Impersonal Verbs

Level 4Sounds Like bezasabovyâ dzeâslovy

Цямнее. (It is getting dark.) One verb can be a whole sentence. Belarusian needs no word for English it.

How It Works

English needs a dummy it in It is getting dark. Belarusian just uses the verb.

Nature and time of day: світае (dawn is breaking), цямнее (it is getting dark), вечарэе (evening is coming), падмарозіла (there was a light frost).

Forms. Present and future take the third-person singular. The past takes the neuter ending -ла, as in neuter past:

  • Зімой рана цямнее. (In winter it gets dark early.)
  • Ужо сцямнела. (It has already got dark.)
  • Хутка сцямнее. (It will soon be dark.)

Smell: пахне + instrumental: На лузе пахне сенам. (It smells of hay in the meadow.)

How someone feels. The person is in the dative: Мне сёння нездаровіцца. (I feel unwell today.) The -ся verbs of the same kind are in мне хочацца.

Not enough: хапаць. Хапае and не хапае put the person in the dative and the thing in the genitive: Нам не хапае часу. (We don't have enough time.) Мне не хапае цябе. (I miss you.)

Weather with a subject. Many weather sentences do have a subject in Belarusian: Ідзе дождж (It is raining), Дзьме вецер (The wind is blowing). Verbs like the ones above are the ones that work without one.

With state words such as холадна and цёмна, which are not verbs, see the dative with state words and было and будзе.

Examples (6)

  1. Світае.

    Dawn is breaking.

    Word by Word: Dawns.

  2. Зімой рана цямнее.

    In winter it gets dark early.

    Word by Word: In-winter early darkens.

  3. Ноччу падмарозіла.

    There was a light frost during the night.

    Word by Word: At-night froze-a-little.

  4. На лузе пахне сенам.

    It smells of hay in the meadow.

    Word by Word: In meadow smells hay-INSTR.

  5. Мне сёння нездаровіцца.

    I feel unwell today.

    Word by Word: To-me today unwells-itself.

  6. Нам заўсёды не хапае часу.

    We never have enough time.

    Word by Word: To-us always not suffices time-GEN.

Common Mistakes

  • Adding a dummy subject for English it.

    Яно цямнее.
    Цямнее.

    Impersonal verbs have no subject. Яно would mean a specific neuter thing (such as the sky) is getting darker.

  • Using a masculine past form.

    Ноччу падмарозіў.
    Ноччу падмарозіла.

    With no subject to agree with, the past is always the neuter form in -ла.

  • Putting what is missing in the nominative.

    Нам не хапае час.
    Нам не хапае часу.

    Хапаць takes the genitive for the thing there is (not) enough of: часу, грошай, сіл.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Impersonal VerbsLevel 4

Learn This First

Impersonal verbs need хочацца and the neuter past.

Words in This Pattern

цямнець