Do you want to try
your hand
at 'decoding'
Bulgarian?

Click here for
READING EXERCISES
You can see above how the word лък or
bow is 'decoded' and pronounced in
English.

It may seem complicated but it is in fact
simple. Unlike English, every Bulgarian
letter stands for a sound and does not
change in different words like it does in
English. For example, if in English you can
pronounce the letter combination 'ough'
in many ways, in Bulgarian this can't
happen. You write what you hear and
you read what you see.

You wonder how we could possibly ever
make spelling mistakes. Well, believe me,
it happens but that's an entirely different
story!
(Л = L) + (Ъ = U) + (K=K)  
лък [pronounced luck]  bow
SECTION 1: THE BULGARIAN ALPHABET

Reading Cyrillic will be at first a bit like decoding a secret message. Once you learn which letters stand for what
you will start realising that it is not as hard as it seems and that xoтeл is simply hotel. Your key for deciphering
is the alphabet. Use it and have fun. Once you learn the letters, you will have jumped over the first hurdle. To
print the alphabet, click here.

Before you begin, just a few words on Bulgarian vowels. They are pronounced clearly and openly - similarly to
Spanish. Generally speaking, the vowels aren't pronounced differently depending on the word. Rather they are
pronounced uniformly. A Bulgarian 'a' is mostly an open 'ah'; an 'e' is 'eh', etc. It makes things easier as you
know that these letters are pronounced the same way in every word. A useful comment was made by one of
our forum users that in certain cases, Bulgarian vowels can sound differently - an 'a' can sound like 'uh' or 'ah'
depending on the vowel's position in words. For beginners, though, it is useful to concentrate on reading vowel
sounds uniformly to start with. Later on you will probably notice that 'a' sounds more like 'uh' in some words,
etc. Consonants sometimes tend to change their sounds too when pronounced but let's leave that for later.

If you are a beginner, I'd concentrate on looking at Bulgarian vowels as being uniformly pronounced. This will
save you trouble at the start of your learning.  I believe that with practice of your Bulgarian and time, you will
learn to finetune your pronunciation and speak like the locals.

Have fun practicing the alphabet!
Forum
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PRACTICE THE
ALPHABET
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The Bulgarian Alphabet

А а - a as in cat
Б б - b as in bus
В в - v as in villa
Г г - g as in go
Д д - d as in do
Е е - e as in leg
Ж ж - zh sound as in pleasure
З з - z as in zoo
И и - i as in pig
Й й - various uses; ye as in yeah, etc
К к - k as in kitten
Л л - l as in lion
М м - m as in mouse
Н н - n as in new
О о - o as in dog
П п - p as in pub
Р р - r as in risk
С с - s as in sun
Т т - t as in town
У у - oo as in moon
Ф ф - f as in fun
Х х - h as in honey
Ц ц - ts/tz as in cats
Ч ч -  ch as in chuck
Ш ш - sh as in shoe
Щ щ - sht sound as in rushed
Ъ ъ - u as in pup
ь - sound softening letter
Ю ю - yu as in yuppie
Я я - ya as in yankie