Skills on AI

Locale Mk 001

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Use when working with the Macedonian locale (`mk-001`) — its endonym Македонски, 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 Macedonian locale — endonym Македонски, written in the Cyrillic script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

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

Speakers (approximate)

  • L1 (native): 1,700,000
  • L2 (additional): 1,800,000
  • L1+L2 (total): 3,500,000

Regional variants

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

Pluralization

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

  • one — v = 0 and i % 10 = 1 and i % 100 != 11 or f % 10 = 1 and f % 100 != 11 (e.g. 1, 21, 31, 41, …)
  • other — everything else (e.g. 0, 2~16, 100, 1000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Macedonian is a South Slavic language written in a Cyrillic alphabet with its own letters ѓ, ќ, ѕ, џ, љ, њ. Like Bulgarian, it has lost noun cases and has a definite article suffix. See Locale Mk Mk.

Translate ideas, not words.

  • Do not translate through Serbian or Bulgarian; vocabulary, spelling, and grammar differ.
  • Macedonian is analytic: prepositions replace cases, and word order is flexible.
  • Re-express idioms by meaning.

Grammar.

  • The definite article has three forms by distance: -от (neutral), -ов (near), -он (far): книгата, книгава, книгана.
  • Verbs have rich tense and mood forms, including the evidential.
  • Clitic pronouns go before the verb.

Register.

  • "Ти" is informal; "Вие" is polite. UI and public text use "Вие" or an impersonal style.

Orthography and typography.

  • Use the Macedonian letters ѓ, ќ, ѕ, џ, љ, њ and the accent marks on ѐ and ѝ where needed; never replace them with Serbian look-alikes.
  • Quotation marks „…“; dates 17 октомври 2026; decimal comma; space for thousands; currency denar (ден.).
  • Follow the Macedonian orthography (Правопис на македонскиот јазик) and the Krste Misirkov Institute of the Macedonian Language.

Common pitfalls

  • Using Serbian or Bulgarian forms.
  • Dropping the triple definite article.
  • Using the wrong Cyrillic letter forms.

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 македонски јазик „Крсте Мисирков“
  • Microsoft Localization Style Guide, Macedonian (https://aka.ms/macedonian-styleguide)

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