Introduction
Verbs in Bulgarian inflect for person, number, aspect, tense and mood. They have no infinitives. In dictionaries, verbs are listed by their first-person singular present simple form and their conjugation.
Bulgarian verbs fall into three conjugations based on the ending of their third person singular present simple tense:
- First-conjugation verbs end in -е;
- Second-conjugation verbs end in -и;
- Third-conjugation verbs end in -а / -я.
To obtain the stem of a verb, remove the ending of its conjugation from the third person singular present simple tense.
Example: Verb Stem Extraction
пера (I wash), пере (he washes) → пер-
ям (I eat), яде (he eats) → яд-
вися (I hang), виси (he hangs) → вис-
карам (I drive), кара (he drives) → кар-
Aspect
Bulgarian verbs have the grammatical category of aspect:
- Imperfective verbs (глаголи от несвършен вид) represent actions which are in progress, habitual or repeated.
- Perfective verbs (глаголи от свършен вид) represent actions which are viewed as a complete whole, without reference to duration or repetitiveness.