Adjective endings by gender and number - -ы/-і, -ая, -ае, -ыя - and the comparative. The endings differ from Russian in almost every slot, which is what makes written Belarusian recognisable at a glance.
I can describe people, places and things with adjectives that agree in gender and number, and compare two things.
Podívejte se na tyto příklady. Dokážete rozpoznat gramatický vzorec?
Гэта стары беларускі горад.
This is an old Belarusian town.
Мая родная мова - беларуская.
My native language is Belarusian.
Возера Нарач вельмі глыбокае і чыстае.
Lake Narach is very deep and clean.
У Гродне вузкія вуліцы і старыя дамы.
Hrodna has narrow streets and old houses.
Zaměřte se na zvýrazněné části. Co mají společného?
The academic grammar defines the adjective as a part of speech denoting a feature that is not a process, and expressing its meaning through the categories of gender, number and case. In practice that means an adjective never stands on its own terms: it copies the noun it belongs to.
| Gender / number | Ending | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | -ы / -і | новы дом, сіні ровар |
| Feminine | -ая / -яя | новая кніга, сіняя сукенка |
| Neuter | -ае / -яе | новае акно, сіняе возера |
| Plural | -ыя / -ія | новыя дамы, сінія азёры |
Belarusian keeps only a few short-form adjectives, mostly in set expressions and folk songs (рад, варт, повен, павінен: варт увагі, повен сіл). At A1 you can safely use the full form everywhere.
English adjectives never change: a new house, new houses, a new window. In Belarusian a single adjective has four endings before you reach the cases. The practical habit to build is to learn nouns with an adjective attached, so the agreement is stored as one chunk rather than computed each time.
Použijte tuto gramatiku ve cvičeních kurzu A1
Procvičovací cvičeníTypical errors: leaving the adjective in one form for every noun, as English does; and building the comparative with a genitive instead of за plus the accusative.
Гэта стары беларускі горад.
This is an old Belarusian town.
Masculine, so both adjectives take <em>-ы</em> and <em>-і</em>. Note <strong>беларускі</strong>, never <em>белорусский</em>.
Мая родная мова - беларуская.
My native language is Belarusian.
<em>Мова</em> is feminine, so the adjectives end in <em>-ая</em>. Belarusian says <em>родная мова</em> where English needs two words.
Возера Нарач вельмі глыбокае і чыстае.
Lake Narach is very deep and clean.
Neuter <em>возера</em> pulls both adjectives into <em>-ае</em> - one of the clearest visual markers of Belarusian text.
У Гродне вузкія вуліцы і старыя дамы.
Hrodna has narrow streets and old houses.
Plural <em>-ыя</em> on both. Hrodna's old town survived the war better than any other in the country.
Нёман даўжэйшы за Свіслач.
The Nioman is longer than the Svislach.
The comparative in <em>-эйшы</em>, and <em>than</em> rendered by <strong>за</strong> with the accusative.
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Použijte tuto gramatiku ve cvičeních kurzu A1