bulgarian-grammar

name

bulgarian-grammar

description

Write, edit, translate or proofread grammatically correct Bulgarian (български език). Use whenever output contains Bulgarian prose — emails, docs, UI strings, marketing copy, literary text, EN→BG translation — or when asked to check Bulgarian grammar, spelling or punctuation. Covers the nine tenses, aspect, the renarrative/evidential moods, full vs. short definite article, the count form, clitic order, ят-alternation and comma rules.

Bulgarian grammar

Bulgarian is grammatically unlike English in ways that produce fluent-sounding but wrong output. The failure modes are systematic, not random. This skill turns them into explicit checks.

The five things that go wrong most often, in order:

1. Full vs. short definite article (-ът/-ят vs. -а/-я) — a syntactic rule with no spoken counterpart, so statistical intuition is useless.
2. Evidentials — Bulgarian grammatically marks whether you witnessed something. Reporting someone else's past statement in the indicative is a hard error.
3. Participle selection — бих мислил is correct, бих мислел does not exist.
4. The count form (два стола vs. двама студенти) — turns on whether the noun denotes a person.
5. Clitic order and placement — a fixed template; clitics may never open a clause.

Workflow

Never emit Bulgarian in one pass. Draft, then run the verification pass below over your own text before showing it. The checks are cheap and the errors are invisible to fluency-based self-review.

1. Draft. Write the Bulgarian.
2. Verify. Walk the Verification checklist below. It is ordered by error frequency; do not skip items because the text "reads fine".
3. Consult. When any check is not obviously satisfied, open the relevant reference file rather than guessing. Guessing is what produces the errors.
4. Fix and re-verify the changed sentences.

For translation from English, first read references/translating-from-english.md — several English structures have no direct Bulgarian equivalent and must be restructured, not mapped.

Reference files

Load on demand; do not read them all up front.

File	Read it when
references/definite-article.md	Any masculine singular noun/adjective/pronoun ending in a consonant is definite
references/evidentiality.md	Reporting speech, retelling, folk tales, news from a source, hedging, rumours
references/verb-system.md	Choosing a tense; forming any compound tense; conjugating; aspect questions
references/participles.md	Any form with -л, -н/-т, -щ or -йки; passive; conditional; perfect
references/nouns-numerals.md	Plurals, count form, numerals, vocative, gender, agreement
references/clitics-word-order.md	Any short pronoun (ме, го, ѝ, му, се, си, ми…), не, ще, ли, possession
references/orthography.md	Spelling, я/е alternation, ѝ, capitals, hyphens, numbers, dates
references/punctuation.md	Any comma decision; quotes; direct speech; dashes
references/translating-from-english.md	Translating or adapting English source text
references/calques-and-false-friends.md	The text came from English; any borrowed verb, idiom or figurative usage
references/error-catalogue.md	Proofreading someone else's Bulgarian; want the error→fix table
references/worked-examples.md	Want the checklist applied end-to-end on real drafts

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Verification checklist

Run in order. Each item names the test, not just the rule.

1. Full vs. short article — every definite masculine singular word ending in a consonant

Applies only to masculine singular words ending in a consonant (nouns, adjectives, ordinals, possessives, participles used as adjectives). Nothing else in the language has this distinction.

Test: replace the whole phrase with a pronoun.

• Replaceable by той → full article -ът / -ят
• Replaceable by него / го / му → short article -а / -я

Камъкът счупи прозореца.   =  Той счупи него.        →  подлог = пълен, допълнение = кратък
Видях новия директор.      =  Видях него.            →  кратък
Вие ли сте новият директор? =  съставно именно сказуемо → пълен
Мисълта за утрешния ден…    =  after a preposition   →  ALWAYS short

Hard guards:

• After any preposition → short, always, no matter what the phrase modifies.
• Predicate nominal after съм / бъда / стана / остана / оказвам се / изглеждам / представлявам / явявам се → full. Георги Иванов е първият български космонавт.
• Word order is irrelevant. Директора на училището посетих вчера. (object, fronted).
• Article goes on the first word of the phrase only: новият голям завод, not новият големият завод.
• Nicknames and always-definite place names take the short article even as subject: Апостола, Щастливеца, Хисаря, Предела.

→ references/definite-article.md for the soft-article list (-ят/-я), which is a closed set: adjectives, ordinals, possessives; the ten nouns цар, крал, ден, сън, кон, огън, път, зет, лакът, нокът; nouns in -й; the suffixes -тел and person-denoting -ар/-яр.

2. Evidential mood — is the information yours or someone else's?

If the sentence reports what a third party said, thought or claimed (каза, че…, според Иван, твърди, че…, според доклада, a folk tale, a rumour):

• The five past tenses (аорист, имперфект, минало предварително, бъдеще в миналото, бъдеще предварително в миналото) must be renarrated. Leaving them in the indicative is a gross error.
• The four broadly present tenses (сегашно, бъдеще, минало неопределено, бъдеще предварително) may stay indicative; that is usually the clearer choice.

