Мы встретили адвоката.

• Мы = we
• встретили = met
• адвоката = lawyer / the lawyer in this sentence

So the sentence literally is We met lawyer, but natural English adds an article: We met a lawyer or We met the lawyer, depending on context.

Because адвокат is the direct object of the verb встретили (met), so it must go into the accusative case.

For masculine animate nouns in Russian, the accusative singular usually looks like the genitive singular:

• nominative: адвокат
• accusative: адвоката

Since a lawyer is a person, it is animate, so you get адвоката.

In this sentence, it is accusative.

The form адвоката can be either accusative singular or genitive singular, because those two forms are identical for many masculine animate nouns.
You tell which one it is by its role in the sentence:

• Мы встретили адвоката = We met the lawyer → direct object, so accusative
• У меня нет адвоката = I don’t have a lawyer → after нет, so genitive

So the function tells you the case.

The dictionary form is встретить.

That is the infinitive, meaning to meet.
Встретили is the past tense plural form:

• я встретил / встретила = I met
• ты встретил / встретила = you met
• мы встретили = we met
• они встретили = they met

Because the subject here is мы (we), the verb is in the plural past: встретили.

In the past tense, Russian verbs do not change for person. They change for:

• gender in the singular
• number in singular vs. plural

So:

• я встретил = I met (masculine speaker)
• я встретила = I met (feminine speaker)
• мы встретили = we met

With мы, the verb is plural, so there is no gender distinction. That is why it is simply встретили.

This is a question of aspect.

• встретили comes from встретить and is perfective
• встречали comes from встречать and is imperfective

In many contexts:

• Мы встретили адвоката = We met a/the lawyer
  → a completed event, viewed as a whole
• Мы встречали адвоката can mean something like We were meeting the lawyer, We used to meet the lawyer, or We were there to meet the lawyer, depending on context

For a simple completed event in the past, встретили is the normal choice.

It can mean either one.

Russian has no articles like a and the, so адвоката does not by itself tell you whether the lawyer is new information or already known. Context decides:

• Мы встретили адвоката = We met a lawyer
• Мы встретили адвоката = We met the lawyer

Both are possible translations.

Yes. Russian word order is more flexible than English because case endings show grammatical roles.

The most neutral order here is:

• Мы встретили адвоката.

But you could also say:

• Адвоката мы встретили.
• Мы адвоката встретили.

These alternatives change the focus or emphasis, not the basic meaning.

For example:

• Адвоката мы встретили may emphasize the lawyer specifically, perhaps contrasting with someone else.
• Мы адвоката встретили may sound more conversational or emphasize the object.

If you are learning, the original order is the safest default.

The stress is:

• Мы встре́тили адвока́та.

A rough pronunciation guide:

• Мы = mɨ (the Russian ы sound has no exact English equivalent)
• встре́тили ≈ fstryee-ti-li
• адвока́та ≈ ad-va-KA-ta

A few useful notes:

• The в at the start of встретили is often pronounced closer to f before the voiceless с
• Stress matters in Russian, so it is important to learn:
  • встре́тить
  • встре́тили
  • адвока́т
  • адвока́та

Because мы is the subject, and subjects normally appear in the nominative case.

• Мы = nominative plural of we
• адвоката = accusative singular of lawyer

So the sentence structure is:

• Мы = subject
• встретили = verb
• адвоката = direct object

Russian marks these roles with case endings, especially on nouns.

Grammatically, адвокат is a masculine noun, but it can be used for a lawyer of either sex, especially in professional contexts.

So even if the lawyer is a woman, Russian may still use:

• Мы встретили адвоката.

If you need to make it clear that the lawyer is female, Russian can do that through context or other wording, for example:

• Мы встретили женщину-адвоката = We met a woman lawyer
• Она адвокат = She is a lawyer

So grammatical gender and real-life gender do not always match one-to-one.

By itself, it normally just means We met the lawyer.

Russian past tense does not have a separate form exactly matching the English had met. If English needs had met, Russian usually shows that through context, time words, or a larger sentence.

So in isolation:

• Мы встретили адвоката = most naturally We met a/the lawyer

In a narrative with earlier and later events, English might translate it as We had met the lawyer, but that would come from the broader context, not from the verb form alone.