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A transcriber listening through headphones and typing up a Bulgarian recording

Transcription · Bulgarian

Bulgarian transcription services

Native Bulgarian transcribers for legal proceedings, corporate meetings, broadcast, research interviews and market research — written in correct Bulgarian, including the one rule the recording does not settle for you: which definite article goes where.

Native Bulgarian transcribers
Verbatim or clean read
Timecodes & speaker IDs
Proofread by a second linguist
Confidential, under NDA
Native Bulgarian transcribers
Verbatim or clean read
Timecodes & speaker IDs
Proofread by a second linguist
Confidential, under NDA

About Bulgarian transcription

Find the right Bulgarian transcription for your project

Bulgarian is the official language of Bulgaria and an official language of the European Union, written in a 30-letter Cyrillic alphabet fixed by the 1945 reform. Unlike its Slavic neighbours it has no noun cases; instead the definite article is attached to the end of the word — and that is where transcription gets interesting.

Masculine nouns take one of two articles: the full form (-ът, -ят) when the word is the subject of the sentence, the short form (-а, -я) when it is an object or follows a preposition. Столът е тук but седя на стола. In speech the two are all but indistinguishable. On the page the rule is binding, and getting it wrong is the most recognisable error in written Bulgarian.

At GoLocalise, we work with professional Bulgarian transcribers who are native speakers, and we manage every step — file intake and brief, transcription, time-coding, formatting and final delivery — so the transcript you receive is accurate to the audio and ready for its intended use.

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A linguist proofreading a printed Bulgarian transcript against the original recording

Choose your format

Three ways to transcribe the same recording

The right one depends on what the transcript is for. If you are not sure, tell us the use case and we will recommend it.

Full verbatim

Every word

Captures every utterance, pause and non-standard pronunciation exactly as spoken, including false starts and overlap.

Best for

Legal proceedings, research interviews, compliance content

Clean read

Edited

Removes filler words, false starts and repeated phrases for readability, while keeping meaning and speaker intent intact.

Best for

Corporate video, interviews for publication, content to be translated

Summarised

Key points

Condenses the discussion into structured key points rather than a full record of the conversation.

Best for

Executive briefings, legal summaries, research documentation

What's included

What comes with every Bulgarian transcript

Bulgarian, English, or both

A source transcript, an English translation, or the two side by side. The translation is produced from the original audio, not from the transcript alone.

Timecodes

Stamped at the interval you need — per speaker turn, per paragraph or at fixed intervals, matched to your edit or subtitle workflow.

Speaker identification

Every turn attributed, by name where you supply them or by role where you don't — including through overlap.

Proofreading pass

A second native Bulgarian linguist reads the transcript against the audio before it reaches you.

Terminology kept

Legal, medical or technical vocabulary rendered to the convention your sector uses, not paraphrased.

Your format

Plain text, Word, PDF, SRT, VTT or a client-specific template — tell us the next step.

How it works

One project manager, from brief to delivery

A structured workflow, built so accuracy and confidentiality are verified at each stage rather than assumed at the end.

1

File intake and brief

We review your audio or video, confirm the transcript type (verbatim, clean read, time-coded), and note any terminology, speaker labels or formatting you need.

2

Transcriber assignment

We match your content to a native Bulgarian transcriber with the right background, whether legal, medical, corporate or media.

3

Transcription and QA

The transcriber works directly from your files. A second linguist reviews the transcript against the audio for accuracy, speaker identification and consistency.

4

Delivery

Formatted transcripts in your chosen format, whether plain text, SRT, VTT or a client-specific template, on budget and on time.

For multi-speaker research, hearings or archive projects, we assign a coordinated team and agree milestones up front.

Who we work with

Industries that rely on Bulgarian transcription

A written record is a compliance requirement in some sectors and an accessibility one in others. These are the Bulgarian briefs we see most.

Legal & compliance

Hearings, depositions and arbitration, transcribed verbatim and formatted to requirement.

Automotive & electronics

Technical briefings, supplier negotiations and training material.

Broadcast & media

Interviews, documentaries and archive footage, with subtitle-ready templates.

Market research

Focus groups and interviews, including sessions with heavy speaker overlap.

Business & shared services

Client calls, process documentation and training material.

Academic & research

Lectures, field interviews and research material.

Confidentiality

Who hears your Bulgarian audio

Bulgarian transcription often means board material from a head office in the head office, arbitration, pre-release production audio or research interviews recorded on the understanding they stay private. So who hears it matters as much as how accurately it is captured.

