Bulgarian: what is the semantics behind perfective verbs in the present tense?

jasio

jasio

Senior Member
Warszawa, Polska
polski
I've been learning Bulgarian for a couple of months now, and I've just encountered a phenomenon which blew my mind: using the perfective verbs in the present tense. Let's take an example:
  • Аз купувам колело. (impf)
  • Аз купя колело. (pf)
What does the structure with the perfective verb actually mean? What is the difference in meaning between the two phrases? Or is the pf+present tense used only as a replacement of the infinitive which, as far as I understand, is missing from Bulgarian - ie. to be used in the phrases like "искам да купя колело", "днес не мога да дойда", etc.?

To give you a background: I understand the difference between the perfective and imperfective verbs quite well; my mothertongue is Polish, I used to learn Russian at school, and I have a grasp of Ukrainian and Slovak. However in all these languages it's grammatically impossible to have the perfective verbs in the present tense, and if the present tense form is applied to the perfective verb, the result is a verb in the future tense instead ('piszę' = 'I write/I'm writing', 'napiszę' = 'I will write'). Some scholars even prefer to use the name 'non-past tense' to include both the present tense (of imperfective verbs) and the future tense (of perfective verbs) together, because structurally they are all the same, and the difference is only in meaning. There's even a theory behind it, which states that at the present moment the action is either already completed (ie. it was performed in the past) or will be completed in future, so the present tense of a perfective verb simply does not make sense.

Apparently, in Bulgarian it works differently, and if I get it right, the future tense is created analytically anyway, using 'ще' particle in both cases.

So what is going on here?

Thank you very much for your responses.
 
    • I won't pretend to know the intricacies of Bulgarian grammar, but I suspect it's highly similar to Slovenian in this regard. Perfective verbs can have a repetitive meaning, e.g. something like "Vsako leto kupim novo kolo" (every year I buy a new bike) is perfectly normal. Saying "kupujem" actually sounds off here although in theory it should be the one to use.
     
    vianie said:
    My input is off-topic. As we usually buy bikes for ourselves, wouldn't it be more normal to say "Vsako leto si kupim novo kolo" in Slovenian?
    Click to expand...

    Yes you can say that of course. But I don't feel it's strictly necessary, it gives a bit of a "I treat myself to it" notion.
     
    jasio said:
    Or is the pf+present tense used only as a replacement of the infinitive which, as far as I understand, is missing from Bulgarian - ie. to be used in the phrases like "искам да купя колело", "днес не мога да дойда", etc.?
    Click to expand...
    Not really it has nothing to do with the infinitive or replacement of it. This is the only thing I am able to comment for now.
    Let us wait for other people on the forum to give more.
     
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    jasio said:
    Аз купя колело. (pf)
    Click to expand...
    I just cannot imagine it as one separate expression. That might makes it difficult to explain.

    But if we say e.g.
    "ако аз купя колело, ще го харизам на сина ми" - if I buy a bike, I will give (gift) it to my son

    Then hope this to give us a bit of clarification.
     
    Last edited:
    It has to do with the completeness of the action.

    Искам да купя - I want to buy (once)
    Искам да купувам - I want to buy repeatedly or as a prologned process
     
    Einick said:
    I just cannot imagine it as one separate expression. That might makes it difficult to explain.

    But if we say e.g.
    "ако аз купя колело, ще го харижа на сина ми" - if I buy a bike, I will give (gift) it to my son

    Then hope this to give us a bit of clarification.
    Click to expand...

    Although people would simply say подаря (not подарявам, circling back to the original topic).
     
    DarkChild said:
    It has to do with the completeness of the action.

    Искам да купя - I want to buy (once)
    Искам да купувам - I want to buy repeatedly or as a prologned process
    Click to expand...
    Thank you.

    The difference between these particular phrases - which in other languages would be modal and infinitives of the verbs would be used instead - is quite clear to me. For example in Polish they would say 'chcę kupić rower' and 'chcę kupować rower' respectively. And yes, the latter example makes little sense with the bicycle anyway, but I'd like to clarify the grammar here rather discuss purchasing habits. ;-)

    What is not clear to me though, is if a phrase 'аз купя колело' makes any sense as it stands? What would it mean then, and how would the meaning differ from 'аз купувам колело'? Or are the phrases with the perfective verbs in present tense indeed used only within conditional statements (and, perhaps in other compound structures), as it was suggested by @Einick?
     
    jasio said:
    Thank you.

    The difference between these particular phrases - which in other languages would be modal and infinitives of the verbs would be used instead - is quite clear to me. For example in Polish they would say 'chcę kupić rower' and 'chcę kupować rower' respectively. And yes, the latter example makes little sense with the bicycle anyway, but I'd like to clarify the grammar here rather discuss purchasing habits. ;-)

    What is not clear to me though, is if a phrase 'аз купя колело' makes any sense as it stands? What would it mean then, and how would the meaning differ from 'аз купувам колело'? Or are the phrases with the perfective verbs in present tense indeed used only within conditional statements (and, perhaps in other compound structures), as it was suggested by @Einick?
    Click to expand...
    "Аз купя" is not possible by itself, so yes, I believe they are used in conditional/compound situations.
     
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