каторы

Каторы in Questions and Relative Clauses

Level 6Sounds Like katory

Каторая гадзіна? What time is it? Каторы asks for a position in a series or one item out of several.

How It Works

Каторы (каторая, каторае, каторыя) declines like an adjective and agrees with its noun. In Standard Belarusian it is mainly a question word.

Which one in order. It asks for a position in a series, so the answer is an ordinal number:

  • Каторая гадзіна? — Трэцяя. What time is it? — Three o'clock.
  • У каторым класе вучыцца твой сын? — У пятым. What grade is your son in? — Fifth.

Which one of several. Каторы з іх твой брат? Which of them is your brother? In this meaning які is also common.

Каторы раз. In ужо каторы раз it means yet again, for the umpteenth time: Я ўжо каторы раз табе кажу! Similarly, каторы час means for a long time now, not what time.

In relative clauses. In folk tales, dialects and older literature, каторы can introduce a relative clause: дзед, каторы ўмеў размаўляць з птушкамі (an old man who could talk with birds). You will meet it when reading, but in modern standard writing the relative pronoun is які.

Examples (5)

  1. Каторая гадзіна?

    What time is it?

    Word by Word: Which-in-order hour?

  2. У каторым класе вучыцца твой сын?

    What grade is your son in?

    Word by Word: In which-in-order grade studies your son?

  3. Каторы з іх твой брат?

    Which of them is your brother?

    Word by Word: Which of them your brother?

  4. Я ўжо каторы раз табе кажу!

    I've told you I don't know how many times!

    Word by Word: I already which-in-order time to-you say!

  5. Жыў на свеце дзед, каторы ўмеў размаўляць з птушкамі.

    There once lived an old man who could talk with birds.

    Word by Word: Lived in world old-man, who could talk with birds.

    Folk-tale style. In modern writing: дзед, які ўмеў…

Common Mistakes

  • Translating the Russian question for the time word for word.

    Каторы час?
    Каторая гадзіна?

    The intended meaning is What time is it? Belarusian asks about the hour: Каторая гадзіна? (or Колькі часу?). Каторы час means for a long time now.

  • Not making каторы agree with гадзіна.

    Каторы гадзіна?
    Каторая гадзіна?

    Каторы agrees like an adjective. Гадзіна is feminine, so it needs каторая.

  • Forgetting to decline каторы after a preposition.

    У каторы класе ты вучышся?
    У каторым класе ты вучышся?

    After у meaning in, both words take the locative: у каторым класе.

How It Connects

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

каторыLevel 6Каторы in Questions and Relative Clauses

Learn This First

Каторы needs ordinals and relative які.

Words in This Pattern

каторыякі