Вечером дети шумят в парке.

In the evening, children make noise in the park.

Breakdown of Вечером дети шумят в парке.

• парк: the park
• в: in
• вечером: in the evening
• ребёнок: the child
• шуметь: to make noise

Questions & Answers about Вечером дети шумят в парке.

Why is it вечером and not в вечер?

Russian often uses the instrumental case (ending in -ом / -ем) without a preposition to express time like “in the evening / in the morning / at night”.

Common patterns:

• утром – in the morning
• днём – in the daytime
• вечером – in the evening
• ночью – at night

So вечером literally is “by evening / in the evening” and is the normal way to say “in the evening” in this general sense.

You would not normally say в вечер. If you want to be more specific, you say, for example:

• в этот вечер – this evening
• в тот вечер – that evening

But the bare в вечер on its own is practically never used.

What part of speech is вечером here? Is it an adverb?

Morphologically, вечером is a noun (вечер) in the instrumental singular.

Functionally, in the sentence it acts as an adverbial modifier of time, so in English terms you can think of it as behaving like an adverb (“in the evening”).

This is common in Russian: noun forms are often used adverbially, especially with time expressions like зимой, летом, утром, вечером, ночью.

Can I also say Дети шумят вечером в парке? Does the word order change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

• Дети шумят вечером в парке.

Both sentences are grammatically correct:

• Вечером дети шумят в парке. – neutral English translation: In the evening, the children are noisy in the park.
• Дети шумят вечером в парке. – neutral English: The children are noisy in the park in the evening.

The difference is mainly in emphasis:

• Вечером дети шумят в парке. – slightly emphasizes when this happens (the time вечером comes first).
• Дети шумят вечером в парке. – slightly emphasizes who does it (the subject дети comes first).

In everyday speech, the meaning is basically the same; Russian word order is flexible and is often used to highlight different parts of the sentence rather than to change the core meaning.

What exactly does шумят mean? Is it “are noisy” or “make noise”?

Шумят is 3rd person plural present tense of шуметь.

Its meaning covers both English ideas:

• to make noise
• to be noisy

So дети шумят can be translated as:

• the children are making noise
• the children are being noisy

In context:

• Вечером дети шумят в парке. – In the evening, the children make noise in the park / The children are noisy in the park in the evening.

Which verb form is шумят? How do you conjugate шуметь?

Шумят is:

• verb: шуметь (to make noise, to be noisy)
• aspect: imperfective
• tense: present
• person/number: 3rd person plural (“they”)

Present tense conjugation of шуметь:

• я шумлю – I make noise
• ты шумишь – you (sg. informal) make noise
• он / она / оно шумит – he / she / it makes noise
• мы шумим – we make noise
• вы шумите – you (pl. / formal) make noise
• они шумят – they make noise

Stress pattern: шумлю́, шумИшь, шумИт, шумИм, шумИте, шумЯт (the last form шумя́т has the stress on -ят).

Does Дети шумят mean “the children are being noisy right now” or “children are noisy (in general)”?

In Russian, the simple present of an imperfective verb (like шуметь) can mean:

1. An action happening right now

   • Дети шумят. – The children are being noisy (right now).

2. A repeated / habitual action or a general fact

   • Дети часто шумят. – Children often make noise.
   • Вечером дети шумят в парке. – The children (typically) make noise in the park in the evening.

In the sentence Вечером дети шумят в парке, it most naturally sounds like a regular or typical situation, not just a single unique evening – but context could make it about this specific evening too.

Why is it в парке and not в парк?

The choice between в парке and в парк depends on whether you mean:

• location (where something/someone is) → в + prepositional case
• direction / movement into somewhere → в + accusative case

Here we describe location (where the children are being noisy):

• в парке – “in the park” (prepositional case парке)

If we were talking about going into the park, we’d use the accusative:

• идти в парк – to go to the park
• зайти в парк – to go into the park; to stop by the park

Why в парке and not на парке? When do we use в vs на?

Both в and на can mean “in / at”, but they’re used with different types of locations.

Roughly:

• в – “in, inside” something conceived as an enclosed space, volume, or territory

  • в парке – in the park
  • в школе – in (at) school
  • в магазине – in the store

• на – “on, at” for surfaces, some open areas, and certain conventional locations

  • на улице – in the street / outside
  • на площади – in the square
  • на стадионе – at the stadium

A park is thought of as a territory / area you are inside, so Russian uses в парке, not на парке.

What case is в парке, and how is парк declined?

В парке uses the prepositional case of the noun парк.

Singular declension of парк:

• Nominative (кто? что?) – парк – the park
• Genitive (кого? чего?) – парка – of the park
• Dative (кому? чему?) – парку – to / for the park
• Accusative (кого? что?) – парк – (same as nominative, for inanimate)
• Instrumental (кем? чем?) – парком – with/by the park
• Prepositional (о ком? о чём?) – (о) парке – about / in the park

With the preposition в for location, we use the prepositional: в парке – in the park.

Why is it дети and not something like деты? What is the singular of дети?

Дети is an irregular plural.

• Singular: ребёнок – a child
• Plural: дети – children

So дети is not the plural of a word дета or деть. Historically it’s related to дитя (a child – archaic/poetic), but in modern standard Russian, you normally say:

• один ребёнок – one child
• два / три / много детей – two / three / many children
• дети – children

The genitive plural form is детей:

• игрушки детей – the children’s toys

Could I say По вечерам дети шумят в парке? What’s the difference from Вечером дети шумят в парке?

Yes, По вечерам дети шумят в парке is correct.

Difference:

• Вечером дети шумят в парке.
  – In the evening the children make noise in the park.
  Can be:

  • one particular evening (this evening) or
  • a general habit (in the evenings, generally).

• По вечерам дети шумят в парке.
  – literally “by evenings children make noise in the park”
  – better English: In the evenings, the children make noise in the park.
  This clearly means repeated / habitual action on multiple evenings.

So по вечерам makes the repetitiveness explicit.

Can I say Вечером шумно в парке instead? How is that different from Вечером дети шумят в парке?

Yes, you can say:

• Вечером шумно в парке. – It’s noisy in the park in the evening.

Differences:

• Вечером дети шумят в парке.

  • has an explicit subject: дети (the children)
  • focuses on who is making the noise (the children)

• Вечером шумно в парке.

  • is an impersonal construction
  • just states that it is noisy in the park; the sentence doesn’t say who is causing the noise.

So the second version describes the situation (noisy park), while the original sentence points to a specific source of the noise (children).

Where is the stress in each word, and are there any pronunciation tips?

Stresses:

• ве́чером – VE-che-rom (stress on the first syllable)
• де́ти – DE-ti (stress on де-)
• шумя́т – shu-MYAT (stress on -ят)
• па́рке – PAR-ke (stress on па-)

Pronunciation notes:

• In шумят, the unstressed у is still pronounced clearly, but the stress on -ят makes that syllable the most prominent.
• Final consonants in Russian are usually devoiced, but in парке the к is followed by a vowel, so it stays [k].
• The р is a rolled or tapped r, not like English park.