''See also'': Belarusian Alphabet , Belarusian Phonology .
The main means of representation of the grammatical meanings in the Belarusian language are:
Methods of Analytical Constructing are also present. E.g., word "лесам", which is Instrumental of "лес" — forest, may grammatically mean:
- circumstance, if used with verbs of motion — "ехаць лесам";
- specification, if together with other verbs — "валодаць лесам".
There are six cases in Belarusian:
- Nominative (, nazowny)
- Genitive (, rodny)
- Dative (, daval'ny)
- Accusative (, vinaval'ny)
- Instrumental (, tvorny)
- Locative (, myesny)
Historically, there also existed a vocative case (, klichny), but in modern Belarusian it's used rarely, generally in literature, and usually is not mentioned in textbooks.
For nouns (, nazowniki) there are several types of declension:
- i-stem – feminine (feminine nouns ending in a hard consonant, soft consonant or ў: печ "stove", косць "bone", кроў "blood")
- a-stem – mostly feminine (subdivided into four subgroups: hard stems, guttural stems, soft stems, hardened stems)
- o-stem – masculine (subdivided into hard stem and soft stem) and neuter (вясло "oar", мора "sea")
- consonantal stem – mostly neuter (ягня "lamb", бярэмя "burden", семя "seed")
- irregular nouns (for example, вока "eye" and вуха "ear")
There are eight types of pronouns (, zaymyenniki) in Belarusian:
- Possessive (прыналежныя): мой (my, mine); твой (your(s)familiar); яго, ягоны (his); яе, ейны (her); наш (our(s)); ваш (your(s)); іх, іхны (their(s)), свой ((one's) own).
- Personal (асабовыя): я (I), ты (you (singular, familiar)), ён (he), яна (she), яно (it), мы (we), вы (you), яны (they);
- Negative (адмоўныя): ніхто (nobody), нішто (nothing), нічый (nobody's), ніякі (not of any kind), ніводзін, ніводны (no one);
- Definitive (азначальныя): сам (-self); самы (the very, - self); увесь (all, whole); усё (all, everything); усе (all, every, everybody); усякі, усялякі (every, any); кожны (each); іншы (other).
- Indefinite (няпэўныя): нехта, хтосьці (someone, somebody); нешта, штосьці (something); нечы, чыйсьці (someone's, somebody's, a); некаторы (some of); некалькі (a few, some, several); нейкі, якісьці (some, a kind of, something like); хто-небудзь, хто-колечы (anybody); што-небудзь, што-колечы (anything); чый-небудзь (anybody's); абы-што (smth.dickey); абы-чый (a, somebody's (negative)); абы-які (dickey).
- Interrogative-comparative (пытальныя): хто (who), што (what), які (which), каторы (which), чый (whose), колькі (how much);
- Demonstrative (указальныя): той (that); гэты (this); гэны (those); такі (such); гэтакі (such, of this kind); столькі, гэтулькі (that much);
- Reflexive (зваротны): сябе (-self).
Note: proper names and places’ names are rendered in BGN/PCGN
- Беларуская граматыка. У 2-х ч. / АН БССР, Ін-т мовазнаўства імя Я. Коласа; М. В. Бірыла, П. П. Шуба . – Мн. : Навука і тэхніка, 1985.
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