Belarusian writes what it says. Unstressed о and э become а, and е becomes я in the syllable before the stress - which is why the same root looks different in different forms.
I can spell unstressed vowels correctly, counting syllables from the stress to decide between е and я.
Schau dir diese Beispiele an. Kannst du das grammatische Muster erkennen?
Вада ў возеры была цёплая.
The water in the lake was warm.
Лясная сцяжынка вяла да ракі.
A forest path led to the river.
Лесавік у казках жыве ў пушчы.
The forest spirit in the tales lives in the wilderness.
Ён сардэчна падзякаваў гаспадыні.
He thanked the hostess warmly.
Achte auf die hervorgehobenen Teile. Was haben sie gemeinsam?
Russian spelling is morphological: вода and воды keep the same о, and you work out the pronunciation from the stress. Belarusian spelling is phonetic: it writes the vowel that is actually said. This single difference is behind most of the spelling errors a Russian speaker makes.
Unstressed о and э are written а:
| Stressed | Unstressed |
|---|---|
| воды | вада |
| дом | дамы |
| сэрца | сардэчны |
Unstressed е is written я, but only in the syllable immediately before the stress. Further away it stays е:
This is the rule people get wrong most often, and the fix is mechanical: count syllables back from the stress. One syllable, я. More, е.
Because the writing follows the sound, one root can look like three: сэрца - сардэчны - сярдзіты. Recognising that they are one family is a reading skill, not just a spelling one.
Wende diese Grammatik in den Übungen des Kurses B2 an
ÜbungsaufgabenTypical errors: writing я in every unstressed syllable rather than only the one before the stress, and carrying Russian о spellings over unchanged.
Keeping the Russian о in unstressed position
It is written а: вада, дамы, галава.
Writing я more than one syllable before the stress
Only the syllable before the stress: лясны but лесавік.
Leaving е in the syllable before the stress
It becomes я: сямнаццаць, вясна.
Writing а in a borrowing that keeps о
Радыё, трыо, Токіо keep their о.
Вада ў возеры была цёплая.
The water in the lake was warm.
Unstressed о is written а: <em>вада</em>, from stressed <em>воды</em>.
Лясная сцяжынка вяла да ракі.
A forest path led to the river.
One syllable before the stress, so <em>лясная</em> with я.
Лесавік у казках жыве ў пушчы.
The forest spirit in the tales lives in the wilderness.
Two syllables from the stress, so е stays - the same root as <em>лясная</em>.
Ён сардэчна падзякаваў гаспадыні.
He thanked the hostess warmly.
<em>Сэрца</em> gives <em>сардэчна</em> - the same root, two spellings.
Па радыё перадавалі прагноз надвор'я.
The forecast was being broadcast on the radio.
A borrowing that keeps its о: <em>радыё</em>.
Im Kurs üben
Wende diese Grammatik in den Übungen des Kurses B2 an