Most adverbs are an adjective with -а on the end, they never change, and the same form does duty as the impersonal predicate: добра means both well and it is good.
I can form adverbs from adjectives, place them correctly and compare them.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Ён гаворыць па-беларуску вельмі добра.
He speaks Belarusian very well.
Тут добра і вельмі ціха.
It is nice and very quiet here.
Звычайна я хаджу пешшу, але сёння спазняюся.
I usually walk, but today I am late.
Ідзі хутчэй, мы спазняемся!
Walk faster, we are late!
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Replace the adjective ending with -а:
| добры | → | добра | well |
| дрэнны | → | дрэнна | badly |
| хуткі | → | хутка | quickly |
| цёплы | → | цёпла | warmly |
| прыгожы | → | прыгожа | beautifully |
They never decline - one form for everything.
The same word is also the impersonal predicate you met in module 10. Добра is both "well" and "it is good":
Seeing these as one form with two uses is easier than learning them as two lists.
| Time | сёння, заўтра, учора, зараз, потым, рана, позна |
| Place | тут, там, дзе, сюды, туды, дадому, дома, побач |
| Manner | добра, хутка, разам, пешшу, гэтак |
| Degree | вельмі, зусім, крыху, даволі, надта |
| Frequency | заўсёды, часта, звычайна, рэдка, ніколі, штодня |
Adverbs compare like adjectives: хутка → хутчэй, добра → лепш, дрэнна → горш, цёпла → цяплей. These are exactly the forms you used impersonally - Сёння мне лепш.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: declining an adverb because it looks like an adjective, and using an adjective where the impersonal predicate belongs - Я холадны for Мне холадна.
Declining an adverb
Adverbs never change: добра, хутка, вельмі.
Using Russian adverbs
Вельмі, зусім, крыху, пешшу, штодня, дадому.
Using an adjective where the impersonal predicate belongs
Мне холадна, not Я холадны.
Building a regular comparative from добра or дрэнна
They are лепш and горш.
Ён гаворыць па-беларуску вельмі добра.
He speaks Belarusian very well.
<em>Добра</em> as a manner adverb, intensified by <em>вельмі</em>.
Тут добра і вельмі ціха.
It is nice and very quiet here.
The same form now an impersonal predicate - there is no subject at all.
Звычайна я хаджу пешшу, але сёння спазняюся.
I usually walk, but today I am late.
A frequency adverb and a manner adverb in one clause.
Ідзі хутчэй, мы спазняемся!
Walk faster, we are late!
The comparative of <em>хутка</em>.
Сёння мне лепш, чым учора.
I feel better today than yesterday.
<em>Лепш</em> is the comparative of <em>добра</em>, used impersonally with the dative.
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.