Estonian to Bulgarian: counting two days and two applicants involves different noun forms
The number survives even when the noun changes
EKI’s entry for kaks includes the time expressions kaks päeva and kaks tundi alongside a sentence about two children. The numeral supplies the quantity, but its presence does not tell a translator to copy an Estonian noun ending into Bulgarian. The target must preserve two while forming the particular counted noun correctly.
Bulgarian Academy guidance explains that masculine nouns denoting nonpersons have a special count form after numerals and certain quantity words. It contrasts this with the ordinary plural used for nouns denoting people. Thus the type of entity being counted matters in the target, even when the Estonian source uses the same numeral in both messages.
Two days has two accepted Bulgarian forms
The Academy explicitly accepts both два дена and два дни. The first uses the count form, the second the ordinary plural, with day described as an exception to the broader rule. An Estonian source about a two-day interval therefore does not require rejecting one of these Bulgarian possibilities merely because the other is more familiar.
For an original Estonian itinerary, this distinction is grammatical rather than numerical. Either accepted phrase still refers to two days. Do not change the duration to one day because a target ending seems singular, and do not interpret an ordinary plural ending as evidence that the source meant an unspecified number of days.
The source dictionary also distinguishes a clock use of kaks from its occurrence in time-span expressions. An original message saying that the clock is about to reach two and a message allowing two hours refer to different temporal facts. Correct Bulgarian noun formation cannot compensate for turning a clock reading into a duration.
Applicants may be people or organisations
A second Academy article explains why двама кандидати is appropriate when the candidates are people, while два кандидата can be legitimate for nonperson candidates such as companies or teams. The noun’s interpretation changes the target construction. This is more specific than a general instruction to pluralise every noun after two.
For an original Estonian competition notice, establish whether two individual applicants entered or whether two organisations submitted entries. Both may be called candidates in a compressed source heading. The Bulgarian choice should follow the actual entities, not a guess that every candidate must be a person.
The Academy also discusses nouns whose senses cross the same boundary, including a committee member versus an article in a legal document. A source notice counting members of a panel must not acquire the target form suitable for numbered legal provisions simply because one Bulgarian dictionary headword can cover both.
These distinctions make a useful three-stage comparison for this direction: preserve the Estonian quantity, identify what is counted, then form the Bulgarian phrase for that meaning. Day has its documented exception; human applicants have a different requirement; a clock use may not be a counted noun phrase at all. Similar-looking numbers therefore provide the starting point of the translation, while the surrounding relationship determines the grammatical choice.
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