How terms are formed and used, and the grammar that academic Belarusian actually runs on - impersonals, verbal nouns and careful hedging.
I can read and write academic Belarusian, form terms correctly and hedge my claims appropriately.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Дзеепрыслоўе - гэта нязменная форма дзеяслова.
A gerund is an invariable form of the verb.
У артыкуле разглядаецца пытанне пра паходжанне тэрміна.
The article examines the question of the term's origin.
Можна меркаваць, што вынік залежыць ад тэмпературы.
It may be supposed that the result depends on temperature.
Мовазнаўства вывучае будову і гісторыю моў.
Linguistics studies the structure and history of languages.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
A term is a word with one fixed sense inside a field, no emotional colouring, and a defined place in a system. That last part matters: terms come in sets, and a good term shows its relations - назоўнік, прыметнік, дзеяслоў and прыслоўе all name a part of speech by what it does.
The grammatical terminology is worth studying as a model of the native strategy: it is complete, systematic and built entirely from Belarusian roots, and it shows what the language can do when someone sits down and does it properly.
| Feature | Example |
|---|---|
| Impersonal constructions | Разглядаецца пытанне аб... |
| Verbal nouns | вымярэнне, вызначэнне, супастаўленне |
| Present tense for general truths | Вада кіпіць пры ста градусах. |
| No first person singular | the plural or the impersonal instead |
| Explicit connectors | такім чынам, у прыватнасці, адпаведна |
Academic writing states degrees of confidence, and Belarusian does it with the modality you already know: магчыма, верагодна, як відаць, можна меркаваць, усё сведчыць пра тое, што. Using none of these reads as overclaiming; using them constantly reads as having nothing to say.
The standard formula puts the term first, then a dash, then the genus and the difference: Дзеепрыслоўе - гэта нязменная форма дзеяслова, якая абазначае дадатковае дзеянне. Note the dash doing the work of the missing copula, and гэта optionally reinforcing it.
This is the register where Russian calques are thickest, because the reference literature is largely Russian. З'яўляецца as a copula and у сувязі з тым, што are both at their most common here, and both have clean Belarusian alternatives.
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: importing Russian officialese into academic prose, and defining a term without giving its genus.
Importing Russian officialese
Ёсць, з-за таго што, браць удзел.
Defining without a genus
The formula is term, dash, genus, difference.
Using the first person singular
Use the impersonal or the plural.
Stating every claim flatly
Магчыма, верагодна, можна меркаваць.
Дзеепрыслоўе - гэта нязменная форма дзеяслова.
A gerund is an invariable form of the verb.
The definition formula, with a dash for the missing copula.
У артыкуле разглядаецца пытанне пра паходжанне тэрміна.
The article examines the question of the term's origin.
An impersonal construction with no agent named.
Можна меркаваць, што вынік залежыць ад тэмпературы.
It may be supposed that the result depends on temperature.
Hedging: the claim is made with a stated degree of confidence.
Мовазнаўства вывучае будову і гісторыю моў.
Linguistics studies the structure and history of languages.
<em>Мовазнаўства</em> is a calque built from native roots.
Такім чынам, атрыманыя вынікі пацвярджаюць гіпотэзу.
The results obtained thus confirm the hypothesis.
An explicit connector closing an argument.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises