Date & Time

Vocabulary

Days of the week

Months of the year

Note that in Bulgarian, the name of days and months aren't capitalized.

Miscellaneous

• to start: започвам/започна (-е)
• to finish, to end: завършвам/завърша (-и), свършвам/свърша (-и)
• to get up: ставам/стана (-е)
• I was born: роден съм (for a man), родена съм (for a woman)
• birthday: рожден ден
• favorite: любим
• Christmas: Коледа
• weekend: уикенд

Genders and plurals

In Bulgarian, the nouns for days have a gender. They follow the same rules as other nouns, and you can guess their gender according to their termination: вторник is masculine, and събота is feminine. They can also be made plural (петък ➜ петъци). The only slight exception is сряда ➜ среди (the "я" becomes "е").

All names for months are masculine.

Dates

Dates in Bulgarian are most commonly written with the day first, followed by the month and the year: 15 април 2019.

When dates are written in numbers, the day also comes first: 15.04.2019.

It is read "15-ти април 2019-та г." (петнайсети април, две хиляди и деветнадесета година).

Examples

През януари - In January
През 2020 - In 2020
На 3-ти март - On March 3^rd
Преди/След 15.09 - Before/After 15/09
Между 24.12 и 31.12 - Between 24/12 and 31/12
Моят рожден ден е на 18-ти май - My birthday is on May 18^th
Аз съм роден на 18.05.1990 - I was born on 18/05/1990
Във вторниците той има уроци - He has lessons on Tuesdays

Time

Time can be expressed with the expression "часът е …" (from "час" meaning "hour"), followed by the number representing the hours and then the minutes:

Часът е осем и двадесет и три - It is 8:23

Time can be expressed on a 24h scale, so that 4pm is 16:00, but in the spoken language people often use the 12h scale and specify the part of the day, if necessary:

"7 часа сутринта" - 7 in the morning
"11 часа преди обед" - 11 before noon
"12 часа на обяд" - 12 noon
"2 часа следобед" - 2 in the afternoon
"8 часа вечерта" - 8 in the evening

Both "обед" and "обяд" mean "noon" and can be used interchangeably. ("обяд" also means lunch.)

The conjunction "и" is used when the minutes are to be added past the hour, and "без" (meaning "minus" or "without") is used to signify minutes to the next hour. Thus, 6:40 can be expressed as either:

Шест и четиридесет - 40 past 6
Седем без двайсет - 20 to 7

"Половина", meaning "half", can be used to express half an hour:

Дванадесет и половина - Half past twelve (12:30)

Expressions

"Колко е часът?" - What time is it?
"Часът е 9" - It is 9 o'clock.
"В колко часа…?" - At what time…?
"В 9.15" - At 9:15
"От 11 до 12 часа" - From 11 to 12 o'clock
"Между 7 и 8 часа" - Between 7 and 8 o'clock