4A) Basics Part 3

To have, or not to have

"Имам" is the Bulgarian verb for "to have".

A verb can usually be negated by using the не particle: аз съм (I am), аз не съм (I am not).

However, in the case of имам, there is a specific verb to mean "not to have": нямам.

Имам котка - I have a cat Нямам котка - I don't have a cat

Here's the conjugation of both verbs at the present tense:

This is a standard example of conjugation of verbs of the 3rd group. These are verbs that end in -ам, such as харесвам (to like) and искам (to want).

You can conjugate these two, and many others, exactly the same way:

There is The 3rd person singular of имам is also used to mean "there is". Unlike English, it remains singular even when followed by a plural:

Има котка - There is a cat Има много котки - There are many cats Няма котки - There are no cats

Asking closed questions

Asking a closed question (such as one that can be answered by yes or no) is quite simple. For this, we use the ли particle, which is added after the focus of the question. Usually, the focus of the question is the verb.

Имаш ли куче? - Do you have a dog? Харесваш ли котки? - Do you like cats?

Note that with the present tense of the verb "to be", the focus of the question is the subject complement (in the example below, "момче") and that the subject complement comes before the verb (which means that "ли" is effectively placed before the verb):

Момче ли си? - Are you a boy?

Bulgarian is more specific than English when asking questions, and the same question can be asked in different ways, by placing ли after the focus of the question. For example:

Момчето тук ли е? - Is the boy here? (no emphasis) Тук ли е момчето? - Is the boy here, or somewhere else? Момчето ли е тук? - Is it the boy who is here, or someone else?