Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and apparatuses for receiving and sending a reference signal, user equipment, and a base station. A method for receiving a reference signal includes: receiving resource configuration information of a reference signal, where the resource configuration information of the reference signal includes information about an antenna port configuration and a reference signal subframe configuration, the antenna port configuration indicates an antenna port structure, and the reference signal subframe configuration indicates a reference signal subframe for sending the reference signal on one or more antenna port groups; and receiving the reference signal according to the resource configuration information of the reference signal. In the embodiments of the present invention, a communications system can adapt to an antenna array structure and more antenna port quantity configurations, which is used for cell selection or MCS selection and scheduling, thereby improving a system throughput.