Telling the time in Bulgarian / reading the clock

Lesson outline

1.Introducing the Bulgarian clock
2.How to ask for the time?
3.Learn how to say what is the time
3.1.More useful words regarding the time
4.The difference between telling the time in Bulgarian and telling the time in English
4.1.One more thing that could get you confused:
5.Read the dialogue
5.1.Bulgarian:
5.2.English:
6.Exercises
6.1.Write down the correct hour
6.2.Read the dialogue and fill in the missing hour

Introducing the Bulgarian clock

Dear lovers and learners of the Bulgarian language, I hope you have learn well the names of the numbers in Bulgarian. Right now we are starting to study the Bulgarian clock and how to say what is the time. In case you are not sure that you have learn the numbers, you can always check our lesson to clarify your doubts. You can also practice with the execises after the lesson.

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How to ask for the time?

There is only one way to ask for the time. In order to answer to this question, we use the verb "to be" in the Bulgarian language:

Bulgarian	Transcription	English
Колко е часа?	Kolko e chasа?	What time is it?
Часът е 12 на обяд.	Chasut e dvanadeset na obyad.	It is 12 at noon.

The sentence always starts in the same way. The only thing that you have to change is the time.

In order to say how many minutes have past from the current hour, we use "и": 12:15 - "Часът е 12 и 15".

In order to say how many minutes there are to the new hour we use "без": 12:45 - "Часът е 1 без 15".

Learn how to say what is the time

In the table you will see some examples of telling the time in Bulgarian.

	Bulgarian	Transcription
12:00	Часът е 12 .	Chasút e dvanadeset.
12:05	Часът е 12 и 05.	Chasút e dvanadeset i pet.
12:15	Часът е 12 и15.	Chasút e dvanadeset i petnadeset.
12:30	Часът е 12 и 30.	Chasút e dvanadeset i polovina.
12:35	Часът е 12 и 35.	Chasút e dvanadeset i trideset i pet.
12:45	Часът е 12 и 45.	Chasút e dvanadeset i chetirideset i pet.
1:00 (13:00)	Часът е 1.	Chasút e edin.

More useful words regarding the time

Bulgarian	Transcription	English
Секунда	sekúnda	second
Минута	minúta	minute
Час	chas	hour
Ден	den	day
Нощ	nosht	night
Сутринта	sútrinta	in the morning
Вечерта	vechertá	in the evening

The difference between telling the time in Bulgarian and telling the time in English

While in the English language there is only one way to tell the time, in Bulgarian there are two. In the English we use only the numbers from 1 to 12 and the designations AM or PM to point out if the hour is in the first part of the day or in the second. In Bulgarian this is also possible, but there is also one more way. You can say the time using the numbers from 1 to 24, and the hour itself indicates if it is in the morning or in the evening. Study the examples:

	Bulgarian	Trancription
9:15	Часът е девет и петнадесет.	Chasut e devet i petnadeset
12:00	Часът е дванадесет.	Chasut e dvanadeset.
01:30pm/13:00	Часът е един и половина на обяд./ Часът е тринадесет.	Chasut e edin i polovina na obyad./ Chasut e trinadeset
02:40pm /14:40	Часът е два и четиридесет на обяд/ Часът е четиринадесет.	Chasut e dva i chetirideset na obyad./Chasut e chetirinadeset.
10:00pm/ 22:45	Часът е десет вечерта./ Часът е двадесет и два.	Chasut e deset vecherta./Chasut e dvadeset i dva

One more thing that could get you confused:

9:00 AM (morning)	Девет сутринта.	Devet sutrinta.
14:00 PM (in the afternoon)	Два след обяд.	Dva sled obyad.
22:00 PM (in the evening)	Десет вечерта.	Deset vecherta.

Read the dialogue

Bulgarian:

- Мария: Днес се събудих в 8:00 сутринта. Отидох на работа в 9:00 и в 9:15 пих кафе. А ти какво прави днес?

- Иван: Аз се събудих в 9:30 и после имах урок по Немски от 11:00. Какво ще правиш довечера?

- Мария: В 5:00 след обяд отивам на танци. Ще вечерям с мама и татко в 7:00. От 11:00 вечерта отивам на дискотека. А ти?

- Иван: Аз ще играя футбол в 6:00 и после ще пия бира с приятели.

English:

- Maria: Today I woke up at 8am. I went to work at 9am and had a coffee at 9.15am. What did you do today?

- Ivan: I woke up at 9.30am and later I had a German language lesson at 11am . What are you doing tonight?

- Maria: At 5pm I go dancing. I will have dinner with my mom and dad at 7pm. At 11pm I go do the club. And you?

- Ivan: I have a soccer game at 6pm and later I will drink beer with friends.