Past continuous tense in Bulgarian
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Hide1. When to use past continuous tense
The past continuous tense is used to talk about:
- habits and repeated actions in the past
| Миналата година той често ходеше на кино. | Minalata godina toi chesto hodeshe na kino. | Last year he often went to the movies. |
- an incomplete action taking place during a specific moment in the past
| Когато влязох тя спеше. | Kogato vlyazoh tya speshe. | When I entered, she was sleeping. |
- simultaneous uncompleted actions
| Тя говореше по телефона, а той пишеше мейли. | Tya govoreshe po telefona, a toi pisheshe meili. | She was talking on the phone and he was writing e-mails. |
The Bulgarian past continuous tense is usually translated into English by using past continuous tense (I was playing), past simple tense (I played) or the phrase "used to+infinitive (I used to play)
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2. Signal words
| Докато | Dokato | While |
| Междувременно | Mezhduvremenno | Meanwhile |
3. Formation and verb conjugation
The past continuous tense is formed out of the imperfect verb stem + personal endings
Imperfect verb stem + personal endings
| аз | -х |
| ти | -ше |
| той/тя/то | -ше |
| ние | -хме |
| вие | -хте |
| те | -ха |
There are three groups or conjunctions of the verbs in past continuous tense: "АХ " group, "ЯХ " group and "ЕХ " group. We can recognize which group the verb belongs to by looking at the ending in 1st person singular.
Present tense A group | Present tense Я group | Present tense E group and И group | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - ах | -ях | -ех* | -ях** | |
Аз Ти Той/тя Ние Вие Те | идвах идваше идваше идвахме идвахте идваха | затварях затваряше затваряше затваряхме затваряхте затваряха | ходех ходеше ходеше ходихме ходихте ходиха | четях четеше четеше четяхме четяхте четяха |
* - ЕХ when the stress doesn't fall on the last syllable of the verb in present tense (e.g. хОдя)
** - ЯХ when the stress falls on the last syllable of the verb in present tense (e.g. четА)