Counting in Bulgarian

Language overview

Forty-two in Bulgarian Bulgarian (български език, transliterated as balgarski ezik) is an Indo-European language from the Slavic linguistic group. Written in the Cyrillic alphabet, it is spoken in the Balkans and counts about 10 million speakers, mainly in Bulgaria where it is the official language.

Bulgarian numbers list

  • 1 – едно (edno)
  • 2 – две (dve)
  • 3 – три (tri)
  • 4 – четири (chetiri)
  • 5 – пет (pet)
  • 6 – шест (shest)
  • 7 – седем (sedem)
  • 8 – осем (osem)
  • 9 – девет (devet)
  • 10 – десет (deset)
  • 11 – единадесет (edinadeset)
  • 12 – дванадесет (dvanadeset)
  • 13 – тринадесет (trinadeset)
  • 14 – четиринадесет (chetirinadeset)
  • 15 – петнадесет (petnadeset)
  • 16 – шестнадесет (shestnadeset)
  • 17 – седемнадесет (sedemnadeset)
  • 18 – осемнадесет (osemnadeset)
  • 19 – деветнадесет (devetnadeset)
  • 20 – двадесет (dvadeset)
  • 30 – тридесет (trideset)
  • 40 – четиридесет (chetirideset)
  • 50 – петдесет (petdeset)
  • 60 – шестдесет (shestdeset)
  • 70 – седемдесет (sedemdeset)
  • 80 – осемдесет (osemdeset)
  • 90 – деветдесет (devetdeset)
  • 100 – сто (sto)
  • 1,000 – хиляда (hilyada)
  • one million – един милион (edin milion)
  • one billion – един милиард (edin miliard)
  • one trillion – един трилион (edin trilion)

Bulgarian numbering rules

Now that you’ve had a gist of the most useful numbers, let’s move to the writing rules for the tens, the compound numbers, and why not the hundreds, the thousands and beyond (if possible).

  • Digits from zero to nine are specific words, namely нула (nula) [0], едно (edno) [1], две (dve) [2], три (tri) [3], четири (chetiri) [4], пет (pet) [5], шест (shest) [6], седем (sedem) [7], осем (osem) [8], and девет (devet) [9]. The digits one and two have both a feminine and a masculine form: едно/един (edno/edin) [1], две/два (dve/dva) [2].
  • The tens are formed by adding the ten word (десет (deset)) at the end of the digits, with the exception of ten where the unit is implicit: десет (deset) [10], двадесет (dvadeset) [20], тридесет (trideset) [30], четиридесет (chetirideset) [40], петдесет (petdeset) [50], шестдесет (shestdeset) [60], седемдесет (sedemdeset) [70], осемдесет (osemdeset) [80], and деветдесет (devetdeset) [90].
  • The compound numbers are constructed from the matching units in the masculine form, followed by the conjonction и (i) (and), then the word for ten with no space from eleven to nineteen (e.g.: тринадесет (trinadeset) [13]), the conjonction being separated with spaces from twenty-one to ninety-nine (eg.: двадесет и пет (dvadeset i pet) [25]).
  • The conjunction и (i) (and) is added between the second and the third member of each group of three digits.
  • The hundreds, formed from the matching multiplier units, are: сто (sto) [100], двеста (dvesta) [200], триста (trista) [300], четиристотин (chetiristotin) [400], петстотин (petstotin) [500], шестстотин (sheststotin) [600], седемстотин (sedemstotin) [700], осемстотин (osemstotin) [800], and деветстотин (devetstotin) [900].
  • Being gendered, one and two share the same gender as the following scale unit if any. For instance, the word for thousand (хиляда (hilyada)) is feminine, hence we say две хиляди (dve hilyadi) [2,000]. The same occurs with the millions (един милион (edin milion) [1,000,000] and два милиона (dva miliona) [2,000,000]) and the billions (един милиард (edin miliard) [1,000,000,000] and два милиарда (dva miliarda) [2,000,000,000]), both of them being masculine.
  • The Bulgarian language follows the short scale system for naming big numbers: every new word greater than a million is 1,000 times bigger than the previous term. Thus, един милиард (edin miliard) is equivalent to 109 (one billion in the US).

Write a number in full in Bulgarian

Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in Bulgarian. Will you guess how to write a number in full? Enter a number and try to write it down in your head, or maybe on a piece of paper, before displaying the result.

Books

Intensive Bulgarian: A Textbook & Reference Grammar (Vol 1) Intensive Bulgarian: A Textbook & Reference Grammar (Vol 1)
by , editors University of Wisconsin Press (2000)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

Intensive Bulgarian: A Textbook & Reference Grammar (Vol 2) Intensive Bulgarian: A Textbook & Reference Grammar (Vol 2)
by , editors University of Wisconsin Press (2000)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

A comprehensive Bulgarian grammar for foreign learners
by , editors Daniela Ubenova (2000)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

Le bulgare de poche Le bulgare de poche
by , editors Assimil (2009)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

Parlons bulgare Parlons bulgare
by , editors L’Harmattan (1996)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

Dicionário Editora de Português-Búlgaro Dicionário Editora de Português-Búlgaro
by , editors Porto (2006)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

Articles

South Slavic languages

Bulgarian, Macedonian, Old Church Slavonic, Serbian, and Slovene.

Other supported languages

As the other currently supported languages are too numerous to list extensively here, please select a language from the full list of supported languages.