Breakdown of Мы успеем встретиться вечером.
Questions & Answers about Мы успеем встретиться вечером.
Успеем is the 1st person plural future of успеть (perfective), which literally means “to manage (in time), to have enough time, to be on time.”
So Мы успеем встретиться вечером is more like:
- “We’ll have time to meet in the evening”
or - “We’ll manage to meet in the evening (we won’t be too late / too busy).”
It does not simply mean “we will meet”; it adds the nuance that time will be sufficient.
This is a very common Russian structure: успеть + infinitive.
- Успеем – conjugated verb (“we will manage / have time”)
- Встретиться – infinitive (“to meet”)
Together: успеть что‑сделать? → успеть встретиться = “to manage to meet / to have time to meet.”
The second verb must be in the infinitive, not conjugated.
So Мы успеем встретимся вечером is wrong; it must be Мы успеем встретиться вечером.
Both verbs are perfective:
- успеем ← успеть (perfective)
- встретиться ← встретиться (already perfective; its imperfective partner is встречаться)
Perfective verbs in Russian typically:
- Focus on a single, completed action
- Form their future with simple endings (no буду)
Here, the speaker is talking about a specific future meeting that will successfully happen and about successfully having time for it. That’s why both verbs are perfective: they emphasize one successful, completed event in the future.
They are an aspect pair:
встречаться – imperfective
- “to meet” regularly / habitually
- “to be meeting” (process)
- Example: Мы часто встречаемся вечером. – “We often meet in the evening.”
встретиться – perfective
- “to meet (once), to meet successfully (completed action)”
- Example: Мы встретимся вечером. – “We will (have a) meeting in the evening (one specific event).”
In Мы успеем встретиться вечером, the speaker is talking about one particular meeting happening successfully, so perfective встретиться is used.
The -ся / -сь ending marks a reflexive verb. It can express different things; here it shows a mutual action:
- встречать – “to meet (someone), to greet” (non‑reflexive)
- встречаться / встретиться – “to meet (each other)”
So встретиться literally means “to meet with each other.”
That’s why you usually say встретиться when two or more people meet:
- Мы встретились в кафе. – “We met at the café.”
Вечером here is the instrumental singular of вечер, used adverbially to mean “in the evening.”
For parts of the day, Russian often uses this instrumental form without a preposition:
- утром – in the morning
- днём – in / during the day
- вечером – in the evening
- ночью – at night
So you normally say:
- Мы встретимся вечером. – “We’ll meet in the evening.”
Using в вечером is ungrammatical in this meaning.
Вечером is instrumental case singular of вечер.
In Russian, the instrumental case is often used to express the time when something happens, especially with parts of the day, functioning like an adverb:
- Он работал утром. – He worked in the morning.
- Она отдыхает днём. – She rests in the daytime.
- Мы успеем встретиться вечером. – We’ll have time to meet in the evening.
So here, instrumental = “at that time.”
Yes, Мы встретимся вечером is grammatically correct.
Difference in nuance:
Мы встретимся вечером.
- Neutral statement of fact: “We will meet in the evening.”
- Focus: the meeting itself will happen.
Мы успеем встретиться вечером.
- Adds the idea: “We’ll have enough time” / “We won’t be too late or too busy.”
- Often used when there was doubt or concern about time:
- “Our day is so busy…”
- “Don’t worry, мы успеем встретиться вечером.”
Both can be translated as “We’ll be able to meet in the evening,” but they focus on different things:
успеть (“to manage in time, to have time”)
- Focus on time constraints / deadlines.
- Мы успеем встретиться вечером. – We’ll have enough time to meet in the evening.
смочь (“to be able to, to manage” in a general sense)
- Focus on possibility / ability / circumstances (schedules, permission, health, etc.).
- Мы сможем встретиться вечером. – Our circumstances will allow us to meet in the evening.
So успеем emphasizes time sufficiency; сможем emphasizes overall possibility.
Because after успеть you must use the infinitive form of the next verb:
- успеть + infinitive:
- успеем сделать – we’ll manage to do
- успеем посмотреть – we’ll manage to watch
- успеем встретиться – we’ll manage to meet
You cannot follow успеем with a conjugated verb:
- ✗ успеем встретимся – incorrect
- ✓ успеем встретиться – correct
Think of успеть as similar to English “to manage to…” or “to have time to…”, which also takes a to + verb form after it.
Успеем is simple future tense, 1st person plural.
For perfective verbs like успеть, the future is formed without быть (“to be”). You just add personal endings:
- я успею
- ты успеешь
- он / она / оно успеет
- мы успеем
- вы успеете
- они успеют
So успеем = “we will manage / we will have time.”
Yes, that is correct Russian.
- Мы успеем встретиться вечером.
- Вечером мы успеем встретиться.
Both mean “We’ll have time to meet in the evening.”
The difference is slight emphasis:
- Вечером мы успеем встретиться starts with “In the evening,” so it highlights when more strongly.
- Word order in Russian is flexible; moving adverbials like вечером is common and natural.
Approximate pronunciation: [vstré-tit-sya].
Details:
- встре-: the встр cluster is pronounced together: [vstr].
- Stress is on -е-: встрЕться.
- The -ться ending is usually pronounced like [ца] or [т͡sə] in fast speech.
Entire sentence, with typical stress:
- МЫ усПЕем встрЕтиться ВЕчером.
Unstressed о in вечером is pronounced more like [a] or reduced [ə]: [vʲéchʲərəm].