# Bulgarian: meaning of "ще"



## MMMCC

In this Russian sentence I have found a word *ще.
*What does it mean?
Is it a Russian word?

I think, it should be *ещё and not *ще
*
*I suppose it means still or more. 
Here is the sentence and the link
Ако пристигнеш навреме, *то ще можеш веднага да се включиш.
*http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/то


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## Freier Fall

MMMCC said:


> [...] I have found a word *ще.
> *What does it mean?
> [...]
> 
> I think, it should be *ещё and not *ще
> *
> *I suppose it means still or more.
> Here is the sentence and the link
> Ако пристигнеш навреме, *то ще можеш веднага да се включиш.
> *http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/то



As long as no native speaker gives proper advice, I'll try:

The meaning of _ще_, if you look it up in a Bulgarian-English dictionary (PONS e.g.), is:

shall, will, 'll 

Actually this is not quite correct (as some dictonaries point out, Endler & Walter 1989 for instance), since _ще _is no verb itself, but it's a particle, used to construct the future tense.

*ще *+ [verb] = [future tense of the verb] 

In your case "Ако пристигнеш навреме, то ще можеш веднага да се включиш." you got the general construction "Ако (...) , то ще (...)", which means:

"If you (...), then you *will *(...)" ("you" indicated by the verb forms "пристигнеш", "можеш", and "включиш", all in 2nd Ps. Sg.) 

In the main clause the auxiliary verb _мога_ ("can", here in 2nd Ps. Sg. = _можеш_) is used, connected with the following verb by _да. _However, in English you won't use "'ll can", but you'll use "can" [+ Verb] instead of it.


"Ако  (...), то ще _можеш да _(...) ]" 
"If you (...), then you can (...)" 
 This is, why you can't see the clear Bulgarian future tense (and the English counterpart of _ще_) after translating it into the English sentence:


"If you arrive on time, then you can immediately join in." 

In German we have the possibility to recover the futural dimension of Bulgarian somehow:

"Wenn du rechtzeitig ankommst, wirst du gleich teilnehmen können." (instead of: "(...), kannst du gleich teilnehmen.") 
I don't know how to express this in English correctly, maybe:

"If you arrive on time, then you'll be able to join in immediately." 
 
Disclaimer: I don't speak Bulgarian. I'm just learning.


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## Freier Fall

Freier Fall said:


> [...], since _ще _is no verb itself, but it's a particle, used to construct the future tense.


I've to correct myself: I just learned from Gustav Weigand 1942 (Gustav Weigand & A. Doritsch:  "Bulgarisch-Deutsches Wörterbuch", Otto Holtze, 5th edition, Leipzig  1942, page 421 sub _ше_, 426 sub _ще_), that _ще _is an auxiliary verb, too, which is needed to form the future tense. For this Weigand refers to the verb _ща_ (page 426, format modified by me):

_ща_ imp. щѣхъ, щѣлъ wollen, wünschen, verlangen, begehren. 

Or in English (PONS Universal Dictionary, 2004, page 1008):

_ща_ [...]I. прх [=transitive] 1. [...] want, like; [...] 2. [...] be going to; [...] II. нпрх [=intransitive] [...] shall, will, be going to; [...] 

So it seems, _ще_ is a particle/auxiliary verb to construct future tense, derived from the verb _ща_.


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## DarkChild

Like it was already explained, ще is used to form future tense. It comes from _*xъtěti_.

It isn't only an auxiliary verb, however. It is also a normal verb that means _to want_. This meaning is mostly used in negative clauses like не ща, не щеш, не ще...etc. It can also be used in positive clauses but it's rare.


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## Freier Fall

DarkChild said:


> Like it was already explained, ще is used to form future tense. It comes from _*xъtěti_.


Oh, I didn't find any hint to its etymology. Thanks. Now it resembles to Serbian _хтети_.

I'm not sure whether I should mention it here. But for Bulgarian learner it could be interesting in context with the meaning and grammatical function of _ще_:
_ща_ is also used to construct the "futurum praeteriti" (cf. Walter & Georgieva Kirkjakova 1990: "Lehrbuch der bulgarischen Sprache", VEB Enzyklopädie Leipzig, Leipzig 1990, p. 347) = "future in the past" (cf. Michael Holman & Mira Kovatcheva: "Teach Yourself - Bulgarian", Hodder 2003, p. 297) by using the present tense of the main verb and the imperfect or past tense of the modal verb (that serves as auxiliary verb) *ща + да*-conjunction:


"Das Futurum präteriti wird in allen Kunjugationsklassen aus dem Präsens des Hauptverbs und den folgenden Imperfektformen des als Hilfsverb fungierenden Modalverbs *ща*+ Konjunktion *да *gebildet: 
Singular                                 
​1. Person: щях
​2. Person: щеше
3. Person: щеше
Plural
[1. Person]: щяхме
[2. Person]: щяхте
[3. Person]: щяха"​
But the funtion of the futurum praeteriti as tense of the Indicative mode seems to be quite contested in the Bulgarian grammatical literature because of its mainly modal usage (Walter & Georgieva Kirkjakova 1990, page 343):


"Das Futurum präteriti ist in der bulgarischen grammatischen Literatur aufgrund seines verwiegend modalen Gebrauchs als Tempusform des Indikativs sehr umstritten." 
​In this (more modal then temporal) context already Weigand (Gustav Weigand: "Bulgarische Grammatik", Barth, Leipzig 1907) mentioned the funtion of _ща _for "future tense", and gave the _ще _as 3rd Ps. Sg. form from ща (page 122, §90, format modified by me):


