Вечером дома становится одиноко.

It gets lonely at home in the evening.

Breakdown of Вечером дома становится одиноко.

• становиться: to become
• дома: at home
• вечером: in the evening
• одиноко: lonely; lonesomely

Questions & Answers about Вечером дома становится одиноко.

Why is вечером in the instrumental case?

Russian often uses the instrumental case without a preposition to express time when something happens.

So:

• утром = in the morning
• днём = during the day
• вечером = in the evening
• ночью = at night

Here, вечером simply means in the evening. It is a very common pattern and does not mean the word is functioning like an instrument.

Why is it дома, not домой?

Because дома means at home, while домой means homeward / to home.

• Я дома = I am at home
• Я иду домой = I am going home

In Вечером дома становится одиноко, the idea is that this feeling happens while being at home, so Russian uses дома.

Is дома here a noun form or something else?

In this sentence, дома is functioning as an adverb-like word meaning at home.

Historically, it is related to дом, but in modern Russian learners usually just treat дома as a fixed expression meaning at home.

So here it does not mean houses and it is not the subject of the sentence.

Why does Russian use становится here? What does it mean exactly?