Bulgarian (Bulgaria) style guide¶
Use this page with the house guide and localization review. Examples use standard Bulgarian in Cyrillic. Check actual product terms, labels and behavior before adopting them. Source acknowledgments are in credits.
Voice and context¶
Write clear Bulgarian for the reader’s task. Use familiar words where they preserve the technical meaning. A long, established Bulgarian term can be clearer than a short borrowing or forced slang. Keep necessary conditions when shortening a sentence.
Use plural imperatives in instructions: Отворете файла. A command label may use the singular: Отвори. Omit an unnecessary subject pronoun rather than repeating it in every step. In explicitly polite address, write Вие, Ви and Ваш with capitals; ordinary plural reference is different. Keep the chosen register consistent across the surface.
Prefer помагам to a needlessly formal phrase for helping, and следващ for the next item. A reference can say Вижте. These are contextual choices, not universal replacements for every occurrence of “help,” “next” or “refer.” Instructions can use За да смените паролата си, изпълнете следните стъпки.
Match terminology to the object and action. Оформление does not always mean дизайн. A notebook computer need not be small. Графична карта means a graphics card, not every kind of graphics. Възпроизвеждане can name media playback; executing a command and starting a device need their own verbs.
Translate an idiom’s purpose without inventing a benefit. “Anywhere” describes place, whereas винаги means always. A command to visualize something is not a promise of a clear picture. Copy about an easy learning curve must not promise that no learning is necessary unless the product supports that claim. Omit decorative imagery only when its meaning is dispensable.
Use active, passive or impersonal wording according to purpose. Present tense suits current states; past tense can identify a failed attempt. “We” should refer to an identifiable team or supported service action. A conjunction at the start of a sentence is an option, not a requirement for friendly Bulgarian.
Preserve actions and conditions¶
Check the action, object, actor, timing, condition and scope after rewriting. Natural wording can still change the task.
- Preserve case sensitivity without requiring mixed case: Паролата е неправилна. Опитайте отново. При паролите се различават малките и главните букви.
- Describe a failed key attempt without asserting permanent invalidity: Продуктовият ключ не можа да се използва. Проверете го и опитайте отново.
- If the verified Отказ button returns to editing, retain the later save: Изберете „Отказ“, завършете редактирането и запишете работата си. Cancel itself need not save anything.
- A continuation question can say Искате ли да продължите? Do not make it a statement that continuation has already happened.
Keep the restart actor. An installer needing to restart is not the same as the updates restarting or the whole computer necessarily restarting. Preserve a supported promise to resume from the previous point. A computer restart warning must retain other people using that computer, possible loss and unsaved work.
Movement to a library and folder remains movement to both, after invalid or missing properties have been corrected. И and или express different relationships. A failure to locate downloaded files needed for bootable media must retain both the missing files and their purpose, even when an alarming interjection is removed.
A picture password protects the specified computer. Retain the choice of picture and gestures. Watching and performing the gestures are separate actions: Гледайте повторението и повторете жестовете, показани на изображението. Keep any specified sequence or number. A distinctive password is not a guarantee of secrecy.
Keep permission to provide personalized content as permission. Identify the computer’s location and name, the account’s picture and the domain information separately. Do not move ownership from one object to another. A condition about disabling high contrast must stay attached to changing the background color, not to naming the computer.
A taskbar instruction must still explain rearrangement: За да пренаредите бутоните в лентата на задачите, щракнете върху тях и ги плъзнете. Keep a separate claim about quick access to frequently used websites or documents separate. Generic praise for Windows does not translate either action. Verify the relevant interface before reusing this example.
Retain uncertainty in instructions about where a product key should be found. Packaging, email delivery and activation behavior depend on the actual product and purchase route. An old distribution example does not establish current FontLab behavior.
Articles, agreement and reference¶
Bulgarian marks definiteness with endings: файл, файлът, файла; папка, папката. Do not add or remove an article mechanically for every English “a” or “the.”
For masculine singular nouns, distinguish the full article in subject position from the short article in object position. For a state, use Файлът е отворен. For an instruction, use Отворете файла. The distinction also applies when an adjective carries the article: Новият файл е отворен. Отворете новия файл. Determine the sentence role, not merely the word’s position before or after a verb. Predicative and other constructions need their own grammatical check.
Adjectives agree with their nouns: нов файл, нова папка, ново поле, нови файлове. A standalone “New” string needs context. A creation command can use an imperative, but an adjective describing an existing object must not become a command to create it. Likewise, unknown and absent information are different states; неизвестен is not automatically няма информация.
Use a descriptor when it makes the grammar clear and preserves a protected name: в програмата FontLab. Keep the name intact. Ordinary borrowed nouns can take Bulgarian endings; that does not authorize altering product names or exact interface labels. Confirm terms such as маршрутизатор in the product glossary instead of treating every alternative borrowing as a spelling error.
