Learn Hardcore Russian: Мы собираемся встретиться в парке и немного погулять. - We are going to meet in the park and walk a bit.

Literal: “to gather, to assemble”
- Мы собираемся в парке. – We are gathering in the park.
  (Physically coming together.)
Figurative: “to intend, to be going to (do something)”
- Мы собираемся встретиться в парке. – We are going to meet in the park.
- Я собираюсь поехать в Москву. – I’m going to go to Moscow.

In your sentence, собираемся is used in the “intention / plan” sense.
So Мы собираемся встретиться… = “We are planning / intending to meet…” or “We’re going to meet…”.

Why is встретиться in the infinitive? Why not a finite verb like встретимся?

In Russian, after verbs that express intention, desire, ability, necessity, etc., you typically use the infinitive:

собираться + infinitive – to be going to do something
хотеть + infinitive – to want to do something
мочь + infinitive – to be able to do something

So with Мы собираемся…, the “main” action comes in the infinitive:

Мы собираемся встретиться… – We are going to meet…
Мы собираемся пообедать. – We are going to have lunch.

If you say Мы встретимся в парке, that’s a simple future:

Мы встретимся в парке. – We will meet in the park.

If you say Мы собираемся встретиться в парке, it emphasizes the plan/intention more explicitly.

Why does встретиться have the reflexive ending -ся? What’s the difference between встретить and встретиться?

The reflexive ending -ся often makes a verb reciprocal or “do something to/with each other”.

встретить (кого?) – to meet (someone), to encounter
- Я встретил друга. – I met (ran into) a friend.
встретиться (с кем?) – to meet (with someone), get together
- Мы встретились с друзьями. – We met (got together) with friends.

In your sentence:

Мы собираемся встретиться в парке… – We are going to meet (each other) in the park…

Because мы is plural, встретиться naturally implies “we will meet one another”. Using встретить here would sound like you will meet someone else as an object, not each other.

What is the difference between встретиться and встречаться?

They differ in aspect and somewhat in typical usage:

встретиться – perfective (one-time, completed action)
- “to meet (once), to have a meeting (as a single event)”
- Мы встретимся завтра. – We will meet tomorrow (once).
встречаться – imperfective (repeated / ongoing action, or general state)
1. To meet regularly:
  - Мы часто встречаемся в парке. – We often meet in the park.
2. To be seeing/dating someone:
  - Мы встречаемся уже год. – We’ve been dating for a year.

In Мы собираемся встретиться в парке, you’re talking about one planned meeting, so the perfective встретиться is natural.

Why is погулять used instead of гулять or погуляем?

Again, this is about aspect and the infinitive construction:

Infinitive
After собираться, you use the infinitive:
- Мы собираемся… погулять. – We are going to walk (a bit).
Aspect
- гулять – imperfective: “to walk, to stroll (in general / for some time)”
- погулять – perfective: “to walk/stroll for a while, for some time, to have a walk”

Погулять implies a complete, limited-time action – “to have a walk (and then it’ll be over)”.

So немного погулять = “to walk around a bit / for a little while.”

Examples:

Мы любим гулять в парке. – We like walking in the park. (habit)
Мы собираемся немного погулять. – We’re going to walk a bit. (one occasion)

What exactly does немного mean here?

Немного literally means “a little, not much, a bit”.

With activities, it often means “for a short time / not too much”:

немного погулять – to walk a bit, to stroll for a little while
немного поработать – to work a little

So и немного погулять adds the nuance that the walk is not very long or intense – just a short stroll.

What case is в парке in, and why is it not в парк?

Парк is a masculine noun. In в парке, it is in the prepositional case:

в парке (Prepositional) = in the park, location, “where?”
в парк (Accusative) = to the park, direction, “where to?”

Your sentence:

Мы собираемся встретиться в парке… – “We are going to meet in the park” (location).

If you said:

Мы собираемся пойти в парк. – “We are going to go to the park.” (movement towards)

So в + prepositional = location; в + accusative = direction/motion into.

Why is there no “with” (like “with each other” or “with friends”) after встретиться?

Russian often omits information that’s obvious from context:

Мы собираемся встретиться в парке… – It’s clear that “we” are meeting each other.

You can add с кем if you want to specify:

Мы собираемся встретиться с друзьями в парке. – We’re going to meet (with) friends in the park.
Я собираюсь встретиться с ним в парке. – I’m going to meet with him in the park.

But when the subject is plural (мы) and there’s no other object, встретиться naturally means “to meet each other”, so nothing else is needed.

Can the word order be different, like Мы собираемся немного погулять и встретиться в парке?

Yes, word order is fairly flexible in Russian, and both are grammatical:

Мы собираемся встретиться в парке и немного погулять.
- Emphasis on meeting in the park, then as an extra, walking a bit there.
Мы собираемся немного погулять и встретиться в парке.
- Emphasis slightly shifts: first “we’re going to walk a bit,” then “and meet in the park.”
- This could sound like you might walk somewhere and eventually end up meeting in the park.

The original version more clearly suggests:
“We’re going to meet in the park, and while we’re there, we’ll walk around a bit.”

Russian uses word order for focus and nuance, not just grammar.

Could we just say Мы встретимся в парке и немного погуляем? Is it the same meaning?

You can say that, and it’s correct:

Мы встретимся в парке и немного погуляем.
– We’ll meet in the park and walk a bit.

Differences:

Мы встретимся… и немного погуляем.
- Neutral future: simply states what will happen.
Мы собираемся встретиться… и немного погулять.
- Emphasizes plan/intention: “We are going to / we’re planning to meet and walk a bit.”

In everyday speech, both can be used; собираемся makes it sound more like a planned arrangement, similar to English “We’re going to meet…” vs. “We’ll meet…”.

Why don’t we repeat собираемся before немного погулять?

In Russian, when you have one auxiliary/”helper” verb (like собираться) and several infinitives that share it, you usually mention the helper only once:

Мы собираемся встретиться в парке и немного погулять.
= We are going to (1) meet in the park and (2) walk a bit.

Saying Мы собираемся встретиться в парке и собираемся немного погулять is grammatically possible but sounds repetitive and heavy in normal speech. The single собираемся naturally applies to both infinitives.

Can we drop Мы and just say Собираемся встретиться в парке и немного погулять?

Yes, you can drop Мы if the subject is clear from context:

Собираемся встретиться в парке и немного погулять.

This would sound like:

“(We) are going to meet in the park and walk a bit.”

In Russian, subject pronouns (я, ты, мы, вы, etc.) are often omitted when:

The verb ending clearly shows the person/number, and
The subject is obvious from context.

In isolation (as a standalone sentence, written in a textbook), Мы собираемся… is clearer, especially for learners. In a conversation where “we” is already understood, Russians might omit Мы.

How do you pronounce the main words, and where is the stress?

Stresses (stressed vowel in caps):

мы – my (short, like English “m” + “y” in “myth”)
собирАемся – sa-bi-RÁ-ye-msya
встрЕтиться – fstrÉ-ti-tsa
пАрке – PÁR-ke
немнОго – ni-MNÓ-ga
погуля́ть – pa-gu-LYÁT’ (stress on -лять)

Full sentence, with stressed vowels capitalized:

МЫ собирАемся встрЕтиться в ПАрке и немнОго погуля́ТЬ.