The Bulgarian Alphabet: How I Read Cyrillic in Sofia

Cyrillic took shape in Bulgaria more than 1,100 years ago, and Sofia still writes nearly everything in it, from street signs to the specials board. The Bulgarian alphabet has 30 letters and spells words the way they sound, so one evening of practice gets you reading. I'd learn it like this: every letter with its sound, the six that fool English readers, the Sofia signs to practise on and 24 May, the alphabet's own holiday.

The Bulgarian alphabet at a glance

Bulgarian is written in Cyrillic (кирилица, kirilitsa), and its alphabet has 30 letters. Most of them keep one sound wherever they sit in a word, so once the letters stick you can sound out a menu even when you have no idea what the words mean. Stress is the one thing the spelling hides, because it can land on any syllable.

The 30 have been fixed since a spelling reform in 1945 dropped two old letters, yat (Ѣ) and the big yus (Ѫ). Since 1 January 2007, when Bulgaria joined the European Union, Cyrillic has been the EU's third official script after Latin and Greek.

All 30 letters of the Bulgarian alphabet and how to say them

Here are all 30 in alphabetical order, with the official Latin spelling, the nearest English sound and a word you'll meet in Sofia. Each row gives the capital and the small letter, because a few small letters change shape on signs.

Ъ is a short "uh", the vowel in "but", and it turns up in everyday words like път and in the country's own name, България. Ь never stands alone: it only appears before о, where it softens the consonant in front, so шофьор sounds like "sho-FYOR".

Й is a quick y that glides off a vowel. Чай rhymes with "eye", and the -ей at the end of музей (muzey, museum) sounds like the "ay" in "say".

The Cyrillic letters that trick English readers

A British reader meets three kinds of Bulgarian letter: the ones that look and sound like ours, the false friends that look like ours and say something else, and the new shapes.

The false friends are the six to drill first, because your brain reads them wrongly without asking. РЕСТОРАНТ looks like gibberish until you read Р as r, С as s and Н as n, and then it's restorant, a restaurant. ХОТЕЛ is hotel, with the Х said in the back of the throat.

Pictures helped me with the new shapes. Ж is a beetle buzzing "zh", Ш is a three-pronged fork for "sh" and Щ is the same fork with a tail for "sht". И is a backwards N that says "ee", and Я is a backwards R that says "ya". Ц is a "ts" with a little hook at the bottom right.

Your change makes a handy set of flashcards. Bulgaria joined the euro on 1 January 2026, and its coins carry the country's name, БЪЛГАРИЯ, on the back. The €1 and €2 coins add ЕВРО, and the cent coins say стотинки (stotinki), or стотинка on the 1 cent, the old name for the lev's small change. The new money in Bulgaria is the same euro you'd spend in Spain, so a coin from another country's mint is just as good in a Sofia shop.

Bulgarian letter shapes on street signs, menus and handwriting

Small letters are where Bulgarian gets sneaky. Most lowercase Cyrillic letters are smaller copies of the capitals, so вход on a door is the same word as ВХОД, and н, т and к look like little capitals. A few letters take a different shape in Bulgarian lettering, and some of Sofia's blue street signs show it: the word булевард (bulevard, boulevard) is printed with a д that looks like a Latin g.

Italics and handwriting go further. These are the shapes that catch people out on chalkboards, café menus and shop signs:

Reading Sofia's signs and place names

Sofia is a good classroom, because you often know what a sign says before you read it. These are the words I'd sound out letter by letter on a first walk round the centre.

НДК is how everyone in Sofia writes the National Palace of Culture, and it's said letter by letter, "en-de-KA", the Bulgarian names for Н, Д and К. Баница is the word I spot most: it's painted on bakery windows across the centre, and a slice of banitsa with a glass of ayran is my favourite cheap breakfast.

The Sofia metro is the easiest practice ground in town. Station names are on the walls in Cyrillic with the Latin spelling underneath, so you can check your reading against the answer. The trains show the end of the line on the front in Cyrillic only, and БИЗНЕС ПАРК, biznes park, is a good one to sound out while you wait on the platform.

Big buildings make good practice too. Out at Boyana, the National History Museum spells its name in capitals along the top of the facade: НАЦИОНАЛЕН ИСТОРИЧЕСКИ МУЗЕЙ, natsionalen istoricheski muzey. Say it "na-tsee-o-NA-len ees-to-REE-ches-kee moo-ZAY".

