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 | едно (n), един (m), една (f) |
| 2 | две (n/f), два (m) |
| 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)
Counting form
Some masculine nouns 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 counting form (бройна форма) or numeral plural and only applies to masculine nouns that do not represent people.
* Bulgarians often use дни, the normal plural, instead of дена, the counting form. Therefore we'll consider both два дена and два дни as correct. Дни is much more commonly heard, despite дена being the theoretically correct version.