✗ Иван каза, че Мария вчера цял ден игра тенис.
✓ Иван каза, че Мария вчера цял ден играла тенис.
✓ Според Иван Мария сега играе тенис.        (present — indicative is fine)
✓ Според Иван Мария сега играела тенис.      (also fine)

Formation, minimal version — replace the finite verb (or the first auxiliary) with its -л participle and add present-tense съм; in 3rd person the auxiliary is dropped, and that dropped auxiliary is the only thing distinguishing renarrative from the perfect:

Indicative	Renarrative
ходи / ходеше	ходел (3rd p.), ходел съм (1st/2nd p.)
ходѝ (aorist)	ходил (3rd p.), ходил съм
е ходил / беше ходил	бил ходил (3rd p.), бил съм ходил
ще ходи / щеше да ходи	щял да ходи (3rd p.), щял съм да ходи
няма да ходи / нямаше да ходи	нямало да ходи

Never renarrate the verb after да: хукнал да бяга ✓, хукнал да бягал ✗.

→ references/evidentiality.md for the full paradigms, the doubly-renarrated forms (била взела), the presumptive (може да е спал, ще да знае), and the exceptions (general truths, mental states, questions about permanent state).

3. Participle selection — -ил vs. -ел

Bulgarian has two past active participles and they are not interchangeable.

• Past aorist active participle (from the aorist stem: мислих → мислил, четох → чел, ходих → ходил) is used in everything except one place: perfect, pluperfect, future perfect, future perfect in the past, the conditional, and the renarrative of the aorist.
• Past imperfect active participle (from the imperfect stem: мислех → мислел, четях → четял) is used only in the renarrative and presumptive of the present and the imperfect.

✓ бих мислил, бях мислил, ще съм мислил, мислил съм (perfect)
✗ бих мислел, бях мислел, ще съм мислел
✓ мислел съм  — only as "reportedly I think/was thinking" or "I may have been thinking"

The imperfect participle is never attributive and never takes an article: училите стихотворението ✓, учелите ✗.

Only exception: verbs with no usable aorist, chiefly зная → бих знаел, не съм знаел.

4. Aspect gate

A perfective verb (напиша, седна, кажа, прочета) may not:

• stand in the present tense of a main clause — ✗ Аз дам книгата → ✓ Давам книгата (it is allowed after да, ако, когато: Искам да прочета);
• form a negative imperative — ✗ Не седни! → ✓ Не сядай! / Недей да сядаш!;
• form a -йки adverbial participle — ✗ кажейки → ✓ казвайки;
• form a present active participle — ✗ кажещ → ✓ казващ;
• form a -не verbal noun — ✗ кажене → ✓ казване;
• follow phase verbs — ✗ Престанах да купя → ✓ Престанах да купувам.

5. Past tense choice: аорист vs. имперфект

• Аорист = the narrative tense: a chain of completed events that moves the story forward.
• Имперфект = the descriptive tense: background, states, simultaneity, habits. A string of imperfects does not advance time — it is one frame of the film.

Непознатият натисна звънеца… вратата се отвори.   (аорист — events)
На прага стоеше стара жена… косата ѝ излъчваше сияние.  (имперфект — description)

Do not translate every English past simple as аорист. Когато го срещнах, той работеше като готвач.

Минало неопределено (е ходил) is a result-now tense, not a general past. Use it when the present-day result is the point. Минало предварително (беше ходил) requires a second, later past reference point.

6. Count form (бройна форма)

After a numeral or a quantity pronoun (колко, няколко, толкова), masculine nouns naming non-persons take -а/-я; nouns naming persons take the ordinary plural, with the masculine-personal numeral двама…шестима for 2–6.

✓ два стола, пет града, няколко коня, десет хиляди километра
✓ двама студенти, петима ученици, трима съдии
✗ двама студента, пет ученика

Distinguishers: двамата царе (rulers) vs. двата царя (chess pieces); 50 членове (of a club) vs. 50 члена (of a law); teams and committees are non-persons — двата отбора. Special: седем дена (not деня), два пъти (times) vs. два пътя (roads), 100 души (not човека), двама синове. Numerals ending in 1 (except едно) take the plural: 21 градуса, 31 списания, 61 деца. дузина, милион, хиляда (the noun) do not trigger it: дузина моливи, but три милиона долара.

7. Clitic cluster

Order is fixed and the cluster is contiguous:

не → ще → съм/си/сме/сте/са → dative (ми, ти, му, ѝ, ни, ви, им, си) → accusative (ме, те, го, я, ни, ви, ги, се) → е

е (3sg of съм) is the exception: it goes last, after the pronouns.

✓ Не съм му го давал.      ✓ Дал ми го е.       ✓ Ще ти го дам.
✓ Не ми го е дал.          ✓ Иска ми се.        ✓ Няма да ти го дам.
✗ Не му съм го давал.      ✗ Е дал ми го.