Your files are uploaded through an encrypted system, handled by a named Bulgarian transcriber under NDA, and never fed into public speech-to-text tools. We will sign your own confidentiality agreement, follow your retention rules, and delete everything on delivery if your policy requires it.

Encrypted upload

No loose files over email.

NDA as standard

Yours or ours, before we start.

No public AI tools

Your audio never trains anything.

Deletion on request

Files removed on delivery if you need it.

Bulgarian specifics

The most common mistake in written Bulgarian is one you cannot hear.

Bulgarian dropped its noun cases centuries ago and put a definite article on the end of the word instead — стол, a chair; столът, the chair. For masculine singular nouns the article comes in two shapes, and the official orthography assigns them by function: the full article (-ът, -ят) when the noun is the subject of the sentence or a predicate after verbs like съм and бъда; the short article (-а, -я) when it is an object or follows a preposition. Столът е до прозореца. Сложих книгата на стола. Same chair, two spellings.

The catch is that speech does not make the distinction. Bulgarians say both forms much the same way, and the rule itself was fixed by the 1945 reform as a written convention rather than a description of how anyone talks. So a transcriber cannot type what they hear; they have to parse the sentence — the working test is whether the noun could be replaced by той (full) or него (short) — and write the form the grammar calls for. In a two-hour meeting that is hundreds of decisions, and it is precisely the error that a Bulgarian reader notices in the first paragraph and holds against the whole document. Automated tools get it wrong constantly, because they are transcribing sound.

Two smaller things travel with it. The alphabet has had 30 letters since 1945, when ѣ and ѫ were removed, so archive recordings that come with older paperwork need their names and terms brought into current spelling. And because Bulgarian transcripts so often go on to be read outside Bulgaria — legal bundles, research datasets, EU reporting — we agree a transliteration convention for names at the brief rather than leaving each transcriber to improvise one.

Transcription rates

Professional Bulgarian transcription

Standard

Best for clean read transcripts of corporate video, interviews and internal communications.

  • Native Bulgarian transcriber
  • Verbatim or clean read
  • Speaker identification
  • Proofreading pass
Get a quote
Full production

A complete managed service for legal proceedings, multi-speaker research and longer-form content requiring verbatim, time-coded or translated deliverables.

  • Everything in Standard
  • Subject-specialist linguist
  • Timecodes and speaker IDs
  • Bulgarian and English in one pass
Get a quote

Priced by runtime, audio quality, number of speakers and turnaround, and backed by our Price Match Promise. Send us a sample for an exact, no-obligation quote.

Trusted by global brands

We have used GoLocalise on a regular basis for projects in a number of languages. The service we receive is great. The team is always friendly and professional. The voiceovers we receive are of a very high quality and the turnaround is extremely quick. We are very happy to recommend GoLocalise to other businesses.
Jo SamuelAnimator at Pixel Circus
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It was a pleasure to work with David and the team at GoLocalise. David gave me lots of help and advice, guiding me through my first subtitling project. He really knows his stuff! The experience was completely pain-free. I would not hesitate to recommend GoLocalise – outstanding work at a good price.
Kerry GilliesDirector at Synergy Language Services
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They're reliable, adaptive and obsessed with quality. And while you can never be 100% guaranteed of perfection, you can be sure GoLocalise will go the extra mile to get it right every time. We've worked with them now for over 5 years and we are truly thankful to have such a strong localisation partner for our business.
Lucas ColeSales and Marketing Director at Epipheo
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Most common questions

What is the full and short article, and why does it matter for a transcript?

Bulgarian attaches the definite article to the end of the noun, and masculine singular nouns have two forms of it: the full article (-ът, -ят) when the noun is the subject, the short article (-а, -я) when it is an object or follows a preposition. The two sound almost identical, so a transcriber has to work it out from the sentence rather than the recording. It is the most frequent error in written Bulgarian, and the first thing a native reader checks.

Can't an automated tool handle Bulgarian?

It can produce Bulgarian text, but it transcribes sound, and the article rule is not in the sound. Automated output typically applies one form everywhere or alternates at random. Add the usual weaknesses on names, numbers and overlapping speakers, and the correction pass is longer than transcribing natively from the start.

We have older recordings with paperwork in pre-1945 spelling. Is that a problem?

No, but say so. The alphabet has had 30 letters since the 1945 reform, which removed ѣ and ѫ. We transcribe in current orthography and, where old documents supply names and terms, bring them into modern spelling consistently — or preserve the historical forms if the project is archival and you need them as written.

The transcript will be read by colleagues who do not read Cyrillic. Can you help?

Yes. We deliver in Cyrillic as standard and can add a transliterated version, a translation, or both. For names in particular we agree one transliteration convention at the brief — there are several in use — so that the same person is spelled the same way on every page.

