Language/Belarusian/Grammar/Gender

Belarusian Grammar - Gender

Hi Belarusian learners! 😊
In this lesson, we will learn about the gender of nouns in Belarusian. We will look at the rules for determining the gender of nouns, and then practice with some examples. Finally, we will take a quiz to test our understanding.

Gender is an important part of Belarusian grammar. Nouns in Belarusian are either masculine, feminine, or neuter. Knowing the gender of a noun is important because it affects the form of adjectives, pronouns, and verbs that are used with it.

Rules

There are several rules for determining the gender of a noun in Belarusian.

• Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant, such as дзень (day).
• Feminine nouns usually end in -а or -я, such as сябра (friend).
• Neuter nouns usually end in -о or -е, such as слова (word).
• Some nouns have irregular gender, such as сёння (today), which is neuter even though it ends in -а.

Examples

The table below shows some examples of nouns with their gender.

Belarusian	Pronunciation	English Translation	Gender
дзень	dzenʹ	day	Masculine
сябра	sjabra	friend	Feminine
слова	slova	word	Neuter
сёння	sjonnja	today	Neuter
дарога	daroha	road	Feminine
дзеньнік	dzenʹnik	diary	Masculine

Practice

To improve your Belarusian Grammar, you can also use the Polyglot Club website. Find native speakers and ask them any questions!

Quiz

Let's test our understanding of Belarusian gender with a quiz.

Questions

1. What is the gender of the noun сябра (friend)? 2. What is the gender of the noun слова (word)? 3. What is the gender of the noun сёння (today)? 4. What is the gender of the noun дарога (road)? 5. What is the gender of the noun дзеньнік (diary)?

Answers

1. Feminine 2. Neuter 3. Neuter 4. Feminine 5. Masculine

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