A clitic can never be the first word of a clause. It needs a host to its left: ✗ Ми се струва → ✓ Струва ми се. не, ще, да, ли or any fronted phrase can serve as the host: Не ми се струва, Днес ми се струва.

ли follows the first stressed element or the first cluster member: Знаеш ли?, Не си ли му казал?, Дал ли си му го?, Ти ли му каза?

8. Pronouns: drop them, and use clitics for possession

• Bulgarian is pro-drop. Delete аз/ти/той/ние unless contrastive. ✗ Аз мисля, че аз трябва да отида. → ✓ Мисля, че трябва да отида.
• Possession = short dative clitic after the noun, not a full possessive: колата ми, майка ми, новата ми кола. моята кола only under contrast.
• си when the possessor is the subject: Иван си взе чантата (his own) vs. Иван взе чантата му (someone else's). Body parts and clothing always take си: Измих си ръцете.
• Negative concord is obligatory: Никой не дойде., Нищо не знам., Никога не съм ходил там. Dropping не is an error.
• Polite Вие: verb and -л participles in 2pl (Вие сте дошли), but adjectives and passive participles agree in gender, singular (Вие сте поканена, Вие сте добра).

9. Orthography

• я/е alternation (ятово правило): я survives only if it is stressed and the next syllable has no и/е/ю/я/ь and no й or ж/ш/ч/дж intervenes. Hence голям → големи, видял → видели, мляко → млечен, място → места.
• ѝ (with the grave accent) is the short dative/possessive pronoun "to her / her": Казах ѝ, майка ѝ. Never и, never й.
• Lower case for months, weekdays, nationalities, languages, religions, titles and job names: януари, понеделник, българин, френски език, кмет, професор.
• In multi-word proper names only the first word is capitalised (plus any embedded proper name): Министерство на здравеопазването, Софийски университет "Св. Климент Охридски", Втора английска езикова гимназия.
• по- and най- take a hyphen and no space: по-добър, най-добър, по-скоро.
• Quotation marks are „…“; decimal separator is a comma; dates are 21.05.2026 г.

10. Punctuation

• No comma before да — Искам да дойда. A comma appears before the whole conjunction in за да, без да, преди да: Обадих се, за да проверя.
• Comma before че, който, когато, където, защото, ако, макар че, въпреки че, докато, and before а, но, ала, обаче, пък.
• No comma before a single и or или; comma when they are repeated (и…, и…) or when a parenthetical/subordinate clause closes right before them.
• Parentheticals split into two groups: those that can also work as sentence parts take commas (За съжаление, Честно казано, Разбира се, Общо взето, От една страна, Естествено, Между другото,); those that exist only as parentheticals do not (може би, навярно, вероятно, по всяка вероятност, следователно, всъщност, впрочем, наистина, според мен, обаче, например, сякаш, като че ли, в края на краищата).
• -йки adverbial phrases are always set off by commas: Иван, отивайки на училище, срещна Петър. — and their subject must be the subject of the main clause.

11. Calques — only when the text came from English

Skip this item for text composed in Bulgarian. When translating or editing a translation, grammatical correctness is not enough: an English verb given a Bulgarian ending, or an idiom rendered word for word, passes every check above and still reads as a translation.

Test: would a Bulgarian writer produce this sentence with no English original in front of them? If the phrase only makes sense once you reconstruct the English, rewrite it.

✗ Моделът е трениран…            ✓ Моделът е обучен…
✗ Актуализацията адресира…       ✓ Актуализацията отстранява…
✗ пейзажът на индустрията        ✓ секторът / картината в индустрията
✗ безшевна интеграция            ✓ безпроблемна / гладка интеграция

Watch for the valency trap, where the calque is grammatical: изтичам is intransitive, so an actor cannot изтече данни — data leaks by itself (изтичане на данни).

See references/calques-and-false-friends.md for the catalogue and the corpus test used to tell a genuine calque from ordinary professional usage.

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Fast self-audit prompts

When reviewing a finished Bulgarian text, ask literally these questions:

• Which words end in a consonant, are masculine singular and definite? For each, does the той/него test agree with the article I wrote?
• Does any sentence report someone else's past statement? Is it renarrated?
• Does any -л participle sit after бих, бях, ще съм, съм? Is it the aorist participle (-ил, not -ел)?
• Is any perfective verb standing alone in the present, or negated as an imperative?
• Does every numeral + masculine noun choose count form vs. plural by person/non-person?
• Is every clitic cluster in the order не–ще–съм–dative–accusative–е, and does no clause start with a clitic?
• Did I write a subject pronoun that carries no contrast?
• Is there a comma before да? (There should not be.)
• Are months, weekdays and nationalities lower case?
• If this came from English: is any verb an English one with a Bulgarian ending, and does any phrase only make sense once I reconstruct the English behind it?