Breakdown of Мне кажется, мы уже встречались.
мы
we
уже
already
встречаться
to meet (each other)
мне кажется
it seems to me, I think
Questions & Answers about Мне кажется, мы уже встречались.
Why is it Мне кажется and not Я кажусь?
Казаться means to seem. This sentence uses an impersonal construction where the person having the thought is in the Dative case (мне means to me). The verb stays in the default third-person singular (кажется). It literally means It seems to me.
Where is the word for 'that' in this sentence?
In conversational Russian, the conjunction что (that) is frequently omitted between clauses, just like in English. You can absolutely say Мне кажется, что мы уже встречались, but dropping it is very common and natural.
Why does встречались have the reflexive -сь ending?
The reflexive ending here creates a reciprocal action, meaning we met each other. If you used the non-reflexive встречали, it would mean we were meeting someone else, and the sentence would feel incomplete without an object.
Why is the imperfective verb встречались used here instead of the perfective встретились?
The imperfective is used to state a general fact or experience in the past. Because you are just noting the experience of having met at some unspecified point in your lives, rather than focusing on a single, completed meeting event, the imperfective is the right choice.
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