Bulgarian Phrases for Travellers: The Words I Use Every Day in Sofia

Bulgarian looks scary on a menu and sounds a lot friendlier out loud, and a dozen words will get you a long way in Sofia. These are the Bulgarian phrases I'd teach a friend on the way in from the airport: hello, thank you, the bill, the numbers on a price tag and how to read a nod that means no. Each one comes with the Cyrillic and how to say it.

The 12 Bulgarian words I'd learn before you land

These 12 get me through most days in Sofia. Bulgarian is written in Cyrillic, so each word comes in the Bulgarian script, then in the standard Latin spelling you'll see on signs, then in English sounds with the stressed syllable in capitals.

Моля does three jobs: please, you're welcome and "sorry, what?" when you didn't catch something. Мерси came over from French and is the thanks I hear most at Sofia's tills, while благодаря is warmer and a touch more formal, so it's the one I use with older people.

Hello in Bulgarian and the other greetings

Hello in Bulgarian is здравейте (zdraveyte), and it's the safe choice with anyone you don't know, from the woman at the bakery window to the taxi driver. Between friends it shrinks to здравей (zdravey) for one person, and to здрасти (zdrasti) when it's casual. Bulgarians also greet by the clock:

Добър ден is my default in shops and cafés from mid-morning onwards, because it sounds polite whatever your Bulgarian is like after it. I say it as I walk in and довиждане on the way out, which is how Bulgarians do it in small shops.

Polite or casual "you": вие and ти

Bulgarian has two words for "you", like French. Вие (vie) is polite and plural, and ти (ti) is for friends, family, children and anyone who uses it with you first. A visitor can stick to the вие forms all weekend and never be wrong. These are the pairs that change:

Благодаря, моля, да and не stay the same whoever you're talking to.

Yes and no in Bulgarian, and the head nod

Yes is да (da) and no is не (ne), which is the easy part. The body language runs the other way: Bulgarians nod for no and shake their head for yes. The yes is a looser side-to-side wobble than a firm British no, but from across a counter it looks much the same, and it's the mix-up I see most with visitors.

To make it harder, some Bulgarians switch to the Western nod when they talk to foreigners, so you can't be sure which system you're getting. My fix is to say the word with the gesture, and to ask for the word back when it matters: да или не? (da ili ne?) means "yes or no?". The head nod is the one part of Bulgarian etiquette that can flip the meaning of a conversation, so it's the one I'd practise in the mirror before you fly.

Bulgarian phrases for cafés, restaurants and bars

Restaurants in the centre often have an English menu, but the dish names stay Bulgarian, so една шопска салата, моля (edna shopska salata, molya) lands better than "the tomato salad with cheese". Shopska is the Bulgarian food I'd order first: tomato, cucumber and peppers under a snowdrift of grated sirene cheese, eaten with the first drink of the evening.

Наздраве means "to health", and it comes with eye contact and a clink with everyone at the table. If the first round is rakia, sip it with the salad: one small glass is meant to last until the main course arrives, and Bulgarians take one sip per mouthful. Задръжте рестото is the phrase I use most for tipping in Bulgaria, because I can hand over a note, say it and leave the waiter the change.

Menu words to recognise

Even with an English menu, the specials board and the bakery counter are in Cyrillic. These are the words I'd learn to spot.

Баница is the one I see on more signs than any other word in Sofia. At a bakery window, една баница, моля (edna banitsa, molya) gets you a piece, and айрян (ayran), a salted yoghurt drink, is the breakfast pairing.

Bulgarian phrases for shops and markets

Market stalls are where English runs out quickest and where a few words get the warmest welcome. My favourite place to practise is Zhenski Pazar, the Women's Market (Женски пазар) along Stefan Stambolov Boulevard, where stallholders sell fruit, vegetables, cheese and spices by the kilo.

Learn the word няма (nyama) as well. It means "there isn't any", and it's the answer you'll get when the bakery has sold out of banitsa or the stallholder has no change for a €20 note. A shrug with it means there's no point asking twice, so try the next stall.

Numbers in Bulgarian for prices in euros

Bulgaria switched to the euro on 1 January 2026, so every price you'll hear is in евро (evro). The word stays the same whatever the number: едно евро (edno evro) is €1 and пет евро (pet evro) is €5. These are the numbers I'd learn, because they cover most bills in Sofia.

Bigger numbers follow a pattern you can hear: двайсет и пет (dvayset i pet) is 25, literally "twenty and five". The teens all end in -найсет (nayset), so единайсет (edinayset) is 11 and дванайсет (dvanayset) is 12, and the longer forms you'll see written down, единадесет and дванадесет, are the same numbers.

One and two change with the noun. Един (edin) goes with masculine words like билет (bilet, ticket), една (edna) with feminine words like бира (bira, beer), and едно with neuter words like кафе and евро. Two works the same way: два билета (dva bileta) for two tickets, but две бири (dve biri) for two beers.

Cards work in most of central Sofia, so the numbers matter most at market stalls and kiosks, where I still pay cash. Since the switch, money in Bulgaria is the same euro notes and coins you'd spend in Spain or France, so leftover euros from another trip work here too.

Getting around Sofia: metro, taxi and directions phrases

The Sofia metro is the easiest place to start reading Cyrillic. Station names on the platform walls are written in Cyrillic with the Latin spelling underneath, so you can match МУСАГЕНИЦА to Musagenitsa letter by letter while you wait.

In a taxi I say the destination with до (do) in front and моля on the end: до НДК, моля, or до Александър Невски, моля. Everyone in Sofia calls the National Palace of Culture НДК (en-deh-KA), and drivers know it by those three letters. Before I get in, I read the price sticker on the side window, because taxis in Sofia show their rates there, and a car without one stays at the kerb.

Bulgarian signs to recognise in Sofia

These 13 signs save you pushing doors that say pull and hunting for the toilet.

Bakery kiosks are good reading practice because the pictures help. You'll see козунак (kozunak, a sweet plaited loaf), гевреци (gevretsi, sesame bread rings), милинки (milinki, soft little rolls) and кифли (kifli, crescent rolls), and those four words alone use 15 of the 30 letters.

Emergency and pharmacy phrases in Bulgarian

These are the ones I keep saved on my phone. 112 is the emergency number in Bulgaria for police, ambulance and fire, the same as across the EU.

The allergy line has two forms: a man says алергичен, a woman says алергична. Follow it with the thing itself: ядки (yadki) for nuts, мляко (mlyako) for milk or глутен (gluten) for gluten. If it's serious, write it on a card in Cyrillic and hand it over when you order.

How to pronounce Bulgarian: the letters that catch Brits out

Bulgarian is spelt the way it sounds, so once you know the 30 letters of the Bulgarian alphabet you can read any word aloud. The trouble is the handful that look like English letters and make a different sound.

Ъ is the letter that muddles spellings. The official Latin spelling writes it as a, so Търново becomes Tarnovo and добър becomes dobar, but you say it closer to "DO-bur". The country's own name is the one exception: България is officially written Bulgaria, and said bul-GA-ree-ya.

Stress is the other trap. It can fall on any syllable and there's no rule to learn, which is why my tables mark it in capitals. On handwritten menus and some shop signs, italic letters change shape too: т looks like an English m, д like a g and и like a u, so a chalkboard offering "mopma" is selling торта (torta), cake.

Bulgarian words you'll hear all day in Sofia

Spoken Bulgarian is full of small words that set the mood of a sentence, and they were the first ones I picked up from listening in cafés. Two of them, ей сега and кака, say a lot about Bulgarian culture: time runs loosely, and family words get used for friends.