When a participial phrase, a gerund phrase or an apposition is set off by commas, and the position rule that decides it.
I can punctuate participial phrases, gerund phrases and appositions correctly and use the commas to control meaning.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Кніга, напісаная сто гадоў таму, яшчэ чытаецца.
A book written a hundred years ago is still read.
Напісаная сто гадоў таму кніга яшчэ чытаецца.
A book written a hundred years ago is still read.
Выйшаўшы з дому, ён азірнуўся на вокны.
Having left the house, he looked back at the windows.
Янка Купала, беларускі паэт, нарадзіўся ў 1882 годзе.
Janka Kupala, the Belarusian poet, was born in 1882.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
For participial phrases, everything turns on where the phrase sits relative to the noun it describes:
One exception overrides position: if the phrase describes a pronoun, it is always detached. Стомлены за дзень, ён адразу заснуў.
Always detached, wherever they stand: Выйшаўшы з дому, ён азірнуўся. - Ён азірнуўся, выйшаўшы з дому. Both take the comma.
The exception is a gerund that has hardened into an adverb: Ён ішоў не спяшаючыся - here не спяшаючыся means slowly and takes no comma.
A noun renaming another noun is detached when it adds information rather than identifying:
An apposition after a proper name is always detached: Янка Купала, беларускі паэт, нарадзіўся ў 1882 годзе.
A phrase narrowing an earlier one is detached: Мы сустрэліся ўвечары, каля сямі, каля вакзала. Each addition narrows the one before it, and each takes commas.
These commas are not decoration. Студэнты, якія жывуць у інтэрнаце, атрымліваюць стыпендыю with commas says all the students live there. Without commas it says only the ones who live there get it. The punctuation carries the meaning.
Apply this grammar in B2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: setting off a participial phrase that stands before its noun, and leaving a gerund phrase without commas.
Setting off a participial phrase that precedes its noun
Only a following phrase is detached.
Leaving a gerund phrase without commas
It is always detached, wherever it stands.
Not detaching a phrase describing a pronoun
Position does not matter there: Стомлены за дзень, ён заснуў.
Adding or dropping commas that change the meaning
Detached means extra information, undetached means identifying.
Кніга, напісаная сто гадоў таму, яшчэ чытаецца.
A book written a hundred years ago is still read.
The phrase follows the noun, so it is detached.
Напісаная сто гадоў таму кніга яшчэ чытаецца.
A book written a hundred years ago is still read.
The same phrase before the noun - no commas.
Выйшаўшы з дому, ён азірнуўся на вокны.
Having left the house, he looked back at the windows.
A gerund phrase is always detached.
Янка Купала, беларускі паэт, нарадзіўся ў 1882 годзе.
Janka Kupala, the Belarusian poet, was born in 1882.
An apposition after a proper name is always detached.
Мы сустрэліся ўвечары, каля сямі, каля вакзала.
We met in the evening, around seven, by the station.
Each clarifying phrase narrows the one before it and takes commas.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in B2 course exercises
The syntax volume of the current academic reference grammar, cited as the standard reference for Belarusian sentence structure rather than for one quoted passage. It is what the description on this page is measured against; it is not a source for any single claim here.