Hello everyone, I am an extremely beginner Bulgarian language learner, and it seems like the /r/Bulgarian subreddit is not active, so I was wondering if anyone could help me clear up a question that I have about Bulgarian grammar.

My question is about the usage of some tenses of “perfective” and “imperfective” verbs.

Let’s use видя and виждам as an example.

I understand simple cases of these 2 verbs as explained from [this page](https://hinative.com/en-US/questions/2229116).

* (1) Ще го видя = I will see him
* (2) Ще го виждам = I will be seeing him
* (3) Видях го = I saw him
* (4) Виждах го = I was seeing him

These examples make sense to me, but there are some additional tenses that are a little bit confusing to me.

You can see these tables by expanding the “Conjugation” section from [видя](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D1%8F#Bulgarian) and [виждам](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B6%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BC#Bulgarian)

видя (Perfective verb)

**indicative** | аз | ти | той/тя/то | ние | вие | те
—|—|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-
**present**(1) | ви́дя | ви́диш | ви́ди | ви́дим | ви́дите | ви́дят
**imperfect** | ви́дех | ви́деше | ви́деше | ви́дехме | ви́дехте | ви́деха
**aorist**(3) | видя́х | видя́ | видя́ | видя́хме | видя́хте | видя́ха

виждам (Imperfective verb)

**indicative** | аз | ти | той/тя/то | ние | вие | те
—|—|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-
**present**(2) | ви́ждам | ви́ждаш | ви́жда | ви́ждаме | ви́ждате | ви́ждат
**imperfect**(4?) | ви́ждах | ви́ждаше | ви́ждаше | ви́ждахме | ви́ждахте | ви́ждаха
**aorist**(4?) | ви́ждах | ви́жда | ви́жда | ви́ждахме | ви́ждахте | ви́ждаха

I marked the tenses that I can tell are being used for the sentences above, but these are the things that are confusing me, and I’d like to know if anyone can help me understand.

1. Is example sentence (4) using the **imperfect** past, or **aorist** past here? They both have the same conjugation, so it’s not clear to me which row it’s using.
2. Why does the perfective verb видя have an “imperfective” past form anyways? If you use the **imperfective** conjugations for видя, does that make it equivalent to using виждам?
3. Why does the imperfective verb виждам have an “aorist” (completed) past form? Could anyone explain the difference of the “imperfect” and “aorist” past forms of виждам and how they differ from those of видя?

EDIT: I think I found the answer to my questions [here](https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/bbm%3A978-94-015-9355-7%2F1.pdf)!! It gives examples of: “perfective Aorist”, “imperfective Imperfect”, (<– “Common”); “imperfective Aorist”, and “perfective Imperfect” (<– “Less frequently used”)

5 comments

  1. For point 1. (4) without the whole sentence you can not tell with 100% certainty whether the action of “seeing” has ended.

    For example:

    Imperfect Tense: I was seeing him at the restaurant. (The action of seeing was continuous. We do not have additional information of when, how long or if the action (seeing) ended)

    Aorist (In Bulgaria we call it Past Completed. The action (verb) must have been completed (ended) in the past)

    I saw him at the restaurant last week.

    Hope that helps a bit.

  2. For point 2.

    The imperfect form of the perfective verb (видя) – вѝдех depending on the context can mean

    I was seeing (Past Incomplete Tense)

    Виждах can be 2 options

    I was seeing (Past Incomplete Tense)

    Or

    I saw. (Past Complete Tense)

    It depends on context.

    Hope that also helps 🙂

  3. Regarding point 3.

    As we (both lol) already know:

    Виждах can be

    Past Completed Tense or Past Incompleted Tense

    Видях is only Past Completed Tense.

    Hope things are more clear now.

  4. 1. For the aorist I would say виждАх, not вИждах to distinguish them. When it comes to вИждах (Imperfect), it is much more common, while the aorist somewhat rare compared to it. So if you see it written it will most likely be in the imperfect form.
    2. Видех is more like each time I saw him while imperfect виждах is like I was seeing him
    3. The aorist is like I was seeing him, but I no longer do so, the imperfect is like I was seeing him.

  5. Wow. I have never in my life used these forms:

    imperfect ви́дех ви́деше ви́деше ви́дехме ви́дехте ви́деха

    I didn’t even know they’re grammatically correct- they sound like “Shopski dialect”. There are a lot of old stuff that’s no longer used in our language.

    Unless you’re studying for some kind of test, I’d advise you to learn the simple grammar first. You can only use 3 tenses to communicate perfectly with a Bulgarian- сегашно · минало свършено · бъдеще and less frequently минало несвършено.

    If your goal is communicating I’d focus more on vocabulary.

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