HELPFUL BULGARIAN PHRASES

cyrillic alphabet

Bulgarian is a southeastern Slavic language and has a Cyrillic alphabet.

Bulgarians are very friendly people and often try to speak to you in English, but learn some of these straightforward phrases, and they will appreciate it.

• Dobar den! (Добър ден!/Doh-bur dehn!)

• Meaning: Hello ( Good Afternoon )

• Blagodarya! (Благодаря!/Blah-goh-da-rya!)

• Meaning: 'Thank you.'

Translated means Giving you a pleasant Gift; Blag (pleasant) and Dar (gift

We found this a bit of tongue twister, so a lot of the locals use the French word 'Merci', which occurs from world war 1 when the French defeated Bulgaria and forbode the Serbs and Greeks to occupy any of the country, so as a sign of gratitude they treated the French with honour and thanked them "Merci."

• Dovijdane! (Довиждане!/Doh-veezh-dah-nay!)

• Meaning: Goodbye

This again is another tongue twister. Many use the Italian word 'Ciao'; we never got a reason to why they use this except that it is easier; if anyone knows, please contact us, and we will add on here. 😊✌

• Nazdrave! (Наздраве!/Naz-drah-veh!)

• Meaning: Cheers

You can use this phrase when drinking or sneezing; it means, Bless you or to your health, not sure what you say if you sneeze while drinking !!! 😂

• Molya (Моля/Moh-lya)

• Meaning: “Please” or “welcome”.

• Edna golyama bira/rakia, molya! (Една голяма бира/ракия, моля!/Eh-dna goh-lya-ma rah-kiya beera moh-lya) • Meaning: One large beer/rakia, please

This is an essential phrase again to learn, which for us seemed to roll off the tongue; strange how we learnt this one so fast!

• Mnogo si krasiva! (Много си красива!Mnoh-goh see kra-see-vah!)

• Meaning: You are very beautiful

This is only used if you are speaking to a woman; obviously, I only ever used this phrase speaking to Donna😉, but in Bulgaria, there are many красива women.

• Yako (Яко/Yah-koh)

• Meaning: “Cool”. Your Bulgarian friend has just got a new job? Yako!

• Kolko struva? (Колко струва?/Kol-koh stroo-vah?)

• Meaning: “How much is it?”

These are just a few phrases to get you started, but this website OMNIGLOT is excellent as you can hear how the words are pronounced.

As we always say, don't be shy and enjoy and relax when trying to speak the native tongue. The number of times we have laughed with the locals because we have said things wrong or out of context, it is part of the experience.