The direct object and the destination - and the animacy rule that makes бачу сябра look like a genitive because it is one.
I can use the accusative for objects, destinations and time, and apply the animacy rule.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Учора я бачыў старога сябра.
Yesterday I saw an old friend.
Учора я бачыў стары горад.
Yesterday I saw the old town.
Кладу кнігу на стол, а яна ўжо на стале.
I am putting the book on the table, and it is already on the table.
Мы чакалі цябе цэлую гадзіну.
We waited a whole hour for you.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
This is the part that surprises. For masculine and plural nouns, the accusative depends on whether the thing is alive:
| Type | Accusative looks like | Example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine inanimate | the nominative | бачу горад |
| masculine animate | the genitive | бачу сябра |
| plural inanimate | the nominative | бачу сталы |
| plural animate | the genitive | бачу сяброў |
Feminine and neuter singulars have their own accusative and ignore the rule entirely: кнігу, акно.
Whatever the noun does, the adjective does with it: бачу старога сябра but бачу стары горад.
The same preposition with the accusative means motion and with the locative means position. By now this should be automatic:
The accusative also carries duration and days: чакаў гадзіну, у суботу, на Купалле.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: ignoring animacy and saying бачу сябар; and declining the noun while leaving the adjective in the nominative.
Ignoring the animacy rule
Бачу сябра and сяброў borrow the genitive; бачу горад and сталы match the nominative.
Leaving the adjective in the nominative
Бачу старога сябра, бачу стары горад - the adjective follows the noun.
Using the accusative for a position
Кладу на стол is motion; кніга на стале is position.
Using the Russian genitive form for an animate accusative
Сябра, сяброў, дзяцей - Belarusian forms.
Учора я бачыў старога сябра.
Yesterday I saw an old friend.
Animate, so the accusative borrows the genitive - and the adjective goes with it.
Учора я бачыў стары горад.
Yesterday I saw the old town.
Inanimate, so the accusative matches the nominative - the same verb, a different ending.
Кладу кнігу на стол, а яна ўжо на стале.
I am putting the book on the table, and it is already on the table.
The same preposition twice: accusative for the motion, locative for the position.
Мы чакалі цябе цэлую гадзіну.
We waited a whole hour for you.
Duration in the accusative: <em>цэлую гадзіну</em>.
На Купалле мы едзем на раку.
At Kupalle we go to the river.
Two accusatives after <em>на</em>: the festival and the destination.
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.