Bulgarian

Bulgarian language

Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...

pronoun

Pronoun

In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...

s vary in gender

Grammatical gender

Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...

, number

Grammatical number

In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....

, definiteness

Definiteness

In grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context and entities which are not ....

 and case

Grammatical case

In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...

. They, more than any other part of speech, have preserved the proto-Slavic case system. Pronouns are classified as: personal, possessive, interrogative, demonstrative, reflexive, summative, negative, indefinite and relative.

Personal pronouns

In Bulgarian, there are two types of personal pronoun

Personal pronoun

Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...

s (лични местоимения): full (stressed, free) and short (unstressed, clitic

Clitic

In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...

). The full are used with both verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

s and prepositions (only the direct object forms), whereas the clitic only with verbs. As in English, personal pronouns change depending on their function within the sentence (as a subject

Subject (grammar)

The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...

 or an object

Object (grammar)

An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...

, in other words they have cases: Nominative (Именителен), Accusative (Винителен) and Dative (Дателен). The dative clitic forms can also be used to indicate possession

Possession (linguistics)

Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which possesses the referent of the other ....

 (most Bulgarian grammar books refer to them as short forms of the possessive pronouns). The subject forms are always strong and are used as subjects only when special emphasis is intended, since unstressed subjects recoverable from context are not overtly expressed anyway. In some special cases the full and the short forms of the object pronouns can be used together.

Personal pronouns
Number	Person		Subject Nominative	Direct Complement Accusative		Indirect Complement
						no preposition Dative		preposition
				full	short	full†	short possessive
Singular	First		аз	мен/мене	ме	мене	ми	мен/мене
	Second		ти	теб/тебе	те	тебе	ти	теб/тебе
	Third	Masculine	той	него	го	нему	му	него
		Feminine	тя	нея	я	ней	ѝ	нея
		Neuter	то	него	го	нему	му	него
Plural	First		ние	нас	ни	нам	ни	нас
	Second		вие	вас	ви	вам	ви	вас
	Third		те	тях	ги	тям	им	тях

†The full forms are rather archaic and are usually substituted by accusative constructions: на мен/на мене, на теб/на тебе, на него, на нея, на нас, на вас, на тях.

Possessive pronouns

There are two types of possessive pronoun

Possessive pronoun

A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that substitutes for a noun phrase that begins with a possessive determiner . For example, in the sentence These glasses are mine, not yours, the words mine and yours are possessive pronouns and stand for my glasses and your glasses, respectively...

s: full (stressed, free) and short (unstressed, clitic

Clitic

In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...

). The full pronouns agree in gender and number with the modified noun

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...

 and are usually put before it, the short forms (they are identical to the short dative forms of the personal pronouns) are invariable and are put after the noun ("мъжът ми"). The stressed forms can be definite or indefinite, depending on whether the noun they modify is definite or indefinite, but only the first constituent of the definite noun phrase is used with an article ("моят мъж" or rarely "мъжът мой"). The full pronouns can also be used alone (without a noun) when its clear from the context which is the noun they refer to.

Possessive pronouns
Number	Person		Masculine		Feminine		Neuter		Plural		Short form
			indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
Singular	First		мой	моят/моя	моя	моята	мое	моето	мои	моите	ми
	Second		твой	твоят/твоя	твоя	твоята	твое	твоето	твои	твоите	ти
	Third	Masculine	негов	неговият/неговия	негова	неговата	негово	неговото	негови	неговите	му
		Feminine	неин	нейният/нейния	нейна	нейната	нейно	нейното	нейни	нейните	ѝ
		Neuter	негов	неговият/неговия	негова	неговата	негово	неговото	негови	неговите	му
Plural	First		наш	нашият/нашия	наша	нашата	наше	нашето	наши	нашите	ни
	Second		ваш	вашият	ваша	вашата	ваше	вашето	ваши	вашите	ви
	Third		техен	техеният/техния	тяхна	тяхната	тяхно	тяхното	техни	техните	им

Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns (въпросителни местоимения) refer to an unknown person, object, quality or quantity and agree with the noun they denote in gender and number. Personal interrogative pronouns have two cases Nominative and Genitive (кой, when it refers to a person and is used without a noun, also has Accusative and Dative forms - кого and кому respectively). They are also used with nonhuman beings (animals and objects). Quality interrogative pronouns are used for asking one to specify the word in question. They are translated in English as what/what kind of/what sort of.

Interrogative pronouns
Gender/ Number	Personal				For quality
	Nominative	Accusative	Dative	Genitive
Masculine	кой (who)	кого (whom)	кому / на кого (to whom)	чий/чия/чие/чии (whose)[agrees in form with the qualified noun]	какъв
Feminine	коя	кого	кому / на кого	чий/чия/чие/чии (whose)[agrees in form with the qualified noun]	каква
Neuter	кое	кого	кому / на кого	чий/чия/чие/чии (whose)[agrees in form with the qualified noun]	какво
Plural	кои	кого	кому / на кого	чий/чия/чие/чии (whose)[agrees in form with the qualified noun]	какви

There is only one interrogative pronoun for quantity—колко—and it doesn't have any gender or number forms. It is used before plural nouns to ask about their quantity (then it is translated as how much/how many), and before an adjective or adverb to ask about the extent, degree, age, etc of something or somebody (translated as how).

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns (показателни местоимения) agree in number and gender with the noun they refer to (except for this for quantity). There are three types of demonstrative pronouns: for persons and objects, for quality and for quantity. Each demonstrative can not only modify a noun, but also be used on its own. Personal demonstrative pronouns have two forms: for nouns that are close to the speaker or writer and for far nouns. Quality pronouns also have two forms: positive, that specifies that the noun has a particular quality (this kind of/this sort of/of that type) and negative, that specifies that the noun doesn't have a particular quality or has a different one (not this kind of/not this sort of/not of that type).

Demonstrative pronouns
Gender/ Number	Personal		For quality		For quantity
	close (this)	far (that)	positive	negative
Masculine	този/тоя	онзи/оня	такъв	онакъв/инакъв	толкова
Feminine	тази/тая	онази/оная	такава	онакава/инакава
Neuter	това/туй	онова/онуй	такова	онакова/инакова
Plural	тези/тия	онези/ония	такива	онакива/инакива

The demonstrative pronoun for quantity толкова is used with nouns and adjectives. It both specifies the exact quantity of something - this many/this much, and indicates the large extent or degree of something - so(many/much).

Reflexive pronouns

There are two kinds of reflexive pronoun

Reflexive pronoun

A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that is preceded by the noun, adjective, adverb or pronoun to which it refers within the same clause. In generative grammar, a reflexive pronoun is an anaphor that must be bound by its antecedent...

s (възвратни местоимения): personal and possessive. Both have two forms: full (stressed, free) and short (unstressed, clitic). Reflexive pronouns do not have grammatical person

Grammatical person

Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...

. Personal reflexive pronouns have accusative and dative forms. Possessive reflexive pronouns agree in gender, number and definiteness only with the owned noun, not with the possessor. They are used when the subject of the verb owns the object. For example: "Аз виждам своя брат" (I see my brother).

Personal reflexive pronouns
Accusative		Dative
Full	Short	Full	Short
себе си	се	на себе си	си

Possessive reflexive pronouns
Full								Short
Masculine		Feminine		Neuter		Plural
Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinte	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
свой	своят/своя	своя	своята	свое	своето	свои	своите	си

Summative pronouns

There are three types of summative pronouns (обобщителни местоимения): personal, for quality and for quantity. They all agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. Personal summative pronouns are used with both singular and plural nouns or on their own and mean all the things or people belonging to a group of one or more - each/every(body). When the personal summative pronoun всеки/всякой refers to a person and is used without a noun, it has accusative and dative forms - всекиго/всякого and всекиму/всякиму respectively. Quality summative nouns are used for specifying that the noun they refer to possesses all kinds of qualities - all kinds/sorts/types of. Quantity summative pronouns are always definite (except for the plural and the neuter form which can also be indefinite, when they are not used with a noun but on their own) and mean the whole number/amount of something - all (the). The indefinte neuter form also means everything.

Summative pronouns
Type	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Personal	всеки/всякой	всяка/всякоя	всяко/всякое	всички/всякои
For quality	всякакъв	всякаква	всякакво	всякакви
For quantity	всичкият	всичката	всичко(то)	всички(те)

Negative pronouns

There are three kinds of negative pronouns (отрицателни местоимения): personal (no(body)/none), for quality (no/none/no kind of/no type of) and for quantity (none/not any). The personal negative pronouns have Nominative and Genitive forms (the masculine form, when it is used on its own and refers to a person, has also Accusative and Dative forms - никого and никому respectively). Unlike in English, in Bulgarian the word for nothing is not a negative pronoun, but a neuter noun - нищо, and is closer in meaning to nothingness.

Negative pronouns
Gender/ Number	Personal		For quality	For quantity
	Nominative	Genitive
Masculine	никой	ничий	никакъв	николко
Feminine	никоя	ничия	никаква
Neuter	никое	ничие	никакво
Plural	никои	ничии	никакви

Indefinite pronouns

There are three types of indefinite pronoun

Indefinite pronoun

An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun that refers to one or more unspecified beings, objects, or places.-List of English indefinite pronouns:Note that many of these words can function as other parts of speech too, depending on context...

s (неопределителни местоимения): personal (some(one)), for quality (some(kind of)) and for quantity. (several/a few/some). The personal indefinite pronouns have Nominative and Genitive forms (again the masculine form has also Accusative - някого and Dative - някому forms). Unlike in English, in Bulgarian the word for something is not an indefinite pronoun, but a neuter noun -нещо.

Indefinite pronouns
Gender/ Number	Personal		For quality	For quantity
	Nominative	Genitive
Masculine	някой	нечий	някакъв	няколко
Feminine	някоя	нечия	някаква
Neuter	някое	нечие	някакво
Plural	някои	нечии	някакви

Relative pronouns

The relative pronoun

Relative pronoun

A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause within a larger sentence. It is called a relative pronoun because it relates the relative clause to the noun that it modifies. In English, the relative pronouns are: who, whom, whose, whosever, whosesoever, which, and, in some...

s (относителни местоимения) are formed from the corresponding interrogative pronouns by adding -то to the end of the word. They are used for introducing a relative clause.

Relative pronouns
Gender/ Number	Personal		For quality	For quantity
	Nominative	Genitive
Masculine	който	чийто	какъвто	колкото
Feminine	която	чиято	каквато
Neuter	което	чието	каквото
Plural	които	чиито	каквито