Bulgarian to Ukrainian: an infinitive can express more than a dictionary meaning
Bulgarian да does not require a matching separate word
Bulgarian uses finite да constructions where many other languages use infinitives. Its grammatical overview gives да идвам for coming. Ukrainian has productive infinitive forms and uses them after verbs that take infinitival complements. A natural translation may therefore express the second action with an infinitive rather than reproduce a separate counterpart for every source word.
This changes the shape of a sentence without necessarily changing who acts. A Bulgarian statement about wanting to work can name a wish and the intended activity through a да construction. The Ukrainian complement may be shorter because its grammar organizes that activity differently. Fewer written words are not, by themselves, evidence that part of the wish has disappeared.
Identify the intended actor before simplifying. A statement about the writer’s own plan and a request that another person carry out a task are different relationships between participants. The presence of да in the Bulgarian source does not erase that distinction. Keep names or pronouns when they are needed to show that the second action belongs to somebody else.
A short infinitive can be a complete public instruction
Marta Jenkala’s teaching materials illustrate Не курити as a no-smoking instruction and Прошу повторити as a request to repeat. Both contain infinitives, but their communicative purposes differ. An infinitive in the target is not automatically an unfinished sentence or a dictionary entry accidentally inserted into the translation.
For Bulgarian notices, distinguish a rule displayed for everyone from a request made to one person. A notice prohibiting smoking does not need to sound like a personal conversation. Conversely, a request for somebody to repeat information should preserve its request function rather than become a bare activity label. The reader needs to recognize what they are being asked or told to do.
The contrast matters when reusing text. A phrase suitable for a sign is not necessarily suitable as a courteous follow-up in a conversation. Keep the source’s purpose visible: a general restriction, a direct request, or a statement about an intended action. Then assess the Ukrainian construction in that setting instead of rejecting all infinitives as excessively abbreviated.
Infinitives still carry an aspectual choice
Both Bulgarian and Ukrainian distinguish imperfective and perfective verbs lexically. Moving from a Bulgarian finite construction to a Ukrainian infinitive does not remove the need to preserve the intended view of the action. Jenkala also explains that dictionaries can present the two Ukrainian aspectual forms differently, so the first dictionary headword is not always a complete answer.
For a task involving reading a document, distinguish engaging in reading from completing a particular reading task where the context makes that endpoint relevant. A plan, instruction, and prohibition may organize that distinction differently. Do not select an infinitive solely because its dictionary gloss matches the Bulgarian verb in English.
If the original is unclear about whether a task is routine or a particular required result, clarify that point in Bulgarian before translation. Preserve the intended activity, its actor, and its purpose together. Ukrainian can then use an infinitive naturally without losing the source message’s practical expectation about what should happen.
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