The Bulgarian alphabet uses Cyrillic letters, but does not include all of the same sounds as other languages that use it. Each language modifies the alphabet to suit their own sounds. There are 30 letters in the Bulgarian alphabet, which is a few less than both Russian and Ukrainian.
Overview of the Bulgarian Language:
It’s an Indo-European language that is closely related to the Macedonian language. It is considered a Slavic language as well, though isn’t necessarily similar to it’s cousins.
There are about 10 million speakers total, primarily in Bulgaria but also in North Macedonia, Russian and Ukraine.
Basic Grammar:
Bulgarian uses the same sentence structure as English, which is SVO. (Subject-Verb-Object).
There are three genders in the language – masculine, feminine, and neuter. Their nouns and adjectives have grammatical gender and case.
Adjectives must agree with nouns in number and gender. Verbs are conjugated with suffixes and are changed depending on the person, number, gender, tense, mood, and voice (active/passive).
The Bulgarian Alphabet – 30 Letters
| Cyrillic | Transliteration | English Equivalent |
| А а | A | A as in Father |
| Б б | B | B as in Baby |
| В в | V | V as in Vivid |
| Г г | G | G as in Go |
| Д д | D | D as in Did |
| Е е | E | E as in Bet |
| Ж ж | Zh | S as in Measure |
| З з | Z | Z as in Zone |
| И и | i | E as in Scene |
| Й й | Y | Y as in Yes |
| К к | K | K as in Keep |
| Л л | L | L as in Lily |
| М м | M | M as in Maid |
| Н н | N | N as in No |
| О о | O | O as in More |
| П п | P | P as in Pepper |
| Р р | R | Trilled like in Spanish. R as in Razón. |
| С с | S | S as in Sand. |
| Т т | T | T as in Tie. |
| У у | U | U as in Rule |
| Ф ф | F | F as in Fool |
| Х х | H | Guttural H. H as in Coherent. |
| Ц ц | Ts, Zz | Ts as in Cats, Zz as in Pizza |
| Ч ч | Ch | Ch as in Chin |
| Ш ш | Sh | Sh as in Shy |
| Щ щ | Sht | Sht as in Shtick |
| Ъ ъ | Uh | A and O in Above (This is close, but there is no exact equivalent) |
| Ь ь | – Y | Silent, elongates previous vowel Or makes -y sound. Y as in Canyon. |
| Ю ю | Yu | You |
| Я я | Ya | Ya as in Yard |
There are some digraphs (multiple letters that make ONE sound) to be aware of:
Дж = Dzh = Ju as in Justice
Дз = Dz = Tz as in Ditz
Пш = Psh = Psh as in Pshhh (Not a word but, you probably read that right)
Note: The grave accent distinguishes the pronoun ѝ (her) from the conjunction и (and). Ѝ is not considered a different letter, just a variation of и. They are pronounced the same. (E as in Scene).
Where to go from here?
If you’re just getting started, I recommend checking out LingoHut’s free series of lessons. Check out the lessons here.