

Subject

Ключът е на масата.

		The key is on the table.

Object

Той ми даде ключа от къщата.

He gave me the key.

Most of the nouns that belong to the masculine gender take the –ЪТ/-А

куфар (a suitcase) – куфарът – куфара (the suitcase)
хотел (a hotel) – хотелът – хотела (the hotel)
влак (a train) – влакът – влака (the train)
студент (a student m) – студентът – студента (the student m)

The nouns that take -ЯТ/-Я are the following:

– all the nouns that end in Й (Й is replaced by the article):край (an end) – краят/я (the end),
герой (a hero) – героят/я (the hero) – all the nouns that end in the suffix-ТЕЛ both for persons and non-persons, and on the suffixes -АР/-ЯР for persons:учител (a teacher m) – учителят/я (the teacher m)
златар (a jeweler/goldsmith) – златарят/я (the jeweler/goldsmith)

The nouns of the masculine gender that end in -А/-Я join the article morpheme for feminine -ТА (see below):баща (a father) – бащата (the father),
съдия (a judge) – съдията (the judge)

The nouns of the masculine gender that end in -O join the article morpheme for neuter -TO (see below):дядо (a grandfather) – дядото (the grandfather),чичо (an uncle) – чичото (the uncle),глезльо (a spoilt boy/man) – глезльото (the spoilt boy/man)
2. Feminine nouns:
- There is only form of it for the nouns of the feminine gender regardless to their role in the sentence – the morpheme –TA:
Nominative form

Definite article

жена жената

чаша чашата
3. Neuter nouns:
- There is only one form of it for the nouns of the neuter gender regardless to their role in the sentence – the morpheme –TO:
Nominative form Definite article

кафе кафето

дете детето
4. The definite article for the plural forms of the nouns:
- There is only one form of the definite article for the nouns in plural regardless to their role in the sentence – the morpheme –TE: for masculine and feminine gender, and – TA for neuter gender:
Nominative form Noun with definite article

m. телефони телефоните

f. чаши чашите

n. животни кафетата

You can find more lessons and exercises in our Bulgarian language courses for foreigners!

14/06/2023

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The Definite articles of Bulgarian