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Научи (научете) български сега!
A Lesson of Nouns; and a Tale: Baked Pumpkin
by
Elin Pelin (a Bulgarian writer)/
Урок за съществителни; и разказ:„Печена тиква“
от
Елин Пелин (български писател)

How to Write with Cyrillic Letters;
Equivalents (Capital Letters) Add it on your computer:
Choose from Control Panel/
Region and
Language/Keyboards and
Languages tab/Change
Keyboards/Add…/ then find
Bulgarian (Phonetic
Traditional) in the list under
Bulgarian.
The English “J” as in “Jordan”
is written with two letters: дж.
The Bulgarian “ь” is used as
“й” in cases it is preceded by a
consonant.
А
Б
В
Г
Д
Е
Ж
З
И
Й
К
Л
М
Н
О
A
B
V
G
D
E
Zh
Z
I
Y
K
L
M
N
O
П
Р
С
Т
У
Ф
Х
Ц
Ч
Ш
Щ
Ъ
Ь
Ю
Я
P
R
S
T
U
F
H
Tz
Ch
Sh
Sht
dark A
Y
Yu
Ya

Пригответе се за четене!/Get Prepared for Reading!
The text is about a person (named Dushko - or the
translated variant Goody) who is embarrassed with his
rural origin; and baked pumpkin reminds him of the
origin, as his boss has pointed out people from village,
like Goody (Dushko), should like it and even wanted to
treat him to a piece of it while Goody was his guest –
Goody refused for pretending he does not feel himself
like from village. But still, he loves baked pumpkin and
his ridiculous embarrassment makes him look ridiculous
and the ghost of pumpkins seems to chase him even at
night;
(although Bulgarians don’t celebrate Halloween or at least,
it is not celebrated as much as in English-speaking
countries).

Pay attention the sentences have words order
typical for the Sofia region.
Печена тиква
***
Скара ли се с някого от другарите си в
канцеларията, веднага ще го нарече или
печена тиква, или – какво се червиш като
печена тиква, или – я се погледни, моля ти
се, какъв си пияница – от главата ти се
вдига пара като от печена тиква!

5
Нощем, щом заспи, мъчителният призрак на тиквата пак
иде. Присънва му се едно поле, ама какво поле! Дълго,
широко, края му се не вижда! По него се натъркаляли ония
ми ти печени тикви и над всяка се вие сладка пара! Душко
върви из това поле, гледа тиквите и му се иска да си
откъсне, но щом се наведе, тиквата изчезва. Той пак върви
по полето. Поле, но не поле, а някаква си канцелария, уж
широка канцелария! Там някъде се явява голяма тиква и
почва да се търкаля към него и все расте, расте, става
колкото къща, колкото църква, колкото планина, по-голяма
и почва по-бързо и по-силно да се търкаля към него.
Душко трепери от страх и бяга, бяга, а краката му се
скъсяват, скъсяват. Чудовищната тиква го настига и се
хвърля върху него.
Архиварят трепва и се събужда, плувнал в пот.
Тоя сън почва да го мъчи всяка нощ.

6
Превод/Translation
If he argues with someone of his mates in the office, he will
immediately call him either - baked pumpkin or - what are you
reddening like a baked pumpkin, or - look at you, what a drunkard you
are – steam is soaring from your head like from a baked pumpkin!
At night, when he falls asleep, the tormenting ghost of the pumpkin
comes again. In a dream he sees a field, but not just a field! Long, wide,
the end of it is out of sight! And those baked pumpkins have rolled on
the field and over each of them sweet steam is soaring! Goody walks
through that field, looks at the pumpkins and wants to pick, but when he
bends down, the pumpkin disappears. He walks again in the field. A
field, but not a field – some sort of office, more or less wide! There
somewhere a huge pumpkin appears and starts rolling towards him and
grows, grows, becomes as big as a house, as a church, as a mountain,
bigger and it starts to roll faster and faster towards him. Goody is
scared and runs, and runs, his feet grow shorter and shorter. The
monster pumpkin catches him and throws itself on him.
The archivist trembles and wakes up, wet from sweat.
This dream starts tormenting him every night.

