Learn Hardcore Russian: Давай читать книгу в парке.

давай – informal, for one person you know well (ты)
давайте –
- polite form to one person (like vous in French, Sie in German)
- or to more than one person (вы)

Examples:

To a friend: Давай читать книгу в парке. – Let’s read a book in the park.
To your teacher (politely) or a group: Давайте читать книгу в парке. – Let’s read a book in the park.

Grammatically, the structure is the same: давай(те) + infinitive.

Why do we use the infinitive читать instead of an imperative like читай?

In Russian, давай + infinitive is the usual pattern for let’s do X.

Давай читать = Let’s read.
Давай есть = Let’s eat.
Давай пойдём (slightly different structure, but same idea) = Let’s go.

The direct imperative читай! by itself is more like:

Читай книгу! – Read the book! (a command or instruction to you)

So:

Давай читать книгу – a joint suggestion: Let’s read a book (together / now).
Читай книгу – telling you to read, not necessarily together.

Using давай + infinitive softens it and makes it cooperative rather than ordering.

Why is it книгу and not книга? What case is that?

Книгу is the accusative singular form of книга.

In Russian, the accusative case is used mainly for:

Direct objects of verbs (what is being read, seen, bought, etc.)

Here:

Verb: читать (to read)
What is being read? книгу → direct object → accusative case

Declension of книга (feminine):

Nominative (dictionary form): книга – a book
Accusative: книгу – I read a book → я читаю книгу

So Давай читать книгу… literally: Let’s read (the) book → Let’s read a book.

Why is it в парке and not в парк? What is the difference?

The preposition в can be followed by different cases with different meanings:

в + prepositional case = being inside / in a place
- в парке – in the park (location)
в + accusative case = movement into a place
- в парк – into the park, to the park (direction)

Your sentence:

Давай читать книгу в парке.
- We are already in the park, or we’re talking about the activity happening in the park.

If you wanted to say Let’s go to the park and read a book, you’d use в парк with a verb of motion, e.g.:

Давай пойдём в парк и почитаем книгу. – Let’s go to the park and read a book.

How would I say Let’s read books in the park (plural) instead of a book?

You just make книга plural:

Nominative plural: книги (books)
Accusative plural (for inanimate nouns like books) is the same as nominative plural: книги

So:

Давай читать книги в парке. – Let’s read books in the park.

Compare:

книгу – a single book (accusative singular)
книги – books (accusative plural)

Since Russian has no articles, how do we know if it’s a book or the book?

Russian doesn’t mark the a / the difference with specific words. Context does the job.

Давай читать книгу в парке can mean:

Let’s read a book in the park. (new, unspecified book)
Let’s read the book in the park. (a particular book already known in the conversation)

If you really need to emphasize that it’s a random book, you can say:

Давай читать какую-нибудь книгу в парке. – Let’s read some book in the park.

Or if it’s a specific one:

Давай читать эту книгу в парке. – Let’s read this book in the park.

But without extra words, книгу alone can correspond to either a book or the book in English.

Is читать here perfective or imperfective? Why not прочитать?

Читать is imperfective. Imperfective usually focuses on:

Process / duration
Repeated or habitual action
The activity itself, not its completion

Прочитать is the perfective counterpart, focusing on:

Completed action, result (to read something through, to finish reading)

In Давай читать книгу в парке, the idea is let’s engage in the activity of reading (in the park), not let’s finish reading it.

If you said:

Давай прочитаем книгу в парке.

This has more of a let’s read (and finish) the book in the park nuance – i.e., read it from start to end, with the result in mind.

Both are possible; the choice depends on whether you emphasize the process (читать) or the completed result (прочитать).

Could we change the word order, like В парке давай читать книгу? Does it sound natural?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and several versions are grammatically correct, though the emphasis changes slightly:

Давай читать книгу в парке.
- Neutral, unmarked.
- Focus is simply on let’s read a book in the park.
В парке давай читать книгу.
- Puts a bit more emphasis on в парке (in the park), as if contrasting with other places:
- Like: Let’s read the book in the park (not somewhere else).
Книгу давай читать в парке.
- Emphasis on книгу: It’s the book that we should read in the park.
- More marked, used with some specific context.

The first version (Давай читать книгу в парке) is the most neutral and the best to learn as your default.

Is давай polite? In what situations is it appropriate?

Давай is informal and friendly. You use it:

With friends, family, people you address as ты
In casual situations

For politeness or more formal situations, use давайте instead:

To your boss, teacher, or a stranger:
- Давайте читать книгу в парке.

So:

давай → informal let’s (to one familiar person)
давайте → polite/formal or plural let’s

How do you pronounce each word correctly?

Syllable division and stress (stressed syllables in bold caps):

Давай – da-VAI
- Stress on the second syllable, like English da-VAI.
читать – chi-TAT'
- ч is like ch in chocolate.
- Final ть is soft; tongue closer to the front of the mouth.
книгу – KNI-gu
- кн is a consonant cluster: say k then n smoothly: kn-EE-goo.
- Stress on the first syllable.
в парке – v PAR-ke
- в is often very weak, almost like part of the next word: vpar-ke.
- р is rolled or tapped.
- Stress on пар.

Natural rhythm:

da-VAI chi-TAT' KNI-gu v PAR-ke.