Most Slavic languages have no article. Bulgarian not only has one, it sticks it on after the word: книга (book) becomes книгата (the book), дете (child) becomes детето (the child), хора (people) becomes хората (the people).
The forms
- masculine: -ът / -ят (full) and -а / -я (short) – градът, града (the town); царят, царя (the tsar)
- feminine: -та – жената (the woman), нощта (the night)
- neuter: -то – селото (the village), морето (the sea)
- plural: -те or -та – мъжете (the men), градовете (the towns), but: очите (the eyes), селата (the villages)
The rule for the full article
The full article (-ът, -ят) is written when the word is the subject – that is, when it performs the action. The short article (-а, -я) is for everything else.
- Градът е красив. (The town is beautiful. – “градът” is the subject)
- Влязохме в града. (We entered the town. – here it is the object)
- Учителят закъсня. (The teacher was late.) / Попитахме учителя. (We asked the teacher.)
A practical trick: replace the word with “he” (“той”). If you get a sensible sentence, write the full article. If you would have to say “him” (“него”), use the short one.
Between us
This test is alarming for most adults. In spoken language the full article is hardly heard at all, so most people write by ear. Bulgarian teachers call it “the quiet national catastrophe”.
When the article is missing
- after numbers: три града (three towns), but трите града (the three towns)
- with proper names: София (Sofia), but хубавата София (beautiful Sofia)
- in general statements: Котка не яде лимони. (A cat doesn't eat lemons.)