Methods, systems, and devices for operating a ferroelectric memory cell or cells are described. A first ferroelectric memory cell may be initialized to a first state and a second ferroelectric memory cell may be initialized to a different state. Each state may have a corresponding digit line voltage. The digit lines of the first and second ferroelectric memory cells may be connected so that charge-sharing occurs between the two digit lines. The voltage resulting from the charge-sharing between the two digit lines may be used by other components as a reference voltage.