adjectives

SECTION 5: ADJECTIVES or descriptive words such as GOOD, BAD, PRETTY, etc

In order to be able to use adjectives correctly in Bulgarian, you need to master the genders of nouns. Just to
remind you, this is whether nouns - things like pen, table, etc are masculine, feminine or neuter. Here is a little
revision on that in case you have forgotten the rules:

1. MASCULINE WORDS (words we use with ЕДИН)

Have typical male name endings,
i.e. consonants (f; m; k; t; l; s; r; etc.):
for ex. Peter, Martin, Matt, Ralph, Paul, etc.

And also words that end in -Й.

2. FEMININE WORDS (words we use with ЕДНА)

Have typical female name endings,
i.e. the Bulgarian letters A or Я:
for ex. Yana, Gloria, Sofia, Iva, etc.

3. NEUTER WORDS (words we use with ЕДНО)

Everything else - words that are neither masc. or fem.
are neuter. Usually foreign or deminuative, i.e. end in –че.

End in a consonant
or -Й

End in -А or -Я
with some exceptions
(нощ, вечер, etc.)

End in
-Е, -О, -И, -Ю or -У

You probably know by now the phrases Добър ден and Добро утро, which mean Good day and Good
morning! In English the word 'good' is the same in both phrases but it is different in Bulgarian. Why? Because
the word ден is masculine (ends in a consonant -n) and the word утро is neuter (ends in an 'o'). This is the
masculine form of good (i.e. добър) is used with ден and the neuter form of good (i.e. добро) is used with
утро.

So you need to match the right descriptive words with the right nouns. If we were referring to a good table,
then first we need to figure if table is masc., fem. or neuter. The word for table is маса. It ends in -a, so it's
fem. The feminine form of good is добра, so 'a good table' is добра маса.

Notice that there's no need to translate the 'a' in front of 'good table' in 'a good table'. If you want to
emphasise the quantity, i.e. 'a good table' as in 'one good table', use the Bulgarian word for 'one' (един or
една or едно) ---> една добра маса. Notice how everything matches in this consequence - we used the fem.
word for 'one' - една, the fem. word for 'good' - добра and finally, the fem. word itself - маса.

1. Most fem. adjectives or descriptive words end in 'a' or 'я' just like feminine nouns themselves:

зелена салата (green salad)
шоколадова торта (chocolate cake)

2. Most neut. adjectives or descriptive words end in 'o' like the neut. word for one - едно.
Please bear in mind that 'o' is not the only neut. ending for nouns, other endings are -е, -у, -и & -ю.

едно зелено такси - one green taxi (такси ends in -и, which is a neuter ending)
едно бяло вино - one white wine

3. Most masc. adjectives usually end in a consonant (common endings are: -ен, -ов & -ев)
Another common masc. adjective ending is -ски or -шки.

един червен домат - a red tomato
един телешки котлет - a beef cutlet

  If you learn the masculine form of adjectives, you can then add -a or -o in the end or change the final
letter to -a or -o and thus, get the fem. and neuter adjective forms.

   For example:

                        червен is the masc. for saying 'red'
                        червен + a = червенa, which is the fem. for 'red', so 'a red table' is 'червена маса'
                        червен + o = червенo, which is the neut. for 'red', so 'a red taxi' is 'червенo такси'

                        телешки is the masc. for saying that something's 'made of beef'
                        телешкa is the fem. form, so a beef steak is 'телешка пържола' (пържола is steak).
                        телешко is the neut. form, so a beef skewer is 'телешко шишче' (шишче is a meat skewer).

This rule works for the majority of adjectives but not for all. :( You'll need to learn the exceptions. Here
are some:

                  good        small         black         blue
MASC.        добър        малък        черен        син
FEM.          добра        малка         черна        синя
NEUT.        добро        малко         черно        синьо

Quite a lot to take in. So to learn how to use them correctly, you just need to practice the adjective and
noun endings.

Exercise your noun and adjective endings.