Numerals decline, and in a compound every word declines. This is where careful written Belarusian separates itself from careless speech.
I can decline cardinal and compound numerals and keep them apart from ordinals.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Ён прыйшоў з двума сябрамі.
He came with two friends.
Каля ста пяцідзесяці чалавек прыйшло на канцэрт.
About a hundred and fifty people came to the concert.
Я бачыў двух сяброў і два сталы.
I saw two friends and two tables.
У дзве тысячы дваццаць пятым годзе.
In the year twenty twenty-five.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
At A1 numerals appeared only in the nominative, where they govern the noun. Once the phrase itself moves into another case, the numeral moves with it - and so does every word of a compound.
| Case | два | пяць | сто |
|---|---|---|---|
| назоўны | два / дзве | пяць | сто |
| родны | двух | пяці | ста |
| давальны | двум | пяці | ста |
| вінавальны | два / двух | пяць | сто |
| творны | двума | пяццю | ста |
| месны | двух | пяці | ста |
Numerals from five upwards decline like feminine nouns in -ь: one form, пяці, covers the genitive, dative and locative.
This is the part that gets skipped:
In careless speech people freeze the numeral and decline only the noun. In writing that is an error, and it is the single most reliable sign of an unedited text.
адзін, аднаго, аднаму, адным; feminine адна, адной, адну. It agrees with its noun in gender, number and case throughout.
Like nouns: бачу два сталы but бачу двух сяброў.
They decline like новы, and in a compound only the last word is ordinal and only it declines: у дзве тысячы дваццаць пятым годзе.
So the two systems behave in opposite ways: in a cardinal every word moves, in an ordinal only the last one does.
Apply this grammar in B1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: freezing the numeral in the nominative and declining only the noun, and declining every word of a compound ordinal.
Leaving the numeral in the nominative
It declines with the phrase: з двума сябрамі, каля ста чалавек.
Declining only part of a compound cardinal
Every word moves: з дваццаццю пяццю рублямі.
Declining every word of a compound ordinal
Only the last: у дваццаць пятым годзе.
Using Russian numeral forms
Двума, пяццю, ста - not двумя, пятью.
Ён прыйшоў з двума сябрамі.
He came with two friends.
Instrumental of <em>два</em>, agreeing with the case of the phrase.
Каля ста пяцідзесяці чалавек прыйшло на канцэрт.
About a hundred and fifty people came to the concert.
Both words of the compound decline after <em>каля</em>.
Я бачыў двух сяброў і два сталы.
I saw two friends and two tables.
The animate accusative applies to the numeral as well as the noun.
У дзве тысячы дваццаць пятым годзе.
In the year twenty twenty-five.
An ordinal, so only the last word changes - the opposite of the rule for cardinals.
Мы гаварылі пра пяць розных праектаў.
We talked about five different projects.
After <em>пра</em> the numeral takes the accusative, which for пяць matches the nominative.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in B1 course exercises
The current academic reference grammar; the linked edition serves the full text. Its morphology part is the source for the paradigms used here. On the neuter noun it states the nominative singular endings as -а (-о) and -е (-ё), and gives the nominative plural as -ы after a hard consonant (сёлы, вёдры) against -і after a soft consonant and after к, х (палі, воблакі).
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.