SUBJECT PRONOUNS – ËÈ×ÍÈ ÌÅÑÒÎÈÌÅÍÈß
In English the infinitive is the pure form of a verb. To express the action we need to conjugate the verb using the subject pronouns:
The verb to be
I am
you are
he/she/it is
we are
you-all* are
they are
The words I, you, he, she, we, you-all*, and they are called subject pronouns.
The subject pronouns are words, which can substitute nouns and personal names in the sentence.
| *The usage of the form "you-all" is not considered to be standard English. In standard English, the same word - "you" is used for both the singular you and the plural you. But in Bulgarian there are different subject pronouns in 2nd person depending on whether we talk about one or several persons. That’s why in this lesson I will use "you-all" to indicate the subject pronoun meaning in Bulgarian you in plural. |
| 1 |
Here’s a list of the Bulgarian subject pronouns and their English equivalents:
|
singular |
plural |
||
|
1. àç |
I |
1. íèå |
we |
|
2. òè |
you |
2. âèå 2 |
you-all |
|
3. òîé |
he |
3. òå |
they |
|
òÿ |
she |
0 |
0 |
|
òî 1 |
he/she/it |
0 |
0 |
In General the Bulgarian subject pronouns are similar to their English counterparts. But let’s examine some of the differences.
1. The pronoun “òî” doesn’t correspond to the English pronoun “it”. The word “òî” is the subject pronoun which substitutes in the sentence words in neuter gender. As you already know such words can be not only objects and animals, but also persons.
For example: ìîìè÷å (girl), ìîì÷å (boy), äåòå (child) are all substituted by the s.p. “òî”.
| Ìîì÷åòî òè÷à. | The boy runs. |
| Òî òè÷à. | He runs. |
| Ìîìè÷åòî ÿäå ÿáúëêà. | The girl eats an apple. |
| Òî ÿäå ÿáúëêà. | She eats an apple. |
|
Ëèñòîòî ïàäà îò äúðâîòî. |
The leaf falls from the tree. |
|
Òî ïàäà îò äúðâîòî. |
It falls from the tree. |
At the same time words like ñòîë (chair), ïúò (road) and êîí (horse) are masculine and are substituted by “òîé” and ìàñà, (table), êîôà (bucket) and ìå÷êà (bear) are feminine and are substituted by “òÿ”
.2.There are some features as well, regarding the English word you
. You have just seen that it can be translated into Bulgarian as “òè” or “âèå” i.e. you as singular or plural."Âèå" is also used to address just one person in formal situations.
When the word “Âèå” means you (formal)
or you-all (formal) it is always spelled with a capital letter.Of course, if you speak in front of a public in a conference it is correct to use the formal way of addressing the audience, but actually the difference between “
âèå” and “Âèå” can be determined only in the written language. There is no any difference in the pronunciation.It is recommendable to use the word “òè” only for family, friends, colleagues and little children.
Nowadays more and more people use the informal way of addressing everyone, but it is still considered rude and bad-mannered.