Если мы спокойно поговорим, мы сможем договориться.

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Breakdown of Если мы спокойно поговорим, мы сможем договориться.

• мы: we
• спокойно: calmly
• смочь: to be able

Questions & Answers about Если мы спокойно поговорим, мы сможем договориться.

Why is поговорим used after если? In English we say if we talk, not if we will talk.

This is a very common question.

In Russian, when an если clause refers to a real future possibility, Russian often uses a future-oriented verb form. Here, поговорим is the perfective present form, but with a future meaning: we will have a talk.

So:

• Если мы спокойно поговорим... = If we talk calmly... / If we have a calm talk...

English uses the present after if, but Russian does not match English here word-for-word.

Because поговорить is a perfective verb, its present-tense forms normally refer to the future.

Why is it поговорим and not говорим or будем говорить?

These forms express different ideas.

• поговорим = we will have a talk, a single complete conversation
• говорим = we are talking / we talk, present or habitual
• будем говорить = we will be talking / we will speak, focusing more on the process

In this sentence, the idea is not just speaking in general. It is having one calm conversation, and that conversation may lead to an agreement. That is why поговорим works well.

So the sentence is about a bounded, complete event, not an ongoing process.