The recipient, and the case four everyday verbs demand: падабацца, падыходзіць, балець and трэба all put the person in the dative.
I can use the dative for the recipient and handle the five constructions that put the person in it.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Дай сястры гэтую кнігу.
Give your sister this book.
Мне падабаецца гэтая песня.
I like this song.
Ён падарыў кнігу свайму брату.
He gave the book to his brother.
Гэта сукенка ёй вельмі падыходзіць.
That dress really suits her.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
The dative marks the person something is given, said or done to:
A family of very common Belarusian sentences puts the person in the dative and makes the thing the subject. By A2 you have met four of them, and seeing them as one pattern is worth more than learning them separately:
| Construction | Example | Literally |
|---|---|---|
| падабацца | Мне падабаецца песня | to-me is-pleasing the song |
| падыходзіць | Мне падыходзіць гэты памер | to-me suits this size |
| балець | Мне баліць галава | to-me hurts the head |
| трэба / патрэбны | Мне трэба адпачываць | to-me it-is-necessary to rest |
| impersonal states | Мне холадна | to-me it-is-cold |
In none of them are you the subject. English makes the person the subject in all five, which is why they all go wrong in the same direction.
| Masculine | -у / -ю | брат → брату |
| Feminine | -е / -ы / -і | сястра → сястры; кніга → кнізе |
| Neuter | -у | акно → акну |
| Plural | -ам / -ям | браты → братам |
The feminine dative triggers the same consonant changes as the locative: кніга → кнізе, рука → руцэ, страха → страсе.
мне, табе, яму, ёй, нам, вам, ім - by now these should be automatic.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: making yourself the subject in all five constructions, because English does - Я падабаюся песню instead of Мне падабаецца песня.
Making the person the subject of падабацца, балець or падыходзіць
The person is always the dative: Мне падабаецца, мне баліць, мне падыходзіць.
Missing the consonant change in the feminine dative
Кніга gives кнізе, рука gives руцэ, страха gives страсе.
Leaving the possessive out of the dative
Both words move: свайму брату, маёй сястры.
Using Russian pronoun forms
Мне, табе, яму, ёй, нам, вам, ім.
Дай сястры гэтую кнігу.
Give your sister this book.
The recipient in the dative: <em>сястры</em>.
Мне падабаецца гэтая песня.
I like this song.
The person is in the dative and the song is the subject - the verb agrees with the song.
Ён падарыў кнігу свайму брату.
He gave the book to his brother.
Both the possessive and the noun take the dative: <em>свайму брату</em>.
Гэта сукенка ёй вельмі падыходзіць.
That dress really suits her.
<em>Падыходзіць</em> takes the dative of the person and agrees with the dress.
Дзецям трэба спаць, а нам холадна.
The children need to sleep, and we are cold.
Two dative constructions in one sentence: <em>трэба</em> with a plural noun and an impersonal state.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
The current academic reference grammar; the linked edition serves the full text. Cited for its declension section, which sets out the first, second and third declensions, notes that plural-only nouns decline on those same patterns, and treats маці as a noun of its own.
The academic reference grammar behind the phonology, orthoepy and morphology sections: the 32-letter inventory, дж and дз as digraphs rather than letters, and the normative description of akanne and jakanne. A print work; no URL is given, because the only one available is a library catalogue record that carries none of the text.