3. Advanced Noun Declension

3.1 Accusative form of animate nouns

The accusative form of plural animate nouns is identical the genitive, not the nominative case. adjectives describing these nouns take the genitive ending.

The accusative case is identical to the genitive for singular masculine animate nouns as well. Corresponding adjectives take the genitive ending.

3.2 Masculine genitive singular endings а/я versus у/ю

There are two groups of masculine nouns. One of these groups has genitive singular endings of а** and я, the other group has genitive singular endings of у, and ю. There is no easy way to tell to which group any given noun belongs.

Nouns with the genitive singular endings -а or -я are typically words that can be described in English with the word “many.” These nouns are often concrete, countable objects.

** -** Nouns denoting people, animals, and body parts ** -** Units of measurement and currency ** -** Geographical concepts

Nouns with the genitive singular endings -у or -ю are typically words that are used in the partitive sense. In other words, some portion of a whole is implied. Typically, such words represent more abstract ideas. They can usually be described in English with the word “much.” If a word in English cannot have an article like “the” applied to it, it will have the -у or -ю genitive ending in Belarusian.

** -** Nouns that denote a group, gathering, or collection of other things ** -** Natural phenomena, characteristics, actions, and spatial directions ** -** Substances and other nouns that can be described in English by the word “much”

3.3 Genitive plural endings

It is often very difficult to predict the genitive plural endings of nouns. The genitive plural form must be memorized for every feminine noun, and for masculine nouns ending in -ь.

Feminine nouns ending in -а or -я are the most problematic.

Masculine nouns ending in -ь** also have this issue.

me nouns can have either ending.

3.4 Irregular prepositional endings

Many maculine and neuter nouns with unaccented endings whose final consonant г or х, have irregular prepositional singular endings. The final consonant morphs into з or с respectively.

*The form у кажуху́ is equally common.

The following masculine and neuter nouns have irregular prepositional forms.

3.5 Feminine Instrumental Ending Variation

There exists a variation of the instrumental ending for feminine nouns ending in -а or -я. This alternate ending is created by replacing the final -й with a -ю. This variation is common, but is non-standard and should be avoided by the non-native speaker. This variation extends to adjectives and pronouns as well.

3.6 Gender and declension disagreement

Masculine animate nouns ending in -а or -я do not decline like other masculine nouns. If the accent falls on the ending, the word declines exactly as though it were feminine. If the accent falls on the stem, the word has feminine endings for the nominative, accusative, and genitive singular cases, but has masculine endings for all remaining cases. Note the examples of ба́цька, ‘father’, and та́та, ‘dad’.

3.7 Declension misfits

Some nouns do not fit well in the normal declension patterns. These include the neuter noun дзіця́, ‘child’, and the feminine nouns любо́ў, ‘love’, and кро́ў, ‘blood’.

There are many nouns, mostly foreign words, which do not decline. They have the same form, regardless of case or number.

3.8 Words with no plural form

Many words have only a singular form. Most of these words have no plural in English either. Included are things like substances, proper nouns, and ideas.

Most neuter nouns ending in -мя have no plural form.

3.9 Words with no singular form

Many words have only a plural form.

3.10 Irregular plurals

The plural forms of these words have different stems than the singular forms.

3.11 Nouns ending in -ін

These animate nouns denote types of people. Other than the nominative plural ending, the rest of the plural endings are the same as for other nouns. The genitive plural ending is -аў and is unaccented.