How Bulgarian is spelt in English letters

Bulgaria has one official way to write its words in Latin letters, set by the Transliteration Act of 2009, and it's the system on road signs and identity documents. It's why Ж comes out as zh, Ц as ts and Щ as sht, so Женски пазар becomes Zhenski Pazar, the Women's Market. These are the rules that explain most of the spellings you'll see:

Ъ is the rule that muddles searches. The official spelling writes it as a, which gives Veliko Tarnovo, but you say it closer to "TUR-no-vo", and older books and maps spell the same town Turnovo or Tirnovo. If a place won't come up in your maps app, try another spelling of the Ъ, or type the name in Cyrillic.

A Bulgarian keyboard, added in your phone's settings, lets you copy a street name straight off a sign, letter by letter, which beats guessing at the Latin.

Bulgarian vs Russian Cyrillic: what's different

Bulgarian and Russian share most of their letters, so a Russian speaker can sound out a Bulgarian sign. Russian has 33 letters to Bulgarian's 30, and a couple of shared letters sound different.

The quickest tell is a missing letter. If you spot Ы or Э on a menu or a label, it isn't Bulgarian. Bulgarians are proud that Cyrillic took shape here before it spread to Serbia and Russia, and that pride is a big part of Bulgarian culture: the alphabet has its own public holiday.

Where the Cyrillic alphabet comes from

Two brothers from Thessaloniki, Cyril and Methodius, devised the Glagolitic script in the 9th century to write a Slavonic language for church books. Their pupils carried the work to the First Bulgarian Empire, and at the Preslav Literary School, at the end of the 9th century, a new alphabet took shape. It borrowed heavily from Greek capitals and added letters for Slavonic sounds, and it was in official use from 893. It took Cyril's name in his honour.

Sofia University, across the road from the National Library, is named after St Kliment Ohridski, one of the brothers' pupils who taught in Bulgaria. The metro stop beside it shares the name, Софийски университет (Sofiyski universitet).

24 May in Bulgaria: the day of the alphabet

24 May is Bulgaria's public holiday for its alphabet, and it's one of my favourite days in the Sofia calendar. Its official name is the Day of the Saintly Brothers Cyril and Methodius, of the Bulgarian Alphabet, Education and Culture and of Slavic Literature, which Bulgarians shorten to 24 май (dvadeset i chetvarti may).

The tradition goes back to a celebration in Plovdiv on 11 May 1851 by the old calendar, started by the teacher and writer Nayden Gerov, and 24 May has been an official public holiday since 1990. Schools and universities make the most of it, with flowers for teachers, speeches and wreaths at statues of the two brothers.

When 24 May falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the day off moves to the next working day, and I check the government's list of Bulgarian public holidays before I book anything in May. In 2027 it falls on a Monday, which makes a long weekend for Bulgarians, so I'd book any train or bus out of Sofia for that weekend ahead. It's May's third fixed public holiday, after Labour Day on 1 May and St George's Day on 6 May, and in 2027 Orthodox Easter Sunday and Monday land on 2 and 3 May as well, which makes May a good month to see festivals and holidays in Bulgaria up close.

The Cyril and Methodius statue at the National Library

The bronze brothers stand in front of the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library on Vasil Levski Boulevard, and on 24 May this is where Sofia lays its wreaths. Look up from the statue and the library's name runs above the columns: НАРОДНА БИБЛИОТЕКА КИРИЛ И МЕТОДИЙ, narodna biblioteka Kiril i Metodiy, the "people's library". It's a decent reading test, with a Й at the end of Методий.

The library was founded on 4 April 1878, and its building was finished in 1953. It holds more than 1,700 Slavonic manuscripts from the 11th to the 19th centuries. The rest of the year I pair the statue with Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a few minutes' walk away.

Old Cyrillic at Boyana Church

For Cyrillic as it looked in the Middle Ages, I go to Boyana Church at the foot of Vitosha. Its frescoes were painted in 1259, and the portraits of Tsar Constantine Tikh Asen and Tsaritsa Irina carry their names and titles in medieval Bulgarian. Beside Irina's crown you can pick out ЦРЦА, short for царица (tsaritsa), and on the line below it the old word for Bulgarians, close enough to България to spot once you know your letters.

Entry is €10 and you get 10 minutes inside with no camera, so I read the inscriptions on a photo before I go in.

How long the Bulgarian alphabet takes to learn

One evening gets most people reading slowly, and a weekend of signs does the rest. I'd learn it in this order: the six false friends first, because they cause most mistakes, then the new shapes in pairs, Ш with Щ, Ц with Ч and Ю with Я. The six letters that look and sound like English take care of themselves.

Writing beats flashcards for me. Spell your own name in Cyrillic, then words you already know: бира (bira, beer), вино (vino, wine) and банка (banka, bank). Once the letters stick, a dozen Bulgarian phrases get you through a café: здравейте (zdraveyte) for hello, благодаря (blagodarya) for thank you and сметката, моля (smetkata, molya) for the bill.