Let’s Find the Nouns (without Pronouns) and Analyze them
Скара ли се с някого от другарите си в канцеларията, веднага ще го
нарече или печена тиква, или – какво се червиш като печена тиква,
или – я се погледни, моля ти се, какъв си пияница – от главата ти се
вдига пара като от печена тиква!
Нощем, щом заспи, мъчителният призрак на тиквата пак иде.
Присънва му се едно поле, ама какво поле! Дълго, широко, края му се
не вижда! По него се натъркаляли ония ми ти печени тикви и над
всяка се вие сладка пара! Душко върви из това поле, гледа тиквите и
му се иска да си откъсне, но щом се наведе, тиквата изчезва. Той пак
върви по полето. Поле, но не поле, а някаква си канцелария, уж
широка канцелария! Там някъде се явява голяма тиква и почва да се
търкаля към него и все расте, расте, става колкото къща, колкото
църква, колкото планина, по-голяма и почва по-бързо и по-силно да се
търкаля към него. Душко трепери от страх и бяга, бяга, а краката му се
скъсяват, скъсяват. Чудовищната тиква го настига и се хвърля върху
него.
Архиварят трепва и се събужда, плувнал в пот.
Тоя сън почва да го мъчи всяка нощ.

Definite Articles – Some Explanation
In Bulgarian definite articles are connected with the noun or the adjective and
are a suffix.
другарите, канцеларията, главата, тиквата, края,
тиквите, полето, краката, архиварят
From the above nouns in plural are: другарите, тиквите, краката – they all get
“те” ending except those plurals which end with “a” – then they get “та” which
is like a feminine singular with a definite article, but these constructions are not
singular (so, don’t judge of the gender from the definite article suffix!).
In feminine singular are: канцеларията, главата, тиквата – they get
“та” to become with a def. article, even those which are exceptions from the “a”
ending: пролетта есента, нощта, пещта. A noun+an adjective as a modifier –
in feminine, with a def. article in the text: “ чудовищната тиква”

Definite Articles – Some Explanation
In masculine singular are: края, архиварят – here is the “difficulty” if you
don’t know the rule: sometimes “архиварят” is with “ят” and
sometimes is only “архиваря” without “т”, but the rule is easy to remember it
is with “т” when the noun is a subject (in active and in passive voice), when
an object it is without “т”. But when it is preceded by a modifying adjective,
the adjective gets “я” and “ят”.
But also it’s sometimes “а” and “ът”, but this can’t be felt in fast speech, so, I
won’t make you puzzled with more explanation.
“Края” without the def.article is “край” as the “й” is omitted when it is with
the def. article, since “я” contains the sound “й”.
In neuter singular is only: полето. No matter the ending is “e” or “o”, it gets
“то”: евро – еврото (an euro – the euro)

Род, число/Gender, Number
Pay attention: usually a word in feminine singular ends with “a” (an
exception:”баща” – a father) or “я”, but there are exceptions: “пот” (sweat),
“пролет” (spring), “есен” (autumn); and ending with “щ” are feminine: “нощ” (a
night), “пещ”(a furnace), “свещ”(a candle). The plural number of feminine ends
with “и” except the uncountable “пот” (sweat); “пара”(steam, vapor) as
chemical phenomenon could be in plural too (as in English: vapors);
Masculine
един
Feminine
една
Neuter
едно
Plural
много
другар
пияница
призрак
Душко
страх
крак
архивар
сън
канцелария
тиква
глава
пара
къща
църква
планина
пот
нощ
поле другари, канцеларии, полета
пияници, тикви
призраци, глави
-, пари
страхове, къщи
крака, църкви
архивари, планини
сънища, пот
нощи

words with abstract meaning ending with “ст” are feminine too: вечност,
крайност (eternity, extremeness). Plural is made by changing “a” to “и”.
Neuter: end with “e” or “o” and in plural they get respectively “та” and when
with “o” it transforms to “а” (поле – полета (a field-fields); число – числа (a
number - numbers)).
Masculine: end with one (two) consonant(s) except names of men (Ivaylo,
Marko) and here is one of the few exceptions besides “баща”(a father):
“пияница” (this word is actually both masculine and feminine – the logics:
one becomes too inadequate when drunk to be referred to as a man or a
woman). Plural masculine is the most difficult from all genders’ plurals: if
ending with “к” that transforms to “ци” – “капак-капаци” (a lid-lids) and the
exception is here and gets “а” - “крак+а”.
But why “влак” becomes “влакове”? Nouns that are used scientifically as
concepts– example: “банков клон” (a branch) – “банкови клонове” (bank
branches), [but “дървесни клони”(tree branches)] get “ове”.

