# Bulgarian: Past tense



## lonelyheartsclubband

EDIT: Split from here.

Well, now, does the past tense of Bulgarian have something in common with past tense of Russian?


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## Toma

I cannot get the gist of your question. By presuming that both languages are slavic, there must be a lot in common between them. The differences are that Bulgarian has (has developped) much more past tenses than Russian. You need to ask a more specific question.


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## Ukrainito

Toma said:


> I cannot get the gist of your question. By presuming that both languages are slavic, there must be a lot in common between them. The differences are that *Bulgarian has (has developped) much more past tenses* than Russian. You need to ask a more specific question.



I would say Bulgarian HAS PRESERVED (not DEVELOPED) practically all the past tenses of the Old Slavic language while it has lost the declensions in nouns and adjectives (which is something all other Slavic languages have kept). You lose some, you gain some, you know 

The past tense in modern Russian, Ukrainian and Belorusian is, in fact, the archaic Slavonic perfect tense with the omission of the auxiliary verb *быть/бути*. So the past tense became the "naked" past participle, so to speak.

e.g.

Eng. *I have seen*
Old Slavic - *Азъ єсмь відєлъ*
Modern Bulgarian - *Аз съм видял*
Old Ukrainain/Old Russian - *Азъ/Я есмь виделъ*
Modern Russian - *Я видел*
Modern Ukrainian - *Я бачив*

Interestingly, modern literary Ukrainian has the plusquamperfect tense (давньоминулий час) which preserves the auxiliary verb *бути* (to be) in the past form. Russian doesn't have this tense.

Eng. *I had seen*
Modern Bulgarian - *Аз бях видял*
Modern Ukrainian - *Я був бачив* or *Я бачив був*


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## bibax

> Modern Ukrainian - Я був бачив or Я бачив був


In fact, *був* is the past participle like *бачив*, the auxiliary *есмь* is still missing.

With the auxiliary *есмь* it could be something like *Я есмь був бачив*. In Czech it is *Já jsem byl (u)viděl* (bookish) as the Czech past tenses preserve the auxiliary verb to be in the 1st and 2nd persons. The Bulgarian *бях* in your example is the imperfect.


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## Ukrainito

bibax said:


> In fact, *був* is the past participle like *бачив*, the auxiliary *есмь* is still missing.



Who said an auxialiary verb CAN'T be used in its past participle form and still play the auxiliary part? *Був* is, indeed, the p.p. of *бути*. Nevertheless, it is used to form the Ukrainian  plusquamperfect as an auxiliary verb, at that it doesn't have any sematic meaning (expresses no action) here.



bibax said:


> With the auxiliary *есмь* it could be something like *Я есмь був бачив*. In Czech it is *Já jsem byl (u)viděl* (bookish) as the Czech past tenses preserve the auxiliary verb to be in the 1st and 2nd persons.



Speakers of some Western Ukrainian dialects (Hutsuls, Rusyns etc.) use the present tense of the auxiliary verb *бути* to form the past (or, more precisely, the present perfect). The auxiliary is postpositioned.

e.g.
*Ходивемь (ходив єсмь)
Ходивсі (ходив єсі)
Ходилисьмо (ходили єсмо)
Ходилисте (ходили єсте)*



bibax said:


> The Bulgarian *бях* in your example is the imperfect.



The *бях (беше, беше, бяхме, бяхте, бяха)* in my example is the so-called GENERAL PAST that's used to form the PLUSQUAMPERFECT in the Bulgarian language.

The *PAST IMPERFECT *forms of the Bulgarian verb *съм* are:
*бъдех, бъдеше, бъдеше, бъедехме, бъдехте, бъдеха*

The *AORIST* forms of the Bulgarian verb *съм* are:
*бидох, биде, биде, бидохме, бидохте, бидоха*

The *ARCHAIC AORIST* forms of the Bulgarian verb *съм* are:
*бих, би, би, бихме, бихте, биха.*

Of all of the above, only the *бях беше, беше, бяхме, бяхте, бяха* forms are used in the Bulgarian plusquamperfect.


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## bibax

> Who said an auxialiary verb CAN'T be used in its past participle form and still play the auxiliary part?


I don't know who said it. 



> Ходивемь (ходив єсмь)


Interesting. It resembles Polish. So the hypothetical plusquamperfect would be: Я бувемь бачив.

I wonder if Polish has the plusquamperfect (ja byłem uwidział ??).


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## Diaspora

I've read that the Pluperfect can be found in some old Tsarist writings, also in Polish and Czech some cases.  

One major difference between Russian And Bulgarian past tenses is the distinction of witness/non-witness moods.


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## WannaBeMe

Ukrainito said:


> Who said an auxialiary verb CAN'T be used in its past participle form and still play the auxiliary part? *Був* is, indeed, the p.p. of *бути*. Nevertheless, it is used to form the Ukrainian  plusquamperfect as an auxiliary verb, at that it doesn't have any sematic meaning (expresses no action) here.
> 
> 
> 
> Speakers of some Western Ukrainian dialects (Hutsuls, Rusyns etc.) use the present tense of the auxiliary verb *бути* to form the past (or, more precisely, the present perfect). The auxiliary is postpositioned.
> 
> e.g.
> *Ходивемь (ходив єсмь)
> Ходивсі (ходив єсі)
> Ходилисьмо (ходили єсмо)
> Ходилисте (ходили єсте)*
> 
> 
> 
> The *бях (беше, беше, бяхме, бяхте, бяха)* in my example is the so-called GENERAL PAST that's used to form the PLUSQUAMPERFECT in the Bulgarian language.
> 
> The *PAST IMPERFECT *forms of the Bulgarian verb *съм* are:
> *бъдех, бъдеше, бъдеше, бъедехме, бъдехте, бъдеха*
> 
> The *AORIST* forms of the Bulgarian verb *съм* are:
> *бидох, биде, биде, бидохме, бидохте, бидоха*
> 
> The *ARCHAIC AORIST* forms of the Bulgarian verb *съм* are:
> *бих, би, би, бихме, бихте, биха.*
> 
> Of all of the above, only the *бях беше, беше, бяхме, бяхте, бяха* forms are used in the Bulgarian plusquamperfect.



Actualy, I think that bibax might be right.
In Serbian we do build the plusquamperfect in two ways:
perfect form of BITI + participle 
ot imperfect of BITI + participle

thus:

JA *SAM BIO* VIDEO (*BIO SAM* VIDEO) or JA *BEJAH* VIDEO
TI *SI BIO* VIDEO or TI *BEŠE* VIDEO
ON *JE BIO* VIDEO or ON *BEŠE* VIDEO
MI *SMO BILI* VIDELI or MI *BEJASMO* VIDELI
VI *STE BILI* VIDELI or VI *BEJASTE* VIDELI
ONI *SU BILI* VIDELI or ONI *BEJAHU* VIDELI

So Ukrainian build plusquamperfect the same way as Serbian thus PERFECT of BUTI + participle, only Ukrainian perfect has lost the auxiliary verb "BUTI".


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