First, second, third and the rest behave as adjectives - which is what makes dates, floors and clock times work the way they do.
I can give a date, a year, a floor and a clock time, inflecting the ordinal correctly.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Сёння дваццаць пятае ліпеня.
Today is the twenty-fifth of July.
Я нарадзіўся першага студзеня.
I was born on the first of January.
Мы жывём на чацвёртым паверсе.
We live on the fourth floor.
Дайце, калі ласка, іншы памер - гэты замалы.
Give me another size, please - this one is too small.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Ordinals agree in gender, number and case exactly like any adjective, which is why you have already been using them without noticing - на чацвёртым паверсе, а сёмай гадзіне.
| 1 | першы | 6 | шосты |
| 2 | другі | 7 | сёмы |
| 3 | трэці | 8 | восьмы |
| 4 | чацвёрты | 9 | дзявяты |
| 5 | пяты | 10 | дзясяты |
Higher up: дваццаты, трыццаты, сотны. In a compound only the last word becomes ordinal: дваццаць першы.
A date is an ordinal in the neuter, because чысло is neuter, with the month in the genitive:
To say on a date, put the ordinal in the genitive: першага студзеня - on the first of January.
Only the last word is ordinal, and it goes into the locative after у: у дзве тысячы дваццаць пятым годзе. In speech people shorten it to у дваццаць пятым.
Floors: на першым паверсе. Clock times: а сёмай гадзіне, палова пятай, чвэрць на восьмую. Both are ordinals in a case, which is why they looked irregular before and do not now.
Другі means second. Іншы means other or another. Russian другой maps onto іншы, not onto другі, and the two are confused constantly.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: making every word of a compound ordinal, and leaving the ordinal uninflected in dates and floors.
Making every word of a compound ordinal
Only the last: дваццаць першы, дзве тысячы чацвёрты.
Confusing другі with іншы
Другі is second in a sequence; іншы is another, a different one.
Leaving the month out of the genitive in a date
Першае студзеня, дваццаць пятае ліпеня.
Using the Russian ordinal form
Чацвёрты, дзявяты, дзясяты - with the Belarusian vowels.
Сёння дваццаць пятае ліпеня.
Today is the twenty-fifth of July.
The date is a neuter ordinal and the month is genitive; only the last word of the compound is ordinal.
Я нарадзіўся першага студзеня.
I was born on the first of January.
On a date takes the genitive: <em>першага</em>.
Мы жывём на чацвёртым паверсе.
We live on the fourth floor.
An ordinal in the locative, agreeing with <em>паверх</em>.
Дайце, калі ласка, іншы памер - гэты замалы.
Give me another size, please - this one is too small.
<em>Іншы</em> is another; <em>другі</em> would mean the second one in a sequence.
Замак адбудавалі ў дзве тысячы чацвёртым годзе.
The castle was rebuilt in 2004.
Only the last word is ordinal, and it goes into the locative after <em>у</em>.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A2 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.