Со временем я полюбил этот город.

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Breakdown of Со временем я полюбил этот город.

• город: the city
• этот: this
• со временем: over time

Questions & Answers about Со временем я полюбил этот город.

What does Со временем literally mean, and why is it со, not с?

Со временем literally means “with time” or “over time” in the sense of “as time passed / gradually.”

Russian has two spoken forms of the preposition с (“with/from”): с and со.
Со is used before certain consonant clusters to make pronunciation easier and to sound natural, for example:

• со временем – over time
• со вторника – from Tuesday
• со мной – with me
• со всех сторон – from all sides

So с временем is grammatically the same preposition, but it sounds awkward and is effectively not used; the normal phrase is со временем.

Does Со временем mean the same as English “in time” (as in “We’ll get there in time for the movie”)?

No. Со временем means “gradually, as time passed / over time”, referring to a slow change.

It does not have the “before it’s too late / before the deadline” meaning that English “in time” can have.

Examples:

• Со временем я полюбил этот город. – Over time I came to love this city.
• Со временем всё изменится. – With time, everything will change.

If you want the “before it’s too late” idea in Russian, you’d use other phrases, e.g.:

• успеть вовремя – to be on time
• сделать что‑то вовремя – to do something in time.