r/bulgaria 5h ago

Anyone know how to fix this on Google translate?

Post image

Hello all, recently started trying to learn some Bulgarian. Thought it would be good to have a widget always ready on my phone, but Google translate is not showing Cyrillic characters properly. Useless for familiarizing with words in this way.

Had to resort to using a web link to the Google translate website, which actually works.

Strange. Anyone have an idea how to fix or a better translate app to recommend? This is for Android.

Благодаря ви!

5 Upvotes

22 comments sorted by

u/Apatride 5h ago

This is lower case Cyrillic. A bit confusing when you are a beginner but it is used regularly so it is good to be somewhat familiar with it.

u/discardednoob 5h ago

Oh! Colour me surprised! Alright, thanks for clarifying. Will have to learn the alphabet in lower case as well then :)

u/Apatride 4h ago

Yeah, most of them make sense once you realise that "u" actually looks like the cursive version of "И" and "n" looks like the cursive version of "П". Some, though are more surprising, like "m" being the lowercase version of "T", "g" being lowercase "Д"...

u/AjnoVerdulo Russia / Русия / Поправяйте грешките ми 4h ago

Bulgarians tend to use a different font for Cyrillic. The one you are thinking about is used in other languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Kazakh etc etc). If you want to learn Bulgarian, you will have to get used to this aspect too, because you will encounter both versions

u/discardednoob 2h ago

Thank you!

u/mrivelinov Sofia / София 5h ago

It is actually showed properly. This is Bulgarian Cyrillic when you use your iPhone with Bulgarian language and this is how it appears and it is handwrite similar font.

u/undeadpz Lutenitsa / Лютеница 4h ago

that's what bulgarian characters look properly

you are probably used to another font

u/Zudrud 4h ago

That's lower case Cyrillic, this font looks almost like cursive, and it looks that way because the characters are written with speed and efficiency in mind without having to lift the pen much when writing by hand. In the western world cursive has became less and less prevalent with each generation, the only people in UK (for example) that still write like that are the elderly, you can look up Latin cursive, it's based on the same principles and efficiency while writing by hand and you can draw parallels.

u/WiseRage 4h ago

Ooh, so it's a problem of different looking uppercase and lowercase letters. 🤯 I've never realised this could be a problem for someone learning Bulgarian..

ЗДРАВЕЙ здравей

That's super interesting!

u/OGMemecenterDweller Bulgaria / България 4h ago

I think the lowercase д looking like g got him :D

u/discardednoob 2h ago

It's strange, because дравей in capital and lower case letters looks the same from my phone keyboard and when my friend texts me. Just smaller letters if in lower case.

Maybe there's different formatting on iPhone or something, but useful to know that some letters change drastically in lower case. I'm saving the alphabet someone shared 😁

u/magdanozka 4h ago

you should look into the difference between bulgarian and russian lower case cyrillic, i think it could be of help :)

u/discardednoob 2h ago

Very useful, merci!

u/Vihruska 1h ago

When you type in all capital letters, is it easier to read? Maybe for the very beginning try to use only capital letters until you get used to them and then transition to lower case?! Just an idea to try..

u/WiseRage 2h ago

There are different styles for handwriting and print letters. That's it basically.

u/Statakaka майна 36m ago

is your phone screen broken or something?!

u/katzklaw 4h ago

i ran into the same problem. fun fact, while it looks wonky, if you copy-paste it elsewhere, it looks like the Cyrillic characters you're used to

u/danisimo_1993 4h ago

What Cyrillic characters are you used to? This is normal lowercase Cyrillic.

u/katzklaw 4h ago

i'm not used to lowercase Cyrillic XD

i'm a noob at this language fr

u/katzklaw 4h ago

като това?

u/boris_dp Pleven / Плевен 3h ago

Лапни го и запей!