Thread:Vorknkx/@comment-26005008-20150326200202/@comment-1496755-20150327062901

Hello :)

I have studied German for 4 years (in high school), but I've had very few opportunities to use it since then, so I have forgotten quite a lot. I understand most German things that I read/hear, however I would have difficulties making my own sentences.

Russian is pretty close to Bulgarian, indeed, but it is harder to learn overall. It has a more complex grammar and some peculiarities in pronunciation. Also, they speak somewhat "softer" than us - you have probably noticed this in people who speak English with a Russian accent.

My roommates in college were two Macedonian guys (in fact, they were brothers). We understood each other perfectly, there were just a few peculiar words with different meanings, which occasionally provoked humorous situations. Our two languages are very similar - in fact, they were once the same language in the past. Many people claim that Macedonian is an offshoot (or a dialect) of Bulgarian.

The thing is that Bulgarians and Macedonians are practically the same people, yet we grew apart and became separate nations for a number of complicated historical and political reasons. Macedonians were very close to us during the early years of the 20th century, and we strived to be united as one country. Alas, it was not meant to be...

Yeah, definite articles can be nasty. Especially for "masculine" words - even we get them wrong sometimes (there are some variations depending on whether the word is a subject or an object within the sentence).

Case systems are simplified indeed. We have two and a half cases (the third one has diminished and has limited usages nowadays). Russian, by comparison, has six cases.