Bulgarian: бъда vs. съм

[jasio]

Hi,

What are the differences between съм and бъда? The former is cognate of a Polish verb 'jestem' (i am), while the latter - cognate of 'będę' (I will be), but considering that the Bulgarian future tense is analítical, and I've encountered both "ще съм' and 'ще бъда' (as far as I understand, both meaning something along the lines "I will be/I will come"), I expect that it may not be as simple as that

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Best regards.

 

[DarkChild]

They can be used interchangeably in certain situations, but not for others.
Бъда is employed in future and conditional sentences.

Съм is used for present tenses.
Аз съм, тя е are correct
Бъда cannot be used instead
Аз бъда, тя бъде are incorrect

In conditional situations both are used
За да съм спокоен, ще се обадя предварително
За да бъде топло, трябва да затвориш прозореца

For future forms both can be used
Аз ще съм там
Вие ще бъдете щастливи
And same with negative forms
Аз няма да съм там
Вие няма да бъдете щастливи

There is a situation where I find бъда is used instead of съм, and that's in future questions. I'm not sure if this is an actual rule but
Ти ще бъдеш ли там?
Те ще бъдат ли готови?
is what you will hear instead of

Ти ще си ли там?
Те ще са ли готови?
as this sounds unnatural at least to my ears

NB: this last point doesn't apply when the word order is changed
Ти там ли ще си?
Те готови ще са ли?
are fine just as
Ти там ще бъдеш ли?
Те готови ще бъдат ли?