A large family of everyday Belarusian sentences has no subject at all. The academic syntax names four types, and once you see them as a group they stop looking like exceptions.
I can recognise and build all four kinds of subjectless sentence, and I can see the impersonal constructions from earlier modules as one family.
Подивіться на ці приклади. Чи можете ви помітити граматичну закономірність?
Іду на працу, буду а восьмай.
I am off to work, I will be there at eight.
Кажуць, што заўтра будзе дождж.
They say it will rain tomorrow.
Тут не паляць.
There is no smoking here.
Змяркаецца, трэба ісці дадому.
It is getting dark, we should go home.
Зверніть увагу на виділені частини. Що у них спільного?
The academic syntax of Belarusian sets out the one-member sentence in four kinds. All four drop the subject, for four different reasons:
| Type | Why no subject | Example |
|---|---|---|
| пэўна-асабовы | the verb ending already says who | Іду на працу. |
| няпэўна-асабовы | who did it does not matter | Кажуць, што будзе дождж. |
| абагульнена-асабовы | it applies to anyone | Што пасееш, тое і пажнеш. |
| безасабовы | there is no doer at all | Змяркаецца. Мне холадна. |
Іду на працу, Чытаем разам. Adding я or мы is not wrong but reads as emphasis. This is why Belarusian speech has far fewer pronouns than an English speaker expects.
A third-person plural verb with no subject: Кажуць, што будзе дождж - they say it will rain. Тут не паляць - no smoking here. English reaches for the passive or "one"; Belarusian just leaves the subject out.
The second person singular used generally, which is why so many proverbs are shaped this way: Што пасееш, тое і пажнеш - what you sow you will reap. The "you" is not the listener.
Weather, states and necessity: Змяркаецца (it is getting dark), Мне холадна, Трэба ісці, Нельга курыць, Няма часу. The person, if there is one, sits in the dative and never becomes the subject.
Every impersonal construction the course has taught - падабацца, балець, трэба, нельга, няма, the weather, the states - belongs to this one family. They are not a list of oddities; they are how the language prefers to say a great many ordinary things.
Застосуйте цю граматику у вправах курсу A2
Вправи для практикиTypical errors: inserting a subject because English requires one - Гэта холадна for Холадна, or a pronoun in front of every verb.
Inserting a subject into an impersonal sentence
Холадна, змяркаецца, трэба ісці - there is no subject to supply.
Repeating the pronoun with every verb
Іду на працу is complete; add я only for contrast.
Making the person the subject
The person sits in the dative: мне холадна, мне трэба.
Building an English-style passive
Тут не паляць - a third-person plural with no subject does the job.
Іду на працу, буду а восьмай.
I am off to work, I will be there at eight.
Type one: the endings say who, so no pronoun is needed in either clause.
Кажуць, што заўтра будзе дождж.
They say it will rain tomorrow.
Type two: a third-person plural verb with nobody named.
Тут не паляць.
There is no smoking here.
Also type two - where English uses a passive or a notice, Belarusian drops the subject.
Змяркаецца, трэба ісці дадому.
It is getting dark, we should go home.
Type four twice: a weather verb with no doer, and <em>трэба</em> with an infinitive.
Мне холадна, і няма чаго надзець.
I am cold, and there is nothing to put on.
Two impersonals: a state with the dative, and <em>няма</em> with the genitive.
Практикувати в курсі
Застосуйте цю граматику у вправах курсу A2