But professions and persons almost always get “и” – архивари, учители (archivists,
teachers); exceptions: кметОВЕ (mayors); rare forms in making masculine plurals are “крал-
крале”, “кон-коне” , “цар-царе” (a king-kings; a horse- horses; a tzar-tzars)
Masculine have other strange rarities for plural forms: път – пътища, сън - сънища (a track
– tracks; a dream-dreams, not in the meaning “a wish”).
Do not change the stress when forming plurals and if it ends with a stress on a vowel
that is changed, the stress is on the new vowel – the latter is valid for feminine: “мечта-
мечти”(a daydream –daydreams or similar: a wish-wishes).
Attention, the following is difficult even for native speakers –another peculiarity of
masculine: a regular and a special form for counting masculine after “няколко” (a few,
several), “толкова”/”много” (so/many) and numbers. A regular form is when it coincides with
the masculine plurals and it is when the counted word refers to persons, but a strange
adjective suffix is added till the cardinal number “шест” (six) which is “има”: три(и)ма
учители; the special form is easier - you use it for all the rest (those that don’t refer to
persons): use the cardinal number and the masculine SINGULAR(WHICH NOW WILL
MEAN PLURAL) with the definite article WITHOUT “т” : пет коня, осем автомобила,
десет долара (five horses, eight cars, ten dollars). But when the amount is not definitely
stated don’t use this form: стотици долари (hundreds dollars)

Показателни местоимения/Demonstrative Pronouns
Have you noticed the words “оная” and “тоя” in the text which mean “that” for feminine
and “this” for masculine?
Look at the chart below:
The words in brackets are informal variants.
“There is (are) … in/at/on… “ in Bulgarian begins with stating the adverbial giving an
answer to “where” first and then “има” (“to have” always in third person, singular): В
чантата има пари (There is money in the bag), although “money” in Bulgarian is always
plural and the stress is on the last syllable.
Masculine
1.this
2.that
Feminine
1. this
2. that
Neuter
1. this
2. that
Plural for All Genders
1. these
2. those
1.този (тоя)
2.онзи (оня)
1.тази (тая)
2.онази (оная)
1. това
2. онова
тези (тея)
онези (онея)

Demonstrative Pronouns and “be” Conjugation + Subject Personal
Pronouns
In the chart on the previous page, we could
see a demonstrative pronoun referring to a
noun, like:
“този учител” (this teacher), but what about
pointing at an object and saying what it is –
like “This is I/ me” or “It is I/ me”. Then
we use the neuter demonstrative pronoun+the
conjugated “be” for each personal pronoun –
not only 3rd person (this is the difference with
English)+ a personal pronoun: “Това
съм аз.”, “Това са те”, “Това сме ние” and
never with an object pronoun “Това сме нас”.
Rarely “These are we” is used:
“Тези сме ние” – it would be used when
discerning people on a photo, but the rule is
like the English one.
Singular Plural
I am/
аз съм
we are/
ние сме
you are/
ти си
you are/
вие сте
he, she, it
is/
той, тя, то
е
they are/
те са

За писателя/About the Writer
Elin Pelin is a pseudonym of Dimitar Ivanov
Stoyanov (8 July 1877, the village of Baylovo, the
Sofia region – 3 December1949, Sofia).
He did not graduate from high school; passionately
infatuated with reading, got to know the Bulgarian and
Russian literature profoundly. He was a teacher in
Baylovo (1895 - 96). From the autumn of 1899, he
established in Sofia. He was a librarian at the
University Library (1903 - 07); sent on business to Nancy,
France (1906 - 07); a keeper at the storage of the National Library in Sofia
(1910 - 16); an administrator at the house-museum "Ivan Vazov" (1924 - 44).
He was an associate of many magazines.
 He was a chairman of Union of Bulgarian Writers in 1940.
 Under the poem "Quiet Grieves" (November, 1897), printed in the Bulgarian
Pregled magazine, for the first time he signed with the pseudonym Elin Pelin.
In his youth years, he was interested mostly in poetry. In his mature writer’s
years, he was inclined in the tale and the short novel, while he kept writing
children’s and humoristic poems.

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