Definite Article or Not: A Product Label Under Deadline
A small dairy near Troyan is printing new labels for 12,000 yoghurt cups. The marketing text reads: «Нашето кисело мляко е направено от прясно мляко, събрано от ферми в Стара планина. Всяка чаша съдържа живи бактерии и без консерванти.» The printer's proofreader flags «прясно мляко» and «живи бактерии» as needing the definite article, arguing that the text refers to specific milk and specific bacteria. The owner is unsure, the print run is tomorrow, and reprinting would cost 900 lev. A second issue: the nutrition panel says «Мазнини: 3,5 г», while the legal template requires «Мазнини: 3,5 г на 100 г».
1. Decide whether the proofreader is right about the definite article in «прясно мляко» and «живи бактерии». Explain the grammatical reasoning (countability, generic vs. specific reference, the role of the numeral «всяка»).
Read the worked answer
The proofreader is wrong on both counts, and the label should not be changed.
«прясно мляко» is a mass noun used with generic/partitive reference: the sentence describes what the product is made of, not a particular batch of milk. Bulgarian does not require the definite article for a mass noun in this generic-quantitative use. Adding «прясното мляко» would wrongly presuppose a previously identified quantity - a reader would ask «which milk?».
«живи бактерии» is a bare plural in an existential/generic statement («съдържа живи бактерии»). Bare plurals in Bulgarian normally denote a kind or an unspecified quantity, and the definite plural «живите бактерии» would signal that the bacteria were already mentioned or are uniquely identifiable. Neither is true here.
The presence of «всяка» does not make the following noun definite: «всяка» is a universal quantifier over cups («every cup»), not a definite determiner over bacteria. It quantifies the subject, not the object. So the object stays indefinite.
Conclusion: the proofreader's change would be a semantic error, not a correction. Do not reprint for this reason.
2. Resolve the nutrition-panel issue: is «Мазнини: 3,5 г» a grammatical or a regulatory problem, and what is the minimal correct fix?
Read the worked answer
This is not a grammar problem. «Мазнини: 3,5 г» is a well-formed elliptical label - a noun plus a numeral with an implied unit - and is grammatical Bulgarian. The problem is that the legal template requires the reference quantity («на 100 г»), which is a labelling-standard requirement, not a syntactic one.
The minimal correct fix is to write «Мазнини: 3,5 г на 100 г» exactly as the template specifies. Do not «correct» it to «Мазнините: 3,5 г» - adding the article would be a stylistic choice, not a requirement, and the template's headword form should be preserved for consistency across the panel. Since the panel text is short and the cups are not yet printed, fix the panel now; the 900-lev reprint cost is avoidable because the correction can be made before the run.