"Eine zweite Form des Fut. wird vermittels des flektierten Hilfsverbs 
ща, ​щешъ, ​ще, ​щемъ, ​щете, ​щатъ ​(das eigentlich „ich will" heißt) und einer vorgestellten verkürzten Infinitivform gebildet, die man erhält, wenn man das -лъ des Part. Perf. abfallen läßt: пи[лъ, писа[лъ, че[лъ "gelesen", моли[лъ, учи[лъ etc. Doch ist die Bedeutung dieses Fut. abweichend von der ersten Art, indem es die Ungewißheit hervorhebt: nиcа щa "vielleicht werde ich das Schreiben ausführen". че ще "vielleicht wird er lesen, vielleicht auch nicht"."
[Note: as "erste Art" Weigand points to the ordinary future construction with help of the invariable Bulgarian  form _ще_ - in Makedonian _ке_: "Die gewöhnliche Bildung des Fut. ist die vermittels des unveränderlichen _ще _(maz. _ке_) und der pf. resp. impf. Form des Präsens.]"​According to this "zweite Form des Fut." see the "2d form" of Morse 1859 (C F. Morse: "A Grammar Of The Bulgarian Language With Exercises And English And Bulgarian Vocabularies", Constantinople, 1859) on page 67.

Bulgarian has been modernized since then. Anyway it might be interesting to see these forms though. Today these forms of "ща [щеш/ще/щем/щете/щат]" can be called "archaic" according to Uwe Büttner 2014 (Uwe Büttner: "Bulgarisch - Lehrbuch für Anfänger und Fortgeschrittene", 2014, page 1036). On the other hand, as mentioned by *DarkChild*, they are still in use:


> It isn't only an auxiliary verb, however. It is also a normal verb that means _to want_.  This meaning is mostly used in negative clauses like не ща, не щеш, не  ще...etc. It can also be used in positive clauses but it's rare.


PONS ("Universal Dictionary Bulgarian-English", 1st. ed., 2004, page 1008) gives some examples in present tense for the meaning "want, like"/transitive:

аз не ща да дойда с вас > I don't want to go with you 
прави каквото щеш > do what you like 
ако щеш > as you wish 
It also gives phrases for ща with the meaning of "be going to"/transitive, e.g.:

той щеше да ми поиска пари > he was going to ask me for money 
And finally it gives examples for the meaning "shall, will, be going to"/intransitive, e.g.:

какво ще правим? > what shall we do now? what are we gonig to do now? 
ако щеш, вярвай > believe it or not 
без да ща > unwillingly 
каквото ще да става! > whatever may happen 
що щеш тук? > what are you doing here? 
For me it's not so easy to understand the character of ща. But I think, these examples can help a bit to slowly find some feeling for it.


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## DarkChild

Freier Fall said:


> And finally it gives examples for the meaning "shall, will, be going to"/intransitive, e.g.:
> 
> какво ще правим? > what shall we do now? what are we gonig to do now?
> ако щеш, вярвай > believe it or not
> без да ща > unwillingly
> каквото ще да става! > whatever may happen
> що щеш тук? > what are you doing here?
> For me it's not so easy to understand the character of ща. But I think, these examples can help a bit to slowly find some feeling for it.



In all of those examples except the first one (where ще form future tense), ще can be replaced with искам (which is the "main" word for to want) and it will have the same meaning.


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## ahvalj

DarkChild said:


> It comes from _*xъtěti_


This form is attested so it may be used without asterisk.


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## DarkChild

^^ I copy pasted it 



> I think, it should be *ещё and not *ще


The word you're thinking of is още.


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## Freier Fall

DarkChild said:


> Like it was already explained, ще is used to form future tense. It comes from _*xъtěti_.





ahvalj said:


> This form is attested so it may be used without asterisk.


Thank you both of you. I did not find any results in my literature. Is there a free or easy available source to look-up Bulgarian etymology? Unfortunately I've got no access in local libraries to БАН's Български етимологичен речник. Is there any other source, which includes Bulgarian forms (as possible in Cyrillic) and which is better available? Any idea for me?


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## DarkChild

^^
Wikipedia


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## Freier Fall

DarkChild said:


> In all of those examples except the first one  (where ще form future tense), ще can be replaced with искам (which is  the "main" word for to want) and it will have the same meaning.


Thank you.


DarkChild said:


> ^^
> Wikipedia


oh


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## Freier Fall

One more note about the meaning of the verb ща (ще being just an invariable part of it as particle for construction of "future tense") for building of future tenses (from Holman & Kovatcheva 2003, cited above, page 247).

"When you want to renarrate things said in the future tense, you merely replace _ще _with _щял _(_щяла_, _щяло_, or _щяли_/_щели_) _да _..." 
So it is used to put statements in future tense into renarrated forms, for instance following to казват, че... = "They say, that..." for instance (Holman & Kovatcheva 2003, p. 301):

той ще пише > той щял да пише 
These renarrated forms (3rd person only) have to be conjugated for genus (тя ще пише > тя щяла да пише; то ще пише > то щяло да пише) and numerus (те ще пишат > те щели да пишат).

Altogether - beside these renarrated forms (modus relativus) in future - forms of the verb _ща _are used to construct "futurum exactum", "futurum exactum praeteriti",  futurum and futurum praeteriti, futurum exactum and futurum exactum praeteriti, according to wiktionary.org. I hope I didn't get something wrong. But it shows, that usage of _ще _is part of a wider complex.


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## DarkChild

Yes, ще for regular future tense is invariable, but has to be conjugated in other tenses.


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## cooldewd

DarkChild said:


> ^^ I copy pasted it
> 
> 
> The word you're thinking of is още.



Actually, in my native Kosturski dialect, we would say "eshche" as we speak a pre-vowel shift dialect with all the nasal vowels still in place. Consult Blago Shklifov.


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