Learn Hardcore Russian: Иногда мне приходится работать вечером.

So the sentence is literally like:
“Sometimes, to me it happens to work in the evening” → naturally in English:
“Sometimes I have to work in the evening.”

Using я прихожу would mean “I come / I arrive,” which is totally different and wrong in this context.

Why is it мне and not я?

Мне is the dative form of я (“to me / for me”).

With the verb приходиться in the sense “to have to,” the person who is obliged to do something is always in the dative:

Мне приходится – I have to…
Тебе приходится – You have to…
Нам приходится – We have to…

There is no explicit grammatical subject like я in this construction; it’s impersonal:

(Мне) приходится работать. – Literally “It happens (to me) to work.”

So мне is required by the verb приходиться in this meaning.

What exactly does приходится add that нужно / надо / должен don’t?

All of these can translate as “have to / must,” but they have different nuances:

Мне нужно / надо работать вечером.
Neutral “I need to / I have to work in the evening.”
Focus on necessity/requirement.
Я должен работать вечером.
More formal or strong obligation. Often moral, legal, or from rules/authority.
“I must / I am obliged to work in the evening.”
Мне приходится работать вечером.
Often implies:
- The situation forces you, not your own choice.
- A bit of inconvenience, resignation, or lack of control.
It can sound like:
- “I (unfortunately / inevitably) have to work in the evening.”
- “I end up having to work in the evening.”

So приходится is good when you want to stress that circumstance forces you to do something, often against your preference.

Is приходится a reflexive verb because of -ся? What does that -ся do here?

Yes, приходиться is a reflexive verb (it ends in ‑ся), but it’s not reflexive in the usual “do something to oneself” sense.

Here, ‑ся:

Turns it into an impersonal verb meaning something like “it turns out, it happens, it is necessary (for someone).”
Makes it compatible with the dative person: мне, ему, нам, etc.

Compare:

приходить – to come, to arrive
приходиться (кому‑то) –
- to be related (“Он мне приходится братом” – “He is my brother” literally: “He comes to me as a brother”)
- to have to do something (Мне приходится работать – “I have to work”)

In this sentence we’re using the “have to / be forced to” meaning of приходиться.

How do I conjugate приходиться in this “have to” meaning?

In the present tense, the form is usually third‑person singular neuter (because it’s impersonal):

приходится – used with any person in the dative:
- Мне приходится…
- Тебе приходится…
- Ему приходится…
- Нам приходится…

Past tense is also third‑person neuter:

Мне приