Bulgarian adjectives

A Bulgarian adjective agrees in gender, number and definiteness with the noun it is appended to and is put usually before it. The comparative and the superlative form (unlike most other Slavic languages) are formed analytically.

Adjective formation

Adjectives can be formed from other words by means of suffixes and prefixes.

Some important suffixes are:

• -ит - сърдит, упорит, плодовит.
• -ив, -лив - бодлив, пестелив, мързелив.
• -овен - синовен, дъждовен, бунтовен.
• -ав - жилав, хлъзгав, гърбав.
• -атен - впрегатен, оратен, почиватен, ператен, знатен
• -телен - съзнателен, звателен, застрахователен.
• -ист - скалист, тревист, горист.
• -икав - сладникав, зеленикав, червеникав.
• -овит - страховит, духовит, гласовит.
• -ичък - дебеличък, новичък, тъпичък.
• -ов - дядов, Стоянов, правов.
• -ев - Ботев, Пеев, Кръстев.
• -ин - мамин, бащин, Стефкин.
• -ен - дървен, боен, народен.
• -ителен - напоителен, строителен, разхладителен.
• -ателен - двигателен, измервателен, познавателен.
• -илен - багрилен, родилен, сушилен.
• -ски - детски, градски, свински.
• -ален - игрален, спален, венчален.

Some important prefixes are:

• -въз - въздебел, въззелен, възкисел.
• -пре - премъдър, предоволен, престар.

Inflection

Adjectives are inflected for three genders and two numbers (there is no distinction between the genders in the plural). They can also take up the definite articles, depending on whether the noun they modify is definite or indefinite. Only the first nominal constituent (no matter whether it is a noun or an adjective) of definite noun phrases is used with an article: "добрият човек" or rarely "човекът добър".

The main form of an adjective is its masculine indefinite form, it ends either in a consonant or in -и. Masculine adjectives also have an extended (or vocative) form, which must be used with nouns in the vocative ("уважаеми господине" not "уважаем господине" / "преподобни отче" not "преподобен отче"), otherwise it is used only in the poetry. For adjective endings see the table below.

*Only adjectives ending in -чи and a few more form their neuter form with е.

Comparison

Adjectives have three degrees of comparison: positive (положителна), comparative (сравнителна) and superlative (превъзходна). The positive form is identical to all the aforementioned forms. The other two are formed regularly, by putting the particle по (for the comparative) and най (for the superlative) before the positive form. The particles are separated from the adjective by a hyphen.