Greek to Bulgarian: noun case cannot be preserved by keeping the same word order
Identify the actor before rebuilding the clause
Modern Greek nouns distinguish nominative, genitive, accusative and vocative forms. Case marking helps identify participants even when the object occurs before the verb or the subject follows it. The Greek Universal Dependencies description notes object-first topicalized clauses, often involving an object clitic. A Bulgarian translation should therefore not label the first source noun as the actor merely because it appears first. The source morphology and clitic relationship provide evidence that simple position does not.
Bulgarian nouns have largely lost case inflection apart from some vocatives, while personal pronouns retain distinctions such as nominative, accusative and dative. A source Greek noun’s case cannot always be reproduced as a corresponding Bulgarian noun ending. The target must instead express the same roles through its actual construction. Preserving a marked Greek order without preserving its grammatical cues can make the person affected by the action look like the person performing it.
Joined article material has a different structure
Greek can combine σε with a definite article, as in στον, which the Greek documentation analyzes as a preposition plus article. That single visible token can consequently contain both a relationship and definiteness marking. A translator should not treat it as an indivisible lexical item or retain only its article meaning while losing whether the phrase expresses a location or direction.
Bulgarian has a postposed definite article that forms part of a word and functions across the noun phrase. It is therefore quite normal for source and target definiteness to occupy different positions and different numbers of written tokens. But moving an article is not enough to translate a Greek prepositional phrase: the relationship contributed by the source preposition still needs a target expression. A correct-looking definite noun can sit in a sentence that has lost its original location or destination.
A short target form may identify an owner
The Bulgarian case documentation gives му as a short dative form, but also explains a possessive use of short pronouns near the verb. Its hat example allows ownership to be expressed away from the possessed noun. Such a pronoun does not automatically designate an additional recipient. A translation of a Greek possessive or indirect-object construction must determine which relationship is intended rather than assign every short target form the same role.
This matters when the source itself uses genitives for both possessive expressions and indirect objects. A Greek genitive can provide crucial relational information, but its label is not a complete Bulgarian translation instruction. Keep ownership, receiving and being acted upon distinct. Then check whether the target noun phrase, clitic or prepositional construction expresses that particular relation. The result may contain less noun-case marking than the source and different article placement, while preserving exactly the same event. Matching the surface endings or copying the source order would not offer the same guarantee.
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