New facebook page about learning Bulgarian

Hey Nadia,

I am wondering about "na" when you hand someone something. I know it is informal/slang, but I use it with my friends and husband all of the time without a problem. We are outdoorsy people so we are constantly handing things back and forth while setting up a tent or cooking- saying заповядай would get long! It is kinda lighthearted/kidding.

I was out to coffee with a friend (she is not a new friend, we have known each other for 2 years) and I said "na" as I handed her something and she got so offended and spent the next ten minutes yelling at me for not learning proper Bulgarian and that I should never never never use that word.

Is it really that bad? It is something that my friends and I use casually, and I wouldn't use it with someone I didn't know or in a formal situation, but I never expected that reaction from a friend.

kojidae wrote:

Hey Nadia,

I am wondering about "na" when you hand someone something. I know it is informal/slang, but I use it with my friends and husband all of the time without a problem. We are outdoorsy people so we are constantly handing things back and forth while setting up a tent or cooking- saying заповядай would get long! It is kinda lighthearted/kidding.

I was out to coffee with a friend (she is not a new friend, we have known each other for 2 years) and I said "na" as I handed her something and she got so offended and spent the next ten minutes yelling at me for not learning proper Bulgarian and that I should never never never use that word.

Is it really that bad? It is something that my friends and I use casually, and I wouldn't use it with someone I didn't know or in a formal situation, but I never expected that reaction from a friend.

You know, it`s hard to understand Bulgarian people..even we don`t understand each other haha I think she reacted harsher, because when some slang comes out from a foreigner`s mouth it sounds way more rude or inappropriate. (I don`t know how much Bulgarian you know ) but often foreigners learn the slang, swear words and they prefer to talk like that rather than actually improve their language skills and vocabulary. There are Bulgarians that get annoyed by it. (A lot of Bulgarians as well talk with mistakes, shorten words etc, but they are aware of the fact that this is bad and they actually hate it).
Btw the word itself it`s not so offensive or rude, but just sounds kind of "village" if you know what I mean
"Ето!" -is a word, where it`s in the middle, so it`s neither so formal as "заповядай",nor sounds stupid.