Preserve necessary prepositions: Поддръжка на клиенти expresses the relationship. Keep the direction and destination of an action. Shortening a sentence must not turn a condition into a cause or remove a required object.
Omit a possessive only when the owner remains clear. Документът does not always preserve “their document.” Retain документа си when reflexive ownership matters, and distinguish the reader’s file from another person’s file. Check pronoun reference after changing word order.
Do not infer a person’s gender from a username. A plural rewrite must not change exactly one person into several. For a real person, respect the person’s stated form of reference. Feminine occupational nouns are not categorically incorrect: репортерка is an established example. Choose a form appropriate to the person, meaning and register; formal titles need contextual review.
For an access requirement, use Разработчиците се нуждаят от достъп до сървърите в средите си за разработване, но не се нуждаят от достъп до сървърите в Azure. The final clause means that access is unnecessary. Replacing it with нямат достъп would claim that access is unavailable.
Numbers and complete messages¶
Check the noun as well as the number. Use един файл, една папка, едно поле; два файла, две папки, две полета. Masculine nouns for nonpersons can take a count form after numerals, distinct from the ordinary plural: два файла, but файлове. Do not extend that pattern to every noun or to people.
| Standalone count | Bulgarian example |
|---|---|
| One | 1 файл |
| Two or five | 2 файла; 5 файла |
| Zero | 0 файла |
| Eleven | 11 файла |
| Twenty-one | 21 файла |
CLDR cardinal selection for Bulgarian has one for numeric 1, including 1.0, and other for the remaining values. Twenty-one belongs to other. These categories select message variants; they do not supply noun forms, agreement or a universal grammatical rule for fractions. Use the formatter’s supported locale data and test the complete result.
For one saved file, use Записан е един файл. For two, use Записани са два файла. For a delay, distinguish След 1 месец from След 2 месеца. Avoid presenting a parenthesized suffix such as “month(s)” to the reader. Keep a separate zero message when the interface needs to explain that nothing was found.
Confirm what each placeholder contains. In a printf-style format, %c represents a character, not necessarily a letter, and %s a string, not necessarily a filename. If the value is known to be a filename, supply a clear noun: Не може да се отвори файлът %s. Preserve the exact placeholder syntax, escapes, markup and required order.
Do not assemble a sentence from translated fragments that assume one noun gender or number. Test empty, one, two, eleven, twenty-one and large values, decimal values where supported, long names and filenames with punctuation. Review the complete message rather than checking only its suffix.
Cyrillic, punctuation and notation¶
Use Bulgarian Cyrillic accurately, including ъ, щ, ь and й. Preserve ѝ (U+045D) where required, as in името ѝ; do not substitute Latin ì or Cyrillic й. Check the text after copying, searching and exporting, not just its appearance.
Bulgarian localized glyph forms can differ from Russian and Serbian forms. Use suitable fonts and language metadata when the text system supports them. OpenType locl selects glyph alternatives for the same characters; changing the underlying characters is not a way to obtain Bulgarian shapes. Test the actual font and renderer.
Use sentence case for headings and interface text, while retaining the established capitalization of proper names. An English internal capital does not automatically survive translation. Geographical names and adjectives derived from people’s names follow their own spelling rules; do not capitalize every directional adjective or apply one suffix rule to all names.
Check compounds individually. Use уебсайт, not a blanket rule that every foreign-derived compound must be spaced. Established forms include имейл, интернет and онлайн. Preserve acronyms in combinations such as DNS сървър and JPG файл. Keep protected names and literal code unchanged rather than transliterating every Latin-script token.
Use Bulgarian quotation marks „текст“: opening U+201E and closing U+201C. U+201F is a different character. In explanatory prose, preserve a label within the quotation marks: Изберете командата „Запиши“ от менюто „Файл“. Match the actual labels; do not add quotation marks to the labels themselves.
Do not import the English rule that a complete quoted sentence always keeps its final period inside the quotation marks. For an introduced statement ending the surrounding sentence, use Съобщението гласи: „Файлът е записан“. A question or exclamation can require a different combination; check the construction rather than moving every mark automatically.
Use a colon to introduce an enumeration: Компютърът има следните функции: A sentence containing следните does not lose its period merely because that word occurs in it. Keep list punctuation consistent with whether the items are sentences or fragments. Parentheses hold supplementary information; too many interrupt the task.
A hyphen and a dash have different functions. Use a hyphen where spelling requires it, not because a compound exceeds an invented syllable limit. Prefer a colon or a new sentence when an English dash separates an explanation. Avoid decorative exclamation marks; use question marks for actual questions. Semicolons are available when the syntax needs them, though shorter sentences often read better.
Use familiar abbreviations sparingly: вж., напр., и т.н., т.е. Do not shorten a label without approval merely to force it into a narrow control. Keep established technical abbreviations and explain unfamiliar ones when the reader needs the explanation. DNS expands to Domain Name System. An English expansion is not required beside every familiar acronym.
For localized decimal notation, use a comma and a nonbreaking grouping space: 1 234,5. CLDR’s Bulgarian percent pattern attaches the sign: 15,2%. Do not borrow the neighboring locale’s percent spacing. A technical specification may require its own notation; preserve the meaning and follow the stated format consistently.
Separate a number from a unit with a nonbreaking space. Distinguish angular degrees, 90°, from temperature notation, 20 °C. In Bulgarian prose, 45 км/ч is a localized example; preserve prescribed international symbols in specifications. Keep byte and bit units, decimal and binary prefixes, version identifiers and numeric values distinct. A version identifier such as 4.2 is not a decimal to rewrite as 4,2. Localize surrounding version and copyright wording according to the approved notice; preserve legal names, identifiers and required text.
Use и for an ordinary conjunction, but preserve an ampersand in a protected name, code, placeholder or required resource syntax. Do not replace literal operators merely because a spoken explanation would use words.
Commands, states and errors¶
Keep an action label, ongoing operation, completed result and failure distinct. English gerunds do not prescribe one Bulgarian form.
| Purpose | Bulgarian example |
|---|---|
| Save command | Запиши |
| Save in progress | Файлът се записва. |
| Saved result | Файлът е записан. |
| Failed save attempt | Файлът не можа да се запише. |
| Print in progress | Документът се печата. |
| Page loading | Страницата се зарежда. |
Verb aspect and tense depend on the operation and context. Preserve repetition, completion and timing. Do not flatten every English past failure into present inability, or treat every Bulgarian verb with a prefix as perfective. A result can be useful without inventing an actor: Продуктът е премахнат от компютъра.
State the problem and the supported next step. For a required empty field, use Попълнете това поле. For a memory shortage, keep memory distinct from disk space: Няма достатъчно памет за изпълнение на командата. An unavailable device is not necessarily a permissions failure. Do not recommend restarting unless it addresses the actual failure.
Preserve the named agent when it matters: Word не успя да отвори файла. Do not discard the cause “too many files are open” from a message that supplies it. Files from later versions means файлове от по-нови версии, not necessarily files from the latest version.
Keep questions as questions. For a confirmed inability to undo the next action, use Искате ли да продължите без възможност за отмяна? Distinguish the Отказ button from an Undo command. Keep uncertainty, negation and the scope of a warning even when removing an apology or an exclamation.
Interface, keyboard and access¶
Match the product’s actual Bulgarian labels. A descriptor such as командата or менюто can clarify a reference, but every mention does not need another noun. Keep the protected label intact and put grammatical changes on the surrounding wording.
Use Изберете when selection is the action and the input method is irrelevant. Specify clicking, dragging or a key when the method matters. Keyboard access, visible focus and accurate alternative text require testing; a one-verb sentence rule or a blanket ban on symbols does not establish accessibility.
Distinguish access keys, displayed key tips and command shortcuts. Resource markers such as & or a backtick have product-specific syntax. Preserve them only where that system requires them. Check unique assignments, visibility, keyboard layout and scope in the actual interface; do not approve or reject a character solely because it has a thin stroke or descender.
Use the platform’s key names and notation. When the distinction matters, specify клавиш Ins от цифровата клавиатура. Check arrow keys, Home, End and focus movement against the actual control. Do not turn one Windows control pattern or an old shortcut table into universal Bulgarian behavior.
Small capitals are not lowercase letters. Verify the typography command and its approved term rather than borrowing the source table’s lowercase label. Likewise, a shortcut for bold, deletion or navigation must be verified for the product, platform and version before publication.
Keep inclusive examples relevant and free of stereotypes. Prefer експерт to a culturally loaded “guru” metaphor when expertise is the meaning. Mention disability only when it matters, with respectful wording such as лице с увреждане. Review existing text when it carries a misleading or exclusionary claim; age alone is not a reason to retain it.
Narration and final review¶
Choose an appropriate Bulgarian voice and register. Give the video title the task’s recognizable name. Record a short trial to check pace, pronunciation and synchronization. Preserve meaningful visuals, captions and the exact action sequence. A fixed introduction length, constant motion or a ban on recaps is not a Bulgarian language rule.
Check actual pronunciation of names and technical terms. Do not impose one rule on every English initial h, r or th. A comparison of “proxy” with an unrelated French word is not useful pronunciation guidance. Spell an acronym aloud when necessary for recognition; do not assume every acronym is read as a word or every one uses English letter names.
Speak numbers and operators according to their role. Read a URL or filename so the listener can recover it; omit a protocol or prefix only when that remains accurate and usable. Spoken punctuation can be conveyed by phrasing in prose, while literal syntax may need explicit names.
Review complete strings in context, with substitutions, counts and exact labels. Test Cyrillic forms, quotations, text expansion, narrow controls, keyboard use and screen-reader output. Check terminology consistently across related surfaces without forcing unlike controls into identical wording. Have a proficient Bulgarian reviewer resolve uncertain language; translation memory and machine suggestions do not replace that review.