Breakdown of Для нас эта конференция — хороший повод встретиться с друзьями из других городов.
Questions & Answers about Для нас эта конференция — хороший повод встретиться с друзьями из других городов.
Для нас literally means “for us” or “as far as we are concerned.”
- для always takes the genitive case.
- мы (we) → нас in genitive.
- So для нас = for us (genitive), not для мы or для нам.
Compare:
- для нас это важно – this is important for us.
- нам важно – it is important to us (using dative, more like “to us it is important”).
In your sentence, для нас sets the perspective: from our point of view / for us, this conference...
Yes. In Russian, in the present tense, the verb “to be” (быть) is usually omitted, and a dash often marks the connection:
- эта конференция — хороший повод
≈ this conference is a good reason/occasion.
You could also say:
- Эта конференция является хорошим поводом. (more formal, with an explicit verb)
- Эта конференция — хороший повод. (normal, neutral style)
The dash shows the link subject → predicate when both parts are nouns/noun phrases in the nominative:
эта конференция (subject) — хороший повод (predicate).
Эта конференция is in the nominative case, because it’s the subject of the sentence.
- эта конференция – nominative (who/what? this conference)
- эту конференцию – accusative (whom/what? this conference – as an object)
In your sentence, конференция is not being acted upon; it is the thing being described:
эта конференция — хороший повод → this conference is a good occasion.
So the subject has to be in nominative: эта конференция, not эту конференцию.
Хороший повод is in the nominative case, because it is the predicative part of “X is Y”:
- эта конференция — хороший повод
Subject (nominative) — Predicate (also nominative).
In Russian, after the implied “to be” in such constructions, the predicate noun is usually in the nominative, not in another case.
Also note gender agreement:
- повод is masculine, so we use хороший (masculine form), not хорошая or хорошее:
- хороший повод (m.)
- хорошая причина (f.)
- хорошее событие (n.)
Both can be translated as reason, but there is a nuance:
- повод – a pretext / occasion / handy reason to do something.
Often something neutral or convenient that gives you an excuse or opportunity. - причина – a real cause, the underlying reason why something happens or exists.
In this sentence:
- хороший повод встретиться → a good occasion/opportunity to meet. The conference itself may not be the deep “cause”; it just conveniently gathers people so you can meet.
If you said:
- Эта конференция — причина наших встреч.
That would sound like the conference is the actual causal reason meetings happen at all, which is a bit different.
Встретиться is the perfective reflexive infinitive and here means “to meet (up)”, usually mutually and one time.
Compare:
- встретиться с друзьями – to meet (up) with friends (once, as an event).
- встречаться с друзьями – to meet with friends regularly / to hang out (on a regular basis) (imperfective, repeated action).
- встретить друзей – to meet / run into / greet friends (non‑reflexive, focuses more on you encountering them, not necessarily mutual arrangement).
Because the conference is a single event and a single occasion to meet, встретиться (perfective, one‑off) is the natural choice.
The verb встретиться in the meaning “to meet (with someone)” typically takes с + instrumental case:
- встретиться с кем? – to meet with whom?
- с другом (with a friend)
- с друзьями (with friends)
So:
- с друзьями is instrumental plural of друг.
This is a pattern to remember:
- говорить с кем – to speak with someone
- спорить с кем – to argue with someone
- встретиться с кем – to meet with someone
Друзьями is the instrumental plural of друг (friend).
Full main forms of друг:
- Nom. sg.: друг – a friend
- Gen. sg.: друга
- Dat. sg.: другу
- Acc. sg.: друга
- Instr. sg.: другом
- Prep. sg.: о друге
Plural:
- Nom. pl.: друзья – friends
- Gen. pl.: друзей
- Dat. pl.: друзьям
- Acc. pl.: друзей
- Instr. pl.: друзьями ← used in the sentence
- Prep. pl.: о друзьях
So с друзьями = with friends (instrumental plural).
The preposition из (“from, out of”) requires the genitive case.
- город (city) → городов in genitive plural.
- The adjective другие must agree with городов in case (genitive) and number (plural), so it becomes других.
So we get:
- из других городов – from other cities
- из
- других (gen. pl.) + городов (gen. pl.)
- из
Forms to compare:
- Nominative plural: другие города – other cities (as subject/object)
- Genitive plural: других городов – of/from other cities (after из, нет, etc.)
Both из and от can translate as from, but they’re used in different contexts:
из – literally “out of, from inside” some place or group:
- из Москвы – from Moscow
- из России – from Russia
- из других городов – from other cities
от – more like “from (a person, source, direction towards you)”:
- письмо от друга – a letter from a friend
- подарок от родителей – a present from (your) parents
- убежать от врага – to run away from an enemy
Here we talk about people coming from cities (as locations), so из других городов is correct, not от других городов.
Yes, you can say:
- Эта конференция для нас — хороший повод встретиться с друзьями из других городов.
The basic meaning stays the same, but emphasis shifts:
- Для нас эта конференция — хороший повод...
Emphasis: for us this conference is a good occasion (maybe for others it isn’t). - Эта конференция для нас — хороший повод...
Emphasis: this conference, for us, is a good occasion (slightly more focus on the conference itself).
Both are natural; Russian word order is flexible and often used to highlight what the speaker finds most important.