Days, Months, And Telling Time In Bulgarian
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Knowing how to express time is an essential part of your Bulgarian learning journey.
You’ll need this specific vocabulary to schedule meetings, buy bus tickets, and make weekend plans with local friends.
The concepts are straightforward and rely heavily on basic Bulgarian numbers.
This guide breaks down the days of the week, the months of the year, and exactly how to tell time in Bulgarian.
Table of Contents:
Days of the week in Bulgarian
The Bulgarian days of the week are relatively easy to memorize.
Five of the days are directly based on their numerical order in the week.
For example, Tuesday (вторник) comes from the word for second (втори), and Thursday (четвъртък) comes from the word for fourth (четвърти).
Unlike in English, days of the week aren’t capitalized in Bulgarian unless they appear at the very beginning of a sentence.
Here are the seven days of the week in Bulgarian:
| English | Bulgarian | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | понеделник | ponedelnik |
| Tuesday | вторник | vtornik |
| Wednesday | сряда | sryada |
| Thursday | четвъртък | chetvartak |
| Friday | петък | petak |
| Saturday | събота | sabota |
| Sunday | неделя | nedelya |
When you want to say that you’re doing something “on” a specific day, you use the preposition в (v) or във (vav).
You use във if the following word starts with a “v” or “f” sound, and в for everything else.
Работя в понеделник.
Ще пътуваме във вторник.
Months of the year in Bulgarian
The months of the year in Bulgarian sound very similar to their English equivalents.
Because they share the same Latin and Greek roots, you’ll likely recognize them immediately.
Just like the days of the week, Bulgarian months aren’t capitalized.
Here are the twelve months in Bulgarian:
| English | Bulgarian | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|
| January | януари | yanuari |
| February | февруари | fevruari |
| March | март | mart |
| April | април | april |
| May | май | may |
| June | юни | yuni |
| July | юли | yuli |
| August | август | avgust |
| September | септември | septemvri |
| October | октомври | oktomvri |
| November | ноември | noemvri |
| December | декември | dekemvri |
To say that something happens “in” a specific month, you can use the prepositions през (prez) or в (v).
Both are grammatically correct and widely used by native speakers.
Моят рожден ден е през май.
Много е студено в януари.
Telling time in Bulgarian
Bulgarians actively use both the 12-hour and 24-hour clock systems.
In casual, everyday conversations, people usually default to the 12-hour clock.
For official schedules like bus routes, flights, and television programs, the 24-hour clock is strictly used.
Before you start telling time, you need to know a few basic vocabulary words.
| English | Bulgarian | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|
| Hour / O’clock | час / часа | chas / chasa |
| Minute (s) | минута / минути | minuta / minuti |
| Half | половина | polovina |
| Quarter | четвърт | chetvart |
When you want to ask someone for the time, you use a very specific phrase.
Колко е часът?
To answer, you state the hour followed by the minutes.
If it’s exactly on the hour, you simply state the number followed by часа (chasa).
Точно пет часа е.
To express time past the hour, Bulgarians use the word и (i), which translates to “and”.
Часът е два и половина.
Часът е три и четвърт.
Часът е четири и десет.
When expressing minutes leading up to the next hour, you use the word без (bez), meaning “without”.
This is the equivalent of saying “to” or “till” in English.
Часът е десет без четвърт.
Часът е осем без двадесет.
Once you learn your basic Bulgarian numbers, reading the clock and making plans becomes incredibly simple.
