Breakdown of Давай встретимся где‑нибудь в центре города.
Questions & Answers about Давай встретимся где‑нибудь в центре города.
Literally, давай comes from the verb давать “to give”, but in everyday speech it often works as a particle meaning “let’s”.
So in this sentence:
- Давай встретимся… = “Let’s meet…”
You are not actually saying “give” anything; you are making a friendly suggestion. This use of давай is very common and quite informal.
Встретимся is the 1st person plural future tense of встретиться (“to meet (each other)”, perfective, reflexive).
In Russian, the pattern давай + 1st person plural future is a very standard way to make a suggestion:
- Давай встретимся. – Let’s meet.
- Давай пообедаем. – Let’s have lunch.
- Давай поедем. – Let’s go (by transport).
Grammatically it looks like “we will meet”, but together with давай the meaning becomes a proposal / suggestion, not just a statement about the future.
You cannot say давай встречаемся in this meaning; that sounds wrong here.
The verb встретиться (reflexive) usually means “to meet (each other)”, where both sides participate equally.
- Мы встретимся. – We will meet (each other).
The non‑reflexive встретить means “to meet / to pick up / to greet (someone)” as a more one‑sided action:
- Я встречу тебя у вокзала. – I’ll meet/pick you up at the station.
- Он встретил гостя. – He met / greeted the guest.
In Давай встретимся, the idea is reciprocal: “Let’s meet (you and I)”, so the reflexive form is the natural choice.
Yes, this is about aspect and type of action:
- Встретиться – perfective: one single, completed meeting.
- Встречаться – imperfective: process or repeated action (“to meet regularly”, “to be meeting”).
So:
Давай встретимся в центре города.
“Let’s (have one) meet(ing) somewhere in the city center.”
→ One specific meeting.Давай встречаться в центре города.
“Let’s meet (regularly) in the city center.”
→ Suggests a habit or repeated arrangement (e.g. every week).
For just “Let’s meet (once)”, давай встретимся is the correct, usual choice.
Both can be translated as “somewhere”, but there is a nuance:
- где‑то – relatively neutral “somewhere”.
- где‑нибудь – often more indefinite / “anywhere”, sometimes sounding more casual, vague, or “I’m not picky”.
In your sentence:
- …где‑нибудь в центре города.
“somewhere / anywhere in the city center.”
If you say:
- …где‑то в центре города.
it still works and also means “somewhere in the city center”, but где‑нибудь can sound a bit more like “whatever exact place, I don’t care much, just in the center”.
The difference is subtle; both are acceptable here.
Где‑нибудь is a compound indefinite pronoun:
- где – “where”
- нибудь – a postfix that makes it “indefinite” (somewhere, anywhere)
Russian writes these combinations with a hyphen:
- кто‑нибудь – somebody / anybody
- что‑нибудь – something / anything
- где‑нибудь – somewhere / anywhere
- когда‑нибудь – sometime / ever
So the hyphen is just the standard spelling rule for this type of word.
The phrase is literally:
- в центре города = “in the center of the city”
Here:
- в центре – “in the center” (центр in the prepositional case: центре)
- города – “of the city” (город in the genitive case: города)
Города is genitive because it depends on “центр”:
- центр чего? – города (center of what? – of the city)
If you said в городе, that would mean “in the city” (no “center” idea). So:
- в центре – in the center
- в городе – in the city
- в центре города – in the city center / in the center of the city
Two different cases appear here:
центре – prepositional case (singular)
- Nominative: центр
- Prepositional: в центре
Used after the preposition в to indicate location: “in the center”.
города – genitive case (singular)
- Nominative: город
- Genitive: города
Used to show possession / belonging: “of the city”.
So в центре города literally combines location (prepositional) + “of X” (genitive).
Both mean “let’s meet”, but differ in politeness and number:
Давай встретимся…
– informal ты form
– used with friends, peers, people you’re on first‑name terms with, etc.Давайте встретимся…
– polite / plural вы form
– used with strangers, older people, clients, groups, or whenever you would normally use вы.
Meaning is the same; choose давай or давайте according to how you address the person: ты (informal) or вы (formal/plural).
Yes, you can say:
- Встретимся где‑нибудь в центре города.
This can be understood as:
- “We’ll meet somewhere in the city center.”
or, in context, still a kind of arrangement / mild suggestion.
However, давай встретимся is more clearly a suggestion (“Let’s meet”), especially if you’re just proposing it for the first time.
- With давай: sounds like a proposal.
- Without давай: can sound more like stating the plan (“So, we’ll meet somewhere in the center”).
Both are natural; the nuance depends on context and tone.
Yes, Russian word order is fairly flexible. Variants include:
- Давай встретимся где‑нибудь в центре города. (most neutral)
- Давай где‑нибудь в центре города встретимся.
- Где‑нибудь в центре города давай встретимся. (more marked / stylistic)
The first one (your original sentence) sounds the most natural and neutral in everyday speech. Moving где‑нибудь в центре города earlier puts a bit more emphasis on the place, but it’s still acceptable.
Not exactly, though often context makes them equivalent.
в центре – “in the center”
→ Could be the center of the city, the room, the page, etc., depending on context.в центре города – “in the center of the city / in the city center”
→ Explicitly says it’s the city center.
In casual conversation about meeting in town, в центре often implicitly means “city center”.
But в центре города is more explicit and a bit clearer, especially if there might be confusion.
It’s closer to “somewhere / anywhere (I’m not picky)”. In this context it does not sound rude; it just sounds casual and non‑specific:
- You don’t care exactly which café / spot.
- You only care that it’s in the city center.
It might sound a bit vague if you need precise planning, but the tone is friendly and informal, not impolite. If you wanted to sound more definite, you could specify:
- Давай встретимся в центре города, у метро. – …by the metro.
- …у фонтана. – …by the fountain.
Yes, in informal speech people often use slightly different verbs or phrases. For example:
Давай увидимся где‑нибудь в центре города.
– “Let’s see each other / meet up somewhere in the city center.”Давай пересечёмся в центре. (very colloquial)
– Literally “Let’s cross paths in the center.”Давай спишемся и решим, где встретиться в центре.
– “Let’s text and decide where to meet in the center.”
But your sentence Давай встретимся где‑нибудь в центре города is completely natural, standard, and widely used.