Language/Bulgarian/Grammar/NUMBER-OF-NOUNS-–-Число-на-съществителните

NUMBER OF NOUNS – Число на съществителните

Singular and plural forms

Nouns in Bulgarian have singular and plural forms.

Typical ending for plural masculine nouns

The typical ending for plural masculine nouns that have more than one syllable is -И. If the noun ends in a consonant we add -И to the word and if it ends in -Й we replace -Й with -И to form the plural.

Singular forms		Plural forms
един		много
(more than 1 syllable)		+и / -и
-consonant	сандвич	сандвичи
-й	музей	музеи

Exceptions

There are a few masculine nouns ending in -А/-Я in singular. They replace -А/-Я with -И to form plural: баща – бащи.

Typical plural ending for one-syllable masculine nouns

The typical plural ending for one-syllable masculine nouns is -ОВЕ. Exceptions: мъже, братя, крака, пътища, гости, зъби, филми, дядовци.

Singular forms	Plural forms
един	много
(1 syllable)	+ове
стол	столове

Masculine nouns for non-persons

Masculine nouns for non-persons have a special plural form called count plural. We use it after cardinal numbers, КОЛКО (how many) and НЯКОЛКО (some, a few). We form count plural by adding -А after the consonant or replacing -Й with -Я.

Singular forms		Count plural forms
един		два, три… сто … колко, няколко
-consonant	сандвич	+а	сандвича
-й	чай	-я	чая

Typical ending for feminine nouns

The typical ending for feminine nouns in plural is -И. -И replaces -A/-Я at the end of the noun.

Singular forms		Plural forms
една		две, три…. сто, много
-а	жена	-и	жени
-я	кухня		кухни

Typical plural endings for neuter nouns

The typical plural endings for neuter nouns are -А and -TA. If the ending in singular is -О we replace it with -А to form the plural. If the ending in singular is -E, we add -TA to form the plural. Exceptions: There are some exceptions of neuter nouns that form the plural with different endings: яйце – яйца, име – имена, дете – деца, училище – училища, око – очи, ухо – уши.

Singular forms		Plural forms
едно		две, три…. сто, много
-о	село	-а	села
-е	кафе	+та	кафета

Mixed group of males and females

When we have a mixed group of males and females the plural is formed out of the masculine noun. For homogeneous groups we use the masculine or feminine nouns respectively.

• сириец + сирийка = сирийци
• сириец + сириец = сирийци
• сирийка + сирийка = сирийки

1 singular form

There is a group of nouns that have only a singular form: захар, сол, чесън, лук, грозде.

1 plural form

There is a group of nouns that have only a plural form: очила, спагети.

ЧОВЕК

The word ЧОВЕК has irregular plural forms: един човек – двама души – много хора.

Sources

• https://caritas.bg/cms/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/A1-English.pdf?x10535