Do you transcribe Bulgarian call-centre and QA recordings?

Yes, and in volume. Bulgaria is a major outsourcing market, so batches of customer calls for quality assurance, compliance or training are a common brief. We can work to your template, tag call outcomes and deliver in Excel if that is what your process consumes.

Can a Russian or Macedonian transcriber cover Bulgarian?

A Russian speaker will recognise the alphabet and some vocabulary and not much else — the grammar is entirely different and the article rule does not exist in Russian. Macedonian is far closer, but has its own standard and its own spelling. For a document that has to read as correct Bulgarian, we assign native Bulgarian transcribers.

The recording is poor and several people talk over each other. Is that a problem?

It is normal work. Phone audio, site noise, focus groups and meetings where three people speak at once all get transcribed here; what changes is how long it takes and how much of it a second pass has to resolve. Where a passage is genuinely inaudible we mark it rather than guess, with a timecode so you can check it yourself.

Can you tell me in advance what you will be able to capture?

Yes. Send a sample first and we listen to it before quoting, then tell you straight what we expect to get and what we do not. That is a better conversation before you book than after the transcript arrives.

Can I get the transcript and an English translation?

Yes, as a source transcript, an English translation, or the two side by side. The same native transcriber produces the source text and a separate qualified translator works from the original audio rather than from the transcript alone, which is what keeps a mishearing from travelling into the translation.

Should I ask for verbatim or clean read?

Clean read suits corporate video, interviews for publication and anything heading for translation: filler words and false starts come out, the meaning stays. Verbatim is what legal proceedings, compliance material and research interviews need, because every utterance and pause is on the record. Your project manager confirms the choice against your end use before work starts.

Is my audio kept confidential?

Yes. Files are uploaded through an encrypted system, handled by a named transcriber under NDA, and never fed into public speech-to-text tools. We can sign your own confidentiality agreement, work to your retention rules and delete everything on delivery.

How much does transcription cost?

Every file is quoted on its own terms. Runtime, audio quality, how many people are speaking, the turnaround you need and whether you also want a translation all move the figure, so there is no flat per-minute rate that would be honest across all of them. Send us a sample and we will come back with an exact, itemised number, backed by our Price Match Promise.

How quickly can you deliver?

Most short files come back within 24 to 48 hours. Length, audio quality and whether you need time-coding or full verbatim all affect it, and a large multi-speaker project is scheduled rather than rushed. Your project manager confirms the timeline before work starts, not after.

How will the finished Bulgarian transcript be delivered?

In whatever the next step needs: plain text, Word, PDF, Excel, SRT, VTT or your own template, with timecodes and speaker labels set the way you want them. Tell us what happens to the transcript after we send it and we format it for that, rather than handing you a file you have to rework.

What do you need from us to quote Bulgarian transcription?

Less than people expect: the recording, or even a few minutes of it, its total running time, roughly how many people are speaking, and whether you want verbatim or clean read. Poor audio does not stop a quote, it only changes it, so send it as it is rather than trying to clean it up first. A named project manager comes back with an itemised quote, normally within four working hours.

How quickly will we hear back, and who will we be dealing with?

More than half of enquiries get a reply within thirty minutes during office hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm UK time), and the itemised quote normally follows within four working hours. After that you have one dedicated project manager who owns the job from brief to final file — not a ticket queue, and not a different name on every email. If it is easier, call +44 207 095 5730 and ask for them by name.

We are still pitching and the budget is not signed off. Can we still get a Bulgarian quote?

Yes, and it is one of the commonest reasons people get in touch. Tell us it is for a pitch and you get a figure you can put in front of your own client, itemised so it stands up to being picked apart, with no obligation and no follow-up sales calls if the pitch goes elsewhere. If it lands, the quote still holds and we already know the project.

What if we find a cheaper Bulgarian quote somewhere else?

Send it over. Our Price Match Promise covers like-for-like work, and because our quotes are itemised you can see exactly what is being compared — which is usually where the gap turns out to be, in a revision pass, a licence or a delivery format that the cheaper figure quietly left out. If it really is the same work for less, we match it.

Can we start with one file before committing the whole Bulgarian project?

Yes, and we would often suggest it. One episode, one module, one commercial tells you more about whether we are a fit than any showreel, and it prices the rest of the run properly instead of by estimate. Bigger projects are then planned in clear milestones, so you are signing off the transcripts as they arrive rather than all of them at the end.

Ready to transcribe your Bulgarian audio?

Send us the files and tell us where the transcript will end up — we'll come back with an exact, itemised quote.

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