The two Belarusian conjugations, their full sets of present-tense endings, and the spelling changes (э for е, ы/і for и) that make a familiar paradigm look unfamiliar.
I can conjugate common Belarusian verbs in the present tense and say what I and other people are doing right now.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Я чытаю Караткевіча па-беларуску.
I read Karatkievich in Belarusian.
Ты гаворыш па-беларуску вельмі добра.
You speak Belarusian very well.
Яны жывуць у Гродне каля Нёмана.
They live in Hrodna, by the Nioman.
Куды ты ідзеш? Іду на працу.
Where are you going? I am going to work.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Belarusian verbs fall into two conjugations. The academic grammar introduces the verb through the infinitive, transitivity and reflexivity before setting out these paradigms; for a beginner the practical question is only which set of endings a given verb takes, and the infinitive usually tells you.
| Person | чытаць (to read) | English |
|---|---|---|
| я | чытаю | I read |
| ты | чытаеш | you read |
| ён / яна / яно | чытае | he / she / it reads |
| мы | чытаем | we read |
| вы | чытаеце | you read |
| яны | чытаюць | they read |
| Person | гаварыць (to speak) | English |
|---|---|---|
| я | гавару | I speak |
| ты | гаворыш | you speak |
| ён / яна / яно | гаворыць | he / she / it speaks |
| мы | гаворым | we speak |
| вы | гаворыце | you speak |
| яны | гавораць | they speak |
Every third-person plural ends in -ць, and so does the second-conjugation singular: чытаюць, гаворыць, гавораць, ідуць, жывуць. The first-conjugation singular has no -ць at all — чытае, піша, ідзе, жыве — and that is a whole class, not an exception. Belarusian pronounces that ц as a genuine soft affricate — the feature called цеканне — so it is audible, not silent.
| ісці (to go on foot) | есці (to eat) | |
|---|---|---|
| я | іду | ем |
| ты | ідзеш | ясі |
| ён | ідзе | есць |
| мы | ідзём | ямо |
| вы | ідзяце | ясце |
| яны | ідуць | ядуць |
Notice ідзеш, ідзе, ідзём: where a soft д would stand, Belarusian has the affricate дз. This is дзеканне, and it runs through the whole language.
English marks only the third person singular (I read / he reads) and leans on auxiliaries for everything else. Belarusian marks all six persons, which means the pronoun is often redundant: Чытаю on its own already says "I am reading". There is also no separate continuous form — чытаю covers both "I read" and "I am reading".
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: adding a pronoun to every clause because English requires one, when the ending already carries the person; and reaching for a continuous form that does not exist — чытаю is both "I read" and "I am reading".
Error with Цяперашні час дзеясловаў
Review Цяперашні час дзеясловаў.
Я чытаю Караткевіча па-беларуску.
I read Karatkievich in Belarusian.
First conjugation, first person: <em>чыта-ю</em>. Uladzimir Karatkievich is the novelist most Belarusians name first when asked what to read in the language.
Ты гаворыш па-беларуску вельмі добра.
You speak Belarusian very well.
Second conjugation. Note there is no soft sign at the end: <strong>гаворыш</strong>, not <em>гаворышь</em>.
Яны жывуць у Гродне каля Нёмана.
They live in Hrodna, by the Nioman.
The third person plural ending <em>-уць</em> with its audible soft <em>ц</em>. Hrodna keeps the best-preserved old town in the country.
Куды ты ідзеш? Іду на працу.
Where are you going? I am going to work.
<em>Ідзеш</em> shows dzekanne: Russian soft <em>д</em> in <em>идёшь</em> corresponds to the Belarusian affricate <em>дз</em>. The answer drops the pronoun because <em>іду</em> already says who.
Мы ямо дранікі са смятанай.
We are eating draniki with sour cream.
<em>Есці</em> is irregular: <em>ем, ясі, есць, ямо, ясце, ядуць</em>. Draniki with sour cream is the dish a Belarusian household will put in front of you first.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises
The current academic reference grammar; the linked edition serves the full text. Cited for the verb section, which treats the infinitive, transitivity and reflexivity before the conjugation paradigms drawn on here.
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.