Skills on AI

Locale Bg 001

Download raw SKILL.md

Use when working with the Bulgarian locale (`bg-001`) — its endonym Български, Cyrillic script, left-to-right (LTR) direction, or spoken-population data. Reference data and translation guidance (register, grammar, idiom, typography) for this specific locale; see [[locale]] for general i18n/l10n concepts (BCP 47, plural rules, RTL) that apply across all locales.

Reference data for the Bulgarian locale — endonym Български, written in the Cyrillic script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

  • BCP 47 tag: bg-001
  • ISO 639-1: bg
  • ISO 639-3: bul
  • Script: Cyrl (Cyrillic)
  • Region: 001 (World)
  • Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

  • L1 (native): 6,800,000
  • L2 (additional): 1,200,000
  • L1+L2 (total): 7,900,000

Regional variants

This is the base/macro locale for Bulgarian. Region-specific variants in this dataset:

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: one, other (2 forms).

  • one — n = 1 (e.g. 1)
  • other — everything else (e.g. 0, 2~16, 100, 1000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Bulgarian is a South Slavic language written in Cyrillic. Unlike most Slavic languages, it has lost noun cases and has a definite article suffix. The Institute for the Bulgarian Language (Институт за български език) maintains the standard. See Locale Bg Bg.

Translate ideas, not words.

  • Bulgarian is analytic: prepositions replace cases, and word order is fairly flexible. Reorder English sentences naturally.
  • Avoid calques of English noun stacks; use prepositional phrases: "настройки на потребителския акаунт".
  • Re-express idioms by meaning.

Grammar that trips translators.

  • The definite article is a suffix, and it varies by gender and number: "файлът" or "файла", "страницата", "писмото", "файловете". The full masculine form (-ът/-ят) is used for the subject.
  • Three genders and plural endings; the counted form after numerals (5 файла, count form) differs from the plural (файлове). See Unicode Messageformat.
  • Verbs have rich tense and mood forms, including the evidential (преизказно) mood for reported information.
  • Clitic pronouns go before the verb (Показвам ти).

Register.

  • "Ти" is informal; "Вие" (capitalized in letters to one person) is polite. UI and public text commonly use "Вие" or an impersonal style; modern consumer apps increasingly use "ти". Do not mix.
  • UI commands use the imperative (Запазете) or the infinitive.

Orthography and typography.

  • Quotation marks „…“; dates 17 октомври 2026 г.; decimal comma; space for thousands; 24-hour clock.
  • Currency: Bulgaria has adopted the euro (from 1 January 2026), so older material may show the lev (лв.); confirm the currency for the product.
  • The short form of numbers and abbreviations follows the official orthography.

Common pitfalls

  • Dropping or mis-forming the definite article suffix.
  • Using the plural instead of the counted form after numerals.
  • Mixing Вие and ти.
  • Copying Russian forms.
  • Using the wrong currency for the date.

Learn more

  • Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
  • Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
  • Институт за български език, Правописен речник на българския език
  • Microsoft Localization Style Guide, Bulgarian (https://aka.ms/bulgarian-styleguide)

View locale-bg-001/SKILL.md on GitHub