The case of absence, quantity and belonging - the one that follows няма, every quantity word, every number from five up, and half the prepositions in the language.
I can use the genitive for belonging, absence and quantity, and choose between -а and -у in the masculine.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
У мяне няма часу да вечара.
I have no time until the evening.
Гэта хата майго дзеда.
This is my grandfather's house.
Купі кілаграм бульбы і бохан хлеба.
Buy a kilo of potatoes and a loaf of bread.
У лесе шмат грыбоў і ягад.
There are a lot of mushrooms and berries in the forest.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
The genitive does more work than any other Belarusian case. Five jobs cover almost every use a learner meets:
| Job | Example |
|---|---|
| Belonging | сястра майго бацькі - my father's sister |
| Absence, after няма | У мяне няма часу |
| After a quantity word | кілаграм бульбы, шмат грыбоў |
| After 5 and above | пяць рублёў, дзесяць кніг |
| After да, ад, каля, з, без, для | да ратушы, без рэцэпта |
| Gender | Ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | -а / -у | горад → горада; час → часу |
| Feminine | -ы / -і | кніга → кнігі; сястра → сястры |
| Neuter | -а | акно → акна |
| Plural | -аў / -яў / zero | рублі → рублёў; кнігі → кніг |
This is the one real difficulty. Roughly: -а for things you can count or point at (горада, стала, брата), -у for abstractions, substances and collectives (часу, снегу, лесу, народу). The line is not perfectly sharp and some nouns take either, but the rule of thumb carries most cases.
Feminine and neuter nouns often lose their ending entirely in the genitive plural, and the stem may gain a vowel to make it pronounceable: кніга → кніг, сястра → сясцёр, акно → вокнаў. Say the bare stem aloud - if it is unsayable, a vowel appears.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: using -а everywhere in the masculine and never reaching for -у; and leaving the possessive out of the genitive when the noun goes into it - both words must move: сястра майго бацькі, not сястра мой бацькі.
Using -а for an abstraction in the masculine genitive
Concrete things take -а (горада, стала); abstractions and substances take -у (часу, снегу, лесу).
Leaving the possessive in the nominative
Both words move: сястра майго бацькі, сын маёй сястры.
Forming the genitive plural without the vowel or consonant change
Сястра gives сясцёр, not сестёр. Say the bare stem aloud - if it is unsayable, a vowel appears.
Carrying the Russian genitive ending across
Кнігі, сястры, часу - with і and ы where Russian has и.
У мяне няма часу да вечара.
I have no time until the evening.
Two genitives: <em>часу</em> after <em>няма</em>, and <em>вечара</em> after <em>да</em>. Note <em>часу</em> takes -у as an abstraction.
Гэта хата майго дзеда.
This is my grandfather's house.
Belonging: both the possessive and the noun move into the genitive.
Купі кілаграм бульбы і бохан хлеба.
Buy a kilo of potatoes and a loaf of bread.
A quantity word takes the genitive: <em>бульбы</em>, <em>хлеба</em>.
У лесе шмат грыбоў і ягад.
There are a lot of mushrooms and berries in the forest.
<em>Шмат</em> takes the genitive plural. <em>Грыбоў</em> has the -оў ending, <em>ягад</em> the zero one.
Ідзём да ратушы без парасона.
We are walking to the town hall without an umbrella.
Two prepositions, both taking the genitive: <em>да</em> and <em>без</em>.
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.