The only case that never appears without a preposition, and the one where five consonants change before your eyes: горад gives у горадзе, кніга gives у кнізе.
I can use the locative after all five of its prepositions and apply the consonant changes it triggers.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Мы жывём у горадзе, а бабуля ў хаце пад Полацкам.
We live in the city, and Grandmother in a village house near Polatsk.
Пра гэта напісана ў кнізе на паліцы.
That is written about in the book on the shelf.
Калядоўшчыкі ходзяць па хатах.
The carollers go from house to house.
На страсе ляжыць снег.
There is snow on the roof.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
The locative appears only after у, на, аб, пры and па. Its Belarusian name, месны склон, describes it better than the traditional "prepositional": its central job is place.
| Preposition | Sense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| у | inside | у горадзе, у кнізе |
| на | on, at | на стале, на працы |
| аб | about | размова аб гэтым |
| пры | near, in the presence of | пры дарозе |
| па | around, over | па горадзе, па хатах |
This is where they do the most damage, because the word can look unrecognisable:
| г → з | кніга → у кнізе |
| к → ц | рука → у руцэ |
| х → с | страха → на страсе |
| д → дз | горад → у горадзе |
| т → ц | хата → у хаце |
The last two are dzekanne and tsekanne working inside the paradigm. They are not exceptions - they are the same sound laws that give the language its character, applied where an ending happens to land.
Masculine and neuter take -е / -у / -і; feminine takes -е / -ы / -і; the plural takes -ах / -ях uniformly.
Both mean "about", but пра takes the accusative and is far more common in speech; аб takes the locative and sounds more formal. Кніга пра вайну is the everyday phrasing.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: using the locative without a preposition, and skipping the consonant change so that горад gives гораде.
Using the locative without a preposition
It only follows у, на, аб, пры or па.
Skipping the consonant change
У горадзе, у хаце, у кнізе, у руцэ, на страсе.
Using аб where пра is normal
Пра with the accusative is the everyday phrasing: кніга пра вайну.
Using a singular locative ending in the plural
The plural is uniformly -ах or -ях: у кнігах, па хатах.
Мы жывём у горадзе, а бабуля ў хаце пад Полацкам.
We live in the city, and Grandmother in a village house near Polatsk.
Two changes at once: <em>д → дз</em> and <em>т → ц</em>.
Пра гэта напісана ў кнізе на паліцы.
That is written about in the book on the shelf.
<em>Пра</em> with the accusative, then two locatives with <em>г → з</em> and <em>ц</em>.
Калядоўшчыкі ходзяць па хатах.
The carollers go from house to house.
<em>Па</em> with the plural locative: <em>хатах</em>.
На страсе ляжыць снег.
There is snow on the roof.
<em>Х → с</em>: страха gives страсе.
Я трымаю кнігу ў руцэ.
I am holding the book in my hand.
<em>К → ц</em>, and the ending is <em>-э</em> after the changed consonant.
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.