Learn Hardcore Russian: Завтра я уговорю друга прийти в парк. - Tomorrow I will persuade my friend to come to the park.

Why is уговорю in the future tense? In English we might say “Tomorrow I persuade my friend…” using the present — why can’t Russian do the same?

Russian normally does not use the present tense to talk about the future the way English does.

English: Tomorrow I see him. (present form, but future meaning)
Russian: you must use a future form:
- Завтра я увижу его.

In the sentence Завтра я уговорю друга прийти в парк, tomorrow clearly refers to the future, so Russian needs a future tense of the verb уговорить. That form is уговорю (simple future of a perfective verb).

Using a present form like уговариваю here would sound wrong if you mean tomorrow; it would suggest something happening now or regularly, not a one-time future result.

What is the difference between уговорю and something like буду уговаривать?

Both are future, but they differ in aspect and therefore in meaning:

уговорю
- Perfective (уговорить)
- Focus on the result: that you will succeed in persuading.
- Implies completion: I will (manage to) persuade my friend.
буду уговаривать
- Imperfective (уговаривать)
- Focus on the process, effort, or repeated action, not on success.
- Means: I will be trying to persuade / will be persuading my friend.

So:

Завтра я уговорю друга прийти в парк – You’re confident that by tomorrow, he’ll be persuaded, and he will agree.
Завтра я буду уговаривать друга прийти в парк – Tomorrow you’ll spend time trying to persuade him; maybe you will succeed, maybe not.

Why is it друга and not друг or другу?

The verb уговорить / уговаривать takes a direct object in the accusative case:

уговорить кого? – друга
уговаривать кого? – друга

Друг is a masculine animate noun. For such nouns:

Nominative (dictionary form): друг
Accusative (direct object): друга (same form as the genitive)

So я уговорю друга literally means I will persuade (whom?) – my friend.

Другу would be dative (to a friend) and would be used with verbs that need dative:

помочь другу – to help a friend
позвонить другу – to call a friend

Here the verb wants accusative, so друга is correct.

If друга looks like the genitive, how do I know it’s accusative here?

For animate masculine nouns, the accusative singular form equals the genitive singular form:

Genitive: нет друга – there is no friend
Accusative: вижу друга – I see a friend

You know it’s accusative because:

The verb уговорить takes кого? (accusative), not кого нет? (genitive of negation, etc.).
The sentence meaning is who is being persuaded, not of whose or there is no friend.

So grammatically:
уговорю (кого?) друга → accusative, functioning as a direct object, even though the form matches the genitive.

Why is it прийти, not a conjugated form like придёт or придут?

The pattern with уговорить / уговаривать is:

уговорить кого-то сделать что-то – to persuade someone to do something

The second verb (the action you persuade them to do) stays in the infinitive:

уговорить друга пойти в кино – persuade a friend to go to the cinema
уговорю сына выучить уроки – I’ll persuade my son to study his lessons
уговорили его остаться – they persuaded him to stay

So here:

You persuade друга (your friend)
To прийти (to come) – infinitive form, because it’s the action you want him to do.

A conjugated form like придёт would break this construction and be ungrammatical in this exact pattern.

Why is the infinitive прийти and not идти?

Идти means to go (on foot, in one direction) and describes the process of movement.
Прийти means to come (arrive) on foot, and describes reaching a destination.

In this sentence, your goal is that your friend will arrive at the park, not just be walking in general. So:

прийти в парк – to come / arrive at the park
идти в парк – to be going to the park (process, possibly used right now: I am going to the park)

After уговорю друга the natural question is: persuade him to do what?
The answer is: to come (to the park), so прийти fits better than идти.

Is прийти the correct spelling? I’ve seen придти and прийдти too.

The modern standard spelling is:

Infinitive: прийти
1st person singular future: приду
3rd person plural: придут

Forms like придти or прийдти are considered non-standard or obsolete in contemporary literary Russian. So in your sentence, прийти is the correct form:

уговорю друга прийти в парк

Why is it в парк and not в парке?

This is about direction vs. location:

в парк – into the park, to the park (movement toward a place) → accusative
в парке – in the park (being inside a place) → prepositional

Because the verb прийти expresses movement into a place, you need the accusative:

прийти в парк – to come to the park
быть в парке – to be in the park

So уговорю друга прийти в парк literally:
I’ll persuade my friend to come to (into) the park.

Could I say Завтра я уговариваю друга прийти в парк?

That sounds unnatural for a planned one-time future action.

уговариваю is present (imperfective) and normally describes:
- what you are doing now, or
- what you do regularly / habitually.

So Завтра я уговариваю друга… is not how Russians normally talk about future plans.

To express a specific future action tomorrow, you would say:

Завтра я буду уговаривать друга прийти в парк. (I’ll be persuading / I’ll try to persuade him.)
Завтра я уговорю друга прийти в парк. (I’ll persuade him; I expect success.)

Using a present verb for future reference is very limited in Russian and usually tied to timetables, fixed schedules, etc., not personal intentions like this.

What is the difference in nuance between уговорить and убедить?

Both can be translated as to persuade / convince, but they feel different:

уговорить
- Literally from говорить (to talk).
- Suggests talking someone into something, often by repeated persuasion, cajoling, pleading, or emotional influence.
- Often more informal / everyday:
  - Я уговорил его пойти со мной. – I talked him into going with me.
убедить
- From верить (belief).
- Suggests convincing someone by arguments, reasons, logic.
- Sounds a bit more formal:
  - Я убедил его, что это безопасно. – I convinced him that it’s safe.

In your sentence, уговорю друга sounds like friendly, possibly insistent talking, not a logical debate.

Can I change the word order, for example Я завтра уговорю друга прийти в парк or Я уговорю друга завтра прийти в парк?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, but the default and most neutral here is:

Завтра я уговорю друга прийти в парк.

Other options:

Я завтра уговорю друга прийти в парк.
- Also normal.
- Я at the beginning emphasizes the subject I a bit more.
Я уговорю завтра друга прийти в парк.
- Possible, but the placement of завтра in the middle feels slightly less neutral; it can sound like you are inserting tomorrow as a clarifying detail.
Я уговорю друга завтра прийти в парк.
- Here завтра most naturally attaches to прийти, so the meaning shifts slightly:
- More like: I will persuade my friend to come to the park tomorrow (the coming, not the persuading, happens tomorrow).

So:

Original: tomorrow you do the persuading.
…друга завтра прийти…: you persuade him (maybe now), so that he comes tomorrow.

Why is the stress уговорю́, not у́говорю or something else?

For the verb уговорить (perfective):

Infinitive: уговори́ть – stress on -ри́ть
1st person singular future: уговорю́ – stress on -ю́

This stress pattern (moving towards the end) is typical for many perfective verbs in the future.

Pronunciation:

у-га-во-рю́

Putting the stress earlier, like у́говорю or угОворю, sounds incorrect to native speakers.

Is this sentence formal or informal, and in what situations would it sound natural?

The sentence is neutral and can be used both in informal and fairly neutral formal contexts.

It sounds natural:

In everyday speech:
- Завтра я уговорю друга прийти в парк, и мы поиграем в футбол.
In storytelling:
- Не волнуйся, завтра я уговорю друга прийти в парк.

It might sound slightly informal / conversational compared to something like убедить друга, but it is completely acceptable in normal spoken and even written narrative Russian.