Cardinal numbers
Let's see the first 10 numbers in Bulgarian. These are cardinal numbers (like "one"). Ordinal numbers (like "first") will be seen in a later lesson.
| 0 | нула |
| 1 | един (m), една (f), едно (n) |
| 2 | два (m), две (n/f) |
| 3 | три |
| 4 | четири |
| 5 | пет |
| 6 | шест |
| 7 | седем |
| 8 | осем |
| 9 | девет |
| 10 | десет |
As you know, nouns in Bulgarian have a grammatical gender (masculine, feminine or neuter). Only numbers "one" and "two" vary slightly based on the gender of the following noun:
"едно кафе" - one coffee (neuter)
"една ябълка" - one apple (feminine)
"две къщи" - two houses (feminine)
Numeral plural
Some masculine names take a special plural ending when they follow a number or an expression such as колко (how many?) or няколко (a few). In this case, the plural ending is -а:
"един месец" - one month
"два месеца" - two months
"един ден" - one day
"няколко дена*" - a few days
This is called the numeral plural or counting form (бройна форма) and only applies to masculine nouns that do not represent people.
* Bulgarians often use "дни", the normal plural, instead of "дена", the numeral plural. Therefore we'll consider both "два дена" and "два дни" as correct. "Дни" is much more commonly heard, despite "дена" being the grammatically correct version.