One spelling, -цца, covers what Russian splits into two, and the ending does five different jobs - only one of which is genuinely reflexive.
I can use reflexive verbs in all persons and tenses, and tell the verb ending from the pronoun сябе.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Раніцай я мыюся і апранаюся.
In the morning I wash and get dressed.
Мы сустракаемся каля ратушы.
We are meeting by the town hall.
Яны вучацца ва ўніверсітэце ў Полацку.
They study at the university in Polatsk.
Змяркаецца, і мне здаецца, што будзе дождж.
It is getting dark, and it seems to me it will rain.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Belarusian writes -цца in the infinitive and in the third person alike. Russian splits these into two spellings and drills schoolchildren on telling them apart; Belarusian has one form and no test to apply.
In the other persons the ending is -ся after a consonant and after -ш: мыюся, мыешся, мыемся, мыецеся.
| Job | Example |
|---|---|
| True reflexive - the action returns to the doer | мыюся, апранаюся |
| Reciprocal - to each other | сустракаемся, вітаемся, цалуюцца |
| Only exists this way | смяюся, спадзяюся, баюся, здаецца |
| A state rather than an act | здаецца, змяркаецца, застаецца |
| Passive-like | Кніга добра чытаецца - the book reads well |
Only the first is reflexive in the dictionary sense. The others simply are what they are, and the ending cannot be removed from them.
Both halves of the pair carry it: вяртацца - вярнуцца, сустракацца - сустрэцца, апранацца - апрануцца.
The reflexive ending goes on after the gender ending: вярнуўся (m), вярнулася (f), вярнуліся (pl). The masculine keeps its -ў underneath.
Сябе is a separate reflexive pronoun and declines: сябе, сабе, сабой. It is not interchangeable with the verb ending. Ён купіў сабе кнігу - he bought himself a book - needs the pronoun, because the action goes to him as a recipient, not back onto him as an object.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: dropping the ending from verbs that only exist with it, and using the verb ending where the pronoun сабе is needed.
Writing -ться or -тся
Belarusian has one spelling for both: -цца.
Using -сь instead of -ся
Мыюся, вучуся, смяюся - always -ся.
Removing the ending from a verb that only exists with it
Вучыцца, смяяцца, спадзявацца, баяцца have no form without it.
Using the verb ending where сабе is needed
Ён купіў сабе кнігу - the pronoun marks a recipient, the ending marks an object.
Раніцай я мыюся і апранаюся.
In the morning I wash and get dressed.
True reflexives, and the ending is <em>-ся</em> in the first person: <em>мыюся</em>.
Мы сустракаемся каля ратушы.
We are meeting by the town hall.
Reciprocal - the action goes both ways between the people.
Яны вучацца ва ўніверсітэце ў Полацку.
They study at the university in Polatsk.
<em>Вучыцца</em> is the reflexive of <em>вучыць</em> (to teach): removing the ending gives a different verb, not a non-word.
Змяркаецца, і мне здаецца, што будзе дождж.
It is getting dark, and it seems to me it will rain.
Two state verbs, both impersonal, both in <em>-цца</em>.
Ён купіў сабе новы світэр і вярнуўся дадому.
He bought himself a new jumper and went home.
The pronoun <em>сабе</em> for the recipient, and the verb ending on <em>вярнуўся</em> - two different mechanisms in one sentence.
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 verb section, which treats the infinitive, transitivity and reflexivity before the conjugation paradigms, and gives the participle suffixes -уч- (-юч-), -ач- (-яч-) and -ш-, -ўш-, -т-, -н- alongside the gerund suffixes -ўшы, -шы and -учы (-ючы), -ачы (-ячы).
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.