Learn Hardcore Russian: Однажды мы встретились в парке и общались весь вечер. - Once we met in the park and talked all evening.

однажды – “once (one day, on one occasion)”
- Often used in storytelling, like “one day”, “once upon a time”.
- Neutral/standard style.
- Example: Однажды он опоздал на работу. – One day he was late for work.
один раз – literally “one time / one single time”
- Focuses on the number of times.
- More literal and a bit drier.
- Example: Я был там один раз. – I’ve been there once (one time).
как-то раз – “once, one time”
- Colloquial, sounds like “one time…” / “so once…” in a story.
- Slightly more informal, conversational.
- Example: Как-то раз мы встретились в поезде. – One time we met on a train.

In your sentence, Однажды мы встретились… has a storytelling, narrative feel: “One day we met…”

Why is it встретились and not something like встретили? What does the -сь ending do?

The -сь / -ся ending makes the verb reflexive.

встретить кого-то – “to meet someone” (non‑reflexive, transitive)
встретиться с кем-то – “to meet (with) someone” (reflexive, reciprocal)

In мы встретились, the verb is встретиться in past tense, plural:

мы встретились ≈ “we met (each other)”
Literally, “we met ourselves/each other”, so it’s reciprocal.

If you said мы встретили, you’d need an object:

Мы встретили его в парке. – We met him in the park.

So:

мы встретились в парке – we met (with each other) in the park
мы встретили друга в парке – we met (encountered) a friend in the park

What tense and aspect is встретились? Could it be встречались instead?

встретились is:
- Past tense
- Perfective aspect
- From the verb встретиться

Perfective aspect (встретились) presents the meeting as a single, completed event – “we met (once, at that moment).”

If you use встречались (from встречаться, imperfective):

Однажды мы встречались в парке sounds odd, because однажды is one specific occasion and встречались suggests repeated / ongoing meetings.
Мы встречались в парке (without однажды) usually means “we used to meet / would meet / met (many times) in the park.”

So in this sentence, встретились is the natural choice: one completed meeting.

Why is общались imperfective here? Why not a perfective form?

общались is:
- Past tense
- Imperfective aspect
- From общаться

Imperfective aspect is used here because the focus is on the process / duration: they were talking throughout the whole evening.

Compare:

мы встретились – a single completed act (meeting happened once)
(и) общались весь вечер – a continuous action that lasted all evening

Russian often pairs:

Perfective for the starting / main event: встретились
Imperfective for what was going on over time: общались

A perfective counterpart like пообщались would shift the meaning slightly to “we chatted (for some time, and it’s viewed as a finished episode).”
Однажды мы встретились в парке и пообщались is possible, but it doesn’t emphasize “all evening” as strongly as общались весь вечер does.

What exactly does общались mean, and how is it different from говорили or разговаривали?

All refer to verbal interaction, but with different nuances:

общаться → общались
- Broad idea of social interaction / communication / spending time together.
- Not just words; can include the idea of being in contact, maintaining a relationship.
- Мы общались весь вечер. – We were socializing / talking all evening.
говорить → говорили
- “to speak / to talk” (focus on speech itself, saying things).
- Мы говорили весь вечер. – We talked all evening.
разговаривать → разговаривали
- “to have a conversation / to chat”.
- Emphasizes a two-way conversation.
- Мы разговаривали весь вечер. – We were having a conversation all evening.

In this sentence, общались suggests they were socializing, interacting, not just mechanically exchanging words.

Why is it в парке instead of на парке? When do you use в and when на for places?

In general:

в (+ prepositional) – “in, inside” a space or area
на (+ prepositional) – “on, at” a surface, open area, event, institution, etc.

парк is treated as a space you are inside, so Russian uses в:

в парке – in the park

Other examples:

в доме – in the house
в городе – in the city
в школе – at school / in the school

With на:

на улице – in the street / outside
на площади – on the square
на стадионе – at the stadium
на концерте – at the concert

на парке is wrong in this sense. You need в парке.

