The adjective is a word used to describe a noun.
A big house
A beautiful woman
In English the adjectives have only one form.
Bulgarian adjectives have different forms for masculine, feminine, neuter and plural. Plural form is the same for all genders. The adjectives change their form according to the noun to which they refer. The main form of the adjective is the form for masculine, singular (That is the form to be found in the dictionary).
Adjectives ending in consonant are usually masculine
- íîâ (new), ñòàð (old), ñòóäåí (cold), âèñîê (tall) etc.Exceptions: some derivative adjectives - ìúæêè (male - from ìúæ - man), äåòñêè (child's, children's - from äåòå - child),
ãðàäñêè (city, town attr. - from ãðàä - city, town).Note: all adjectives ending in
–ñêè are masculine.| 1 |
The feminine adjectives are formed by adding the ending -a to the masculine form.
| masculine | feminine |
| äúðâåí (wooden) | äúðâåíà |
| ìúðçåëèâ (lazy) | ìúðçåëèâà |
| çåëåí (green) | çåëåíà |
When the masculine adjective ends in -êè, -ñêè, in the feminine form the final -è changes to -à.
| ìúæêè | ìúæêà |
| ãðàäñêè | ãðàäñêà |
Exception: ñèí (blue - as a colour) – ñèíÿ
|
Note that the word ñèí has two meanings: 1.ñèí (adj) - blue - as a colour; 2.ñèí (n) – à son. |
| 1 |
The neuter adjectives are formed by adding the ending -o to the masculine form.
| masculine | neuter |
| äúðâåí (wooden) | äúðâåío |
| ìúðçåëèâ (lazy) | ìúðçåëèâo |
| çåëåí (green) | çåëåío |
When the masculine adjective ends in -êè, -ñêè, in the neuter form the final -è changes to -o.
| ìúæêè | ìúæêî |
| ãðàäñêè | ãðàäñêo |
Exception: ñèí - ñèíüî
| 1 |
The plural of the adjectives is formed by adding the ending -è to the masculine form.
| masculine | plural |
| äúðâåí (wooden) | äúðâåíè |
| ìúðçåëèâ (lazy) | ìúðçåëèâè |
| çåëåí (green) | çåëåíè |
| ñèí (blue) | ñèíè !!! |
| ìúæêè | ìúæêè |
| ãðàäñêè | ãðàäñêè |
(For the adjectives ending in -êè, -ñêè, the form for plural coincides with the masculine form)
| 1 |
Some adjectives suffer phonetic changes when forming other forms.
For example – when masculine adjectives, containing the letter ú in the last syllable, form feminine, neuter and plural, the letter ú disappears:
| masculine | feminine | neuter | plural |
| ìàëúê | ìàëêà | ìàëêî | ìàëêè |
| äîáúð | äîáðà | äîáðî | äîáðè |
Some masculine adjectives, containing the letter e in the last syllable, form feminine, neuter and plural, the letter e disappears:
| masculine | feminine | neuter | plural |
| òúìåí | òúìíà | òúìíî | òúìíè |
| äðåáåí | äðåáíà | äðåáíî | äðåáíè |
| 1 |
| In Bulgarian the adjective is placed before the noun it qualifies and it always should agree by gender with it. |
| êðàñèâ ìúæ | beautiful man |
| êðàñèâà æåíà | beautiful woman |
| êðàñèâî äåòå | beautiful child |
| êðàñèâè õîðà | beautiful people |
If there is more than one adjective qualifying the noun, they are all placed before the noun, separated by coma.
Ãîëÿìà, êðàñèâà, áÿëà êúùà – big beautiful white house.