How to say the Bulgarian numbers

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Introduction

There is a slight difference between how we pronounce and how we write the Bulgarian numbers. That is why in this article I will show you the proper way to write the Bulgarian numbers. In addition, I will give you the ordinal numbers, show you how to read the price and the years in Bulgarian.

I will write the words in Bulgarian as I guess that you already know how to read in Bulgarian.

Let’s start then!

Lessons

There are two different ways (both are correct) to say the numbers from 11 to 20 in Bulgarian:

1 – едно (една, един, едни)*
2 – две  (два)*
3 – три
4 – четири
5 – пет
6 – шест
7 – седем
8 – осем
9 – девет
10 – десет
11 – единайсет/единадесет*
12 – дванайсет/дванадесет*
13 – тринайсет/тринадесет*
14 – четиринайсет/четиринадесет*
15 – петнайсет/петнадесет*
16 – шестнайсет/шестнадесет*
17 – седемнайсет/седемнадесет*
18 – осемнайсет/осемнадесет*
19 – деветнайсет/деветнадесет*
20 – двайсет/двадесет*

* In Bulgarian we have genders. This means that the words can be a girl (feminine), a boy (masculine), or neuter.
That is why we have different forms of the number one. We use „едно“ when the word is neuter, „една“ when it is a girl, „един“ when it is a boy, and „едни“ when the word is in the plural.

* We use „две“ for words that are feminine or neuter and „два“ for masculine.

* The second form is not very popular. Most of the time, people would use the first one. And pay attention that when the Bulgarians speak they tend to omit the letter „т“ at the end. So instead of pronouncing it as „единайсет“ for example, they would say „единайсе“.

I will show you how to say the numbers from 21 to 30 and then I will only give you the names of thirty, forty, fifty, etc.
You can practise on your own saying the numbers between 30 and 40, 40 and 50, etc as they follow the same pattern.

21 – двайсет и едно/двадесет и едно 30 трийсет/тридесет
22 – двайсет и две/двадесет и две 40 четиресет/четиридесет
23 – двайсет и три/двадесет и три 50 петдесет
24 – двайсет и четири/двадесет и четири 60 шейсет/шестдесет
25 – двайсет и пет/двадесет и пет 70 седемдесет
26 – двайсет и шест/двадесет и шест 80 осемдесет
27 – двайсет и седем/двадесет и седем 90 деветдесет
28 – двайсет и осем/двадесет и осем 100 сто
29 – двайсет и девет/двадесет и девет

30 – трийсет/тридесет
40 – четиресет/четиридесет
50 – петдесет
60 – шейсет/шестдесет
70 – седемдесет
80 – осемдесет
90 – деветдесет
100 – сто

As you can see the numbers from 30 onwards are formed by adding 3+10 (три+десет), 4+10 (четири+десет), 5+10 (пет+десет)

1-ви/първи
2-ри/втори
3-ти/трети
4-ти/четвърти
5-ти/пети
6-ти/шести
7-ми/седми
8-ми/осми
9-ти/девети
10-ти/десети

The currency in Bulgaria is called lev (лев). The plural form is leva (лева).
The coins are stotinki (стотинки). The singular is stotinka (стотинка).

1,15лв. – един лев и* петнайсет стотинки

2,39лв. – два лева и трийсет и девет стотинки

11,99лв. – единайсет лева и деветдесет и девет стотинки

„И“ means „and“. So you are literally saying one lev and fifteen stotinki.

You need to read the whole number. You cannot do it as in English where you read the first two numbers together and then the other two. And you also need to read it as an ordinal number.

1993 – та година* – хиляда деветстотин деветдесет и трета година

2008 – две хиляди и осма

2018 – две хиляди и осемнадесета

Great! Now you can practise a bit on your own. If you need some help, feel free to book an online lesson with me. I would love to teach you some Bulgarian.

 I look forward to hearing from you.

Have an amazing day! Smile, have fun, and learn Bulgarian!

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