Why is it весь вечер and not всё вечер? What case is вечер here?

вечер is a masculine noun.
весь is the masculine form of “all / whole”.
всё is the neuter form, so it cannot modify вечер.

So:

весь вечер – the whole evening / all evening (correct)
всё вечер – grammatically wrong (gender mismatch)

Case:

вечер is in the accusative case, used here to show duration:
- весь вечер – “(for) the whole evening”
This pattern is very common:
весь день – all day
всю ночь – all night (night = ночь, feminine, so всю)
всю неделю – all week
весь год – all year

Why is there мы in the sentence? Could you just say Однажды встретились в парке и общались весь вечер?

You can omit мы, especially in informal speech, and people will still understand:

Однажды встретились в парке и общались весь вечер.

However:

Including мы makes it clearer and slightly more standard/neutral in written language.
Omitting мы can sound:
- more colloquial/storytelling, or
- like a diary entry: “(we) once met in the park…”

Russian often drops subject pronouns when the subject is obvious from context, but keeping them is always safe and correct. Here, мы is perfectly natural and not redundant.

Can I change the word order, like Мы однажды встретились в парке…? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can change the word order; the basic meaning stays the same, but the emphasis shifts:

Однажды мы встретились в парке и общались весь вечер.
- Slight emphasis on однажды (the time: “one day, once”).
- Very natural way to start a story.
Мы однажды встретились в парке и общались весь вечер.
- Slightly more emphasis on мы (“we, at some point, once met…”).
- Also correct and natural.
Мы встретились однажды в парке и общались весь вечер.
- Neutral; однажды feels a bit less “storybook opening” and more like an added detail.

Russian word order is flexible, but typical neutral options here are Однажды мы встретились… and Мы однажды встретились…. None of these changes the core meaning; they just shift what feels foregrounded.

How do you form past tense like встретились and общались for different persons and genders?

Past tense in Russian is built from the infinitive stem + endings that show gender/number:

Masculine singular: -л
Feminine singular: -ла
Neuter singular: -ло
Plural: -ли

For встретиться → past tense (perfective):

я встретился / я встретилась – I met (m/f)
ты встретился / ты встретилась
он встретился
она встретилась
оно встретилось
мы встретились
вы встретились
они встретились

For общаться → past tense (imperfective):

я общался / общалась (m/f)
он общался
она общалась
мы общались
они общались

In your sentence, мы встретились, мы общались are both plural → -лись / -лись (the -сь is the reflexive part).

How do you say this sentence in the future or present? Can we make встретились and общались future?

To change the tense, you usually need to switch forms or even verbs.

Present
You can’t have present tense of встретиться (perfective) in normal usage; perfective present looks like a future.

Present-like meaning:

Мы встречаемся в парке и общаемся весь вечер.
– We meet in the park and talk all evening (regularly / whenever this happens).

Future

For встретиться (perfective), future is a simple form:
- Мы встретимся в парке и будем общаться весь вечер.
  - We will meet in the park and will talk all evening.
For общаться (imperfective), future is “быть” + infinitive:
- будем общаться – we will be communicating / talking

So:

Past: Однажды мы встретились в парке и общались весь вечер.
Future: Однажды мы встретимся в парке и будем общаться весь вечер.

How do you pronounce these words and where is the stress?

Stress (in CAPS) and rough English-like transcription:

Однажды – od-NAZH-dy
мы – my (like “mɨ”, short “i” sound, not exactly “ee”)
встретились – VFSTRYE-ti-leesʹ
- Stress: ВСТРЕ́тились → вСТРЕ-ти-лись (STRE is stressed)
в – v (very short)
парке – PAR-kye
- Stress: ПА́рке
и – ee
общались – ab-SHCHA-leeś
- Stress: общА́лись → ob-SHCHÁ-lisʹ
весь – vyesʹ
вечер – VYE-cher
- Stress: ВЕ́чер

So the main stresses in the sentence are:

однА́жды мы встрЕ́тились в пА́рке и общА́лись весь вЕ́чер.