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Bulgarian verbs are the most complicated part ofBulgarian grammar, especially when compared with otherSlavic languages. Bulgarian verbs are inflected for person, number and sometimes gender. They also havelexical aspect (perfective and imperfective),voice, ninetenses, threemoods,^{[note 1]} fourevidentials and sixnon-finite verbal forms. Because the subject of the verb can be inferred from the verb ending, it is often omitted. As there is no infinitive in contemporary Bulgarian, the basic form of a verb is its present simple tense first person singular form.

There are threeconjugations. The conjugation of a verb is determined by the final vowel of the verb in the third person singular present simple tense. Verbs of the first conjugation end ine, of the second inи and of the third inа orя.

As is typical of Slavic languages, Bulgarian verbs expresslexical aspect (вид). The verbs are either ofimperfective (глаголи от несвършен вид) orperfective (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, anEnglish verb is usually translated by two verbs (or sometimes by even three, seebelow). 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:

Perfective	Imperfective	Perfective	Imperfective	Perfective	Imperfective
предложа	предлагам	отговоря	отговарям	кажа	казвам
изложа	излагам	изговоря	изговарям	накажа	наказвам
сложа	слагам	преговоря	преговарям	предскажа	предсказвам
възложа	възлагам	договоря	договарям	докажа	доказвам

The verbs from one pair are of different conjugations, for exampleкажа is from the first conjugation andказвам from the third.

In the past imperfect and the present tense perfective verbs cannot stand alone in anindependent clause, in these tenses such verbs are used only insubordinate clauses.

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 calledsecondary imperfective verb (вторичен несвършен глагол). Here are some examples of such verbs:

Verbs from the first type describe uncompleted actions (for example the verbмета could be roughly translated in English asto 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 – (shte izmeta / iskam da izmeta) – 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 awaycompletely. (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. Seebelow for examples.

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

• imperfective verb:
  • Чета книга = "I read a book, I'm reading a book" (uncompleted action)
  • Когаточета книга, се удремвам = "When I read a book, I become sleepy" (While I'm in the middle of the action; uncompleted action)
  • Всеки денчета 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:Когатопрочета 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 денпрочитам 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)
  • Когаточетях книгата, телефонът звънна = "When I was reading the book, the phone rang" (uncompleted action)
  • Всеки денчетях книга = "I used to read a book every day" (but not a whole book, uncompleted repetitive action)
• perfective verb:Щомпрочетях 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 adependent clause)
• secondary imperfective verb:Всеки денпрочитах 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 anindependent clause)

Past aorist

• imperfective verb:Вчерачетох една книга = "Yesterday, I read a book" (but did not necessarily finish it; uncompleted action)
• perfective verb:Вчерапрочетох 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 денще 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)

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:

SeeBulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.

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 pronouncedа/йа andат/йат butъ/йъ andът/йът instead.^[1]

The incorrect pronunciation is considered to be an error.

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 (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 action(s) 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. SeeBulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.

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):

SeeBulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.

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

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 verbиграя that expresses an action with some duration, but depending on the tense the sentences have different meaning):

Present perfect (in Bulgarianминало 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 withpast 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 verbсъм, conjugated in present tense, and thepast active aorist participle of the main verb. Not onlyperson (first, second, third) andnumber, but alsogender 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 verbсъм seeword order.

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 (in Bulgarianминало предварително време, "past preliminary tense") expresses an action that happened before another past action. It is made up of the past tense ofсъм and thepast active aorist participle of the main verb. Again as inpresent perfect the participle agrees in number and gender with the subject. For the position of the verbсъм seeword order.

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."

Thefuture tense (in Bulgarianбъдеще време) is formed with theparticleще (derived from the verbща, "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 particleне, but with the constructionняма да + the present tense. Forms withне are also possible but they are found mainly in the poetry.

Example (чета, to read):

The verbсъм 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 (in Bulgarianбъдеще 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 verbсъм (in this tense the form withбъда is less common than the usual one) and thepast active aorist participle of the main verb which agrees in number and gender with the subject.

Example (чета, to read):

Past future tense orfuture in the past (in Bulgarianбъдеще време в миналото, future tense in the past) expresses a past action which is future with respect to another past action. It is made up of thepast imperfect of the verbща "will, want", the particleда "to" and thepresent tense of the main verb. Negation is expressed with the constructionнямаше да + the present tense, although forms withне are also possible but found mainly in the poetry.

Example (чета, to read):

The verbсъм forms the future in the past in two ways. The first one with its present tense, and the second one withбъда (щях да съм andщях да бъда). The latter is more common.

Past future perfect or future perfect in the past (in Bulgarianбъдеще 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 thepast imperfect ofща "will, want", the particleда "to", the present tense of the verbсъм "be" (in other words, thepast future tense ofсъм, but not the form withбъда) and thepast active aorist participle of the main verb, which agrees in number and gender with the subject.

Example (чета, to read):

Thevoice in Bulgarian adjectives is presented not through the auxiliary verb, as it is in English ("Ihave eaten" – active; "Iwas eaten" – passive), but rather by the ending on thepast participle; the auxiliary remainsсъм ("to be"):

• Active –ударил съм... – udaril săm... – I have hit...
• Passive –бил съмударен – bil săm udaren – I have been hit

See alsoParticiples, below.

Modal distinctions in subordinate clauses are expressed not through verb endings, but through the choice ofcomplementizer –че (che) orда (da) (which might both be translated with therelative pronoun "that"). The verbs remain unchanged.^{[note 2]} Thus:

• Indicative –че –
  • e.g.знам, че си тук – znam,che si tuk – I know that you are here;
• Subjunctive –да –
  • e.g.настоявам да си тук – nastoyavamda si tuk – I insist that you be here.

Theimperative has its own conjugation – usually by adding-и or-ай (-i or-ay) to the root of the verb:

• e.g. sit –сядам → сядай (syadam → syaday –imperfective), orседна → седни (sedna → sedni –perfective).

The so-called conditional refers to a possible action, which is usually intentional and under the control of a subject.^[2] It is formed by a special form^{[note 3]} of the auxiliary 'съм' (to be), and the aorist active participle of the main verb:^[3]

Bulgarian verbs are inflected not only foraspect,tense andmodality, but also forevidentiality, 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.^[4][5] This can be illustrated with the four possible ways of rendering in Bulgarian the English sentence 'The dog ate the fish' (hereAORPT denotes the aorist active participle):

Indicative:

Inferential:

Renarrative:

Dubitative:

On a theoretical level, there arealternatives to treating those forms as the four members of a single evidentialcategory. 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).^[6] The inferential is then viewed as one of the moods,^[7] and the dubitative – as a renarrative inferential, whose dubitative meaning, albeit more frequent, is only secondary.^[8] Another view is presented by Gerdzhikov – in his treatment there are two distinctivefeatures 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.^[9]

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 verbсъм (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;^[10] hence inferential and renarrative forms are generally not distinguished in the 1st and 2nd person.^[11] The dubitative is formed from the renarrative by adding the past active participle of the verbсъм (to be).^[12] An example paradigm is given in the following table.^[13] 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.^{[note 4]}

Additionally, there are also a fewrare forms for some of the future tenses. In some cases, there are less common forms in which the auxiliaryще 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 typeще съм четя̀л are possible alongside the more common forms of the typeщя̀л съм да чета̀,^[14][15] for the inferential future perfect in the past –ще съм бѝл чѐл alongside the usualщя̀л съм да съм чѐл,^[16] and for the dubitative future/ future in the past – rare forms of the typeще съм бѝл четя̀л in addition to the more common forms of the typeщя̀л съм бѝл да чета̀.^[17] Also, the negative form of the dubitative future perfect/future perfect in the past can be eitherня̀мало било̀ да съм чѐл, orня̀мало съм бил да съм чѐл.^[18]

Present Inferential is not used.

Present Perfect Inferential is not used.

Future Inferential is not used.

Future Perfect Inferential is not used.

Notice that Present Perfect and Past Perfect Dubitative have the same forms as Aorist Dubitative.

Past active aoristparticiple (минало свършено деятелно причастие) is used to form the present perfect, in therenarrative andconditional mood and as an adjective. It is formed by adding -л (this is itsmasculineindefinite form) to the past aorist basis (first person singular past aorist tensе but without the finalх), but additional alterations of the basis are also possible. Theindefinitefeminine,neuter andplural forms take respectively the endings -а, -о and -и after the masculine form. Thedefinite forms are formed from the indefinite by adding thedefinite articles -ят/я for masculine participles,та for feminine participles,то for neuter participles andте for plural participles

See alsoVoice above

SeeBulgarian verb paradigm for the full conjugation.

Can be used only predicatively

Can be formed only from imperfective verbs

Can be formed from both imperfective and perfective verbs

Obsolete; used only as adjective in modern Bulgarian

Obsolete

• Gerdzhikov, Georgi (2003) [1984],Преизказаването на глаголното действие в българския език (in Bulgarian), Sofia: St. Kliment Ohridksi University,ISBN 954-07-1834-1
• Kutsarov, Georgi (2007),Теоретична граматика на българския език. Морфология (in Bulgarian), Plovdiv: Paisiy Hilendarski,ISBN 978-954-423-376-1
• Nitsolova, Ruselina (2008),Българска граматика. Морфология (in Bulgarian), Sofia: St. Kliment Ohridksi University,ISBN 978-954-07-2738-7

For a list of words relating to Bulgarian verbs, see theBulgarian verbs category of words inWiktionary, the free dictionary.

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