Imperativ

The imperative

The imperative is built from the present-tense stem, and it has two everyday forms: one for ты and one for вы.

The plural is simply the singular plus -це. That single suffix is also the polite form, so the same word covers "read, all of you" and "please read" addressed to one person you do not know well.

Let's

• The first-person plural of the verb on its own: Пойдзем! — Let's go. Пачнём. — Let's begin.
• Давай / давайце plus the infinitive or the first-person plural: Давайце паспрабуем. — Let's try.
• Хадзем! — Come on, let's go — a short, everyday invitation with no exact English equivalent.

Telling someone not to

Не plus the imperative, and the verb is normally imperfective: Не хвалюйцеся (do not worry), Не спяшайся (do not rush).

Softening it

A bare imperative is blunt in Belarusian as it is in English. The standard softeners are:

• калі ласка — please, literally "if it is a kindness";
• будзьце ласкавы — be so kind, for a larger request;
• a question instead of an order: Ці не маглі б вы...? — Could you possibly...?

If your first language is English

English has one imperative form for everyone and marks politeness only with please and intonation. Belarusian makes you choose between ты and вы before you have said anything else, and getting that choice wrong is more noticeable than a missing калі ласка.