-ът/-а

The Masculine Articles -ът and -а

Level 1Sounds Like členuvane -ʺt/-a

A masculine noun ending in a consonant takes -ът as the subject (Столът е нов.) and -а for objects and after prepositions (Седни на стола.); a definite complement after е also takes -ът.

How It Works

Full article -ът: the subject

Use -ът when the noun is the subject, wherever it stands in the sentence: Влакът закъснява. (The train is late.) На масата е телефонът. (The phone is on the table.) The same full form is used for a noun that describes the subject after е: Това е влакът за Варна. (This is the train to Varna.)

Short article -а: objects and prepositional phrases

Use -а for a direct object and after prepositions: Чакам влака. (I am waiting for the train.) Седни на стола. (Sit on the chair.)

The той / него test

  • Влакът закъснява. → Той закъснява. So write -ът.
  • Чакам влака. → Чакам него. So write -а.

A spelling rule more than a sound rule

In everyday speech the final т of -ът is often dropped, so столът and стола can sound nearly the same. The difference matters in writing, where mixing them up is a mistake. See Full Versus Short Masculine Article for harder cases.

Soft nouns: -ят and -я

Some masculine nouns, such as учител (teacher), ден (day) and кон (horse), take -ят and -я instead: учителят / учителя. The same subject rule applies. See The Masculine Articles -ят and -я.

Do not confuse with the count form

Стола can also be the count form after a number: два стола (two chairs). See The Count Form. Adjectives follow the same full and short pattern: новият стол / новия стол. See Articles on Adjectives.

Examples (6)

  1. Столът е нов.

    The chair is new.

    Столът is the subject, so it takes the full article.

  2. Седни на стола.

    Sit on the chair.

    After the preposition на, the short article -а is used.

  3. Влакът закъснява.

    The train is late.

  4. Чакам влака.

    I am waiting for the train.

    Влака is the object of чакам, so it takes -а.

  5. На масата е телефонът.

    The phone is on the table.

    Телефонът comes after the verb, but it is still the subject.

  6. Градът е голям, но не познавам града добре.

    The city is big, but I don't know the city well.

    The same noun is the subject in the first part and the object in the second.

Common Mistakes

  • Writing the short article on the subject.

    Влака закъснява.
    Влакът закъснява.

    The train is the subject here: you could say Той закъснява. The subject takes the full article -ът.

  • Writing the full article on an object.

    Чакам влакът.
    Чакам влака.

    Here the train is the object: you would say Чакам него. Objects and nouns after prepositions take the short article -а.

How It Connects

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

-ът/-аLevel 1The Masculine Articles -ът and -а

Learn This First

The masculine article needs the article idea and masculine nouns.

Words in This Pattern

-ът-а