де

The Urging Particle Де

Level 5Sounds Like častica de

Де after a command pushes someone to act: Ела де! (Come on, come here!) Кажи де! (Go on, tell me!) It adds impatience or friendly insistence and belongs to relaxed speech.

How It Works

1. Urging. Put де right after the command:

  • Ела де! (Come on, come here!)
  • Кажи де, какво стана? (Go on, tell me, what happened?)
  • Яж де, ще изстине! (Go on, eat, it will get cold!)
  • Хайде де, закъсняваме! (Come on, we're late!) See хайде да.

2. Impatience or giving in. Добре де, ще дойда. (All right, all right, I'll come.) Не де, не така! (No, no, not like that!) Хайде де! can also mean Oh, come on! in disbelief. Between friends this tone is not rude.

3. Placement. Де comes straight after the word it strengthens, usually at the end of a short sentence, and no comma is written before it: Ела де!

4. Register. Де is for casual speech with people you know. In formal situations a polite request works better: Моля, заповядайте.

5. The other де. In casual speech, songs and poetry, де can also be a short form of къде: Де си? (Where are you?) That word begins the question, while the particle follows another word.

Examples (6)

  1. Ела де!

    Come on, come here!

  2. Кажи де, какво стана?

    Go on, tell me, what happened?

  3. Добре де, ще дойда.

    All right, all right, I'll come.

    After добре, де shows giving in with a little impatience.

  4. Хайде де, закъсняваме!

    Come on, we're late!

  5. Не де, не така!

    No, no, not like that!

  6. Яж де, ще изстине!

    Go on, eat, it'll get cold!

Common Mistakes

  • Putting де before the verb.

    Де ела!
    Ела де!

    The particle де always follows the word it strengthens. At the start of a sentence, де is read as the casual word for "where".

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

деLevel 5The Urging Particle Де

Learn This First

The particle де follows the imperative.

Words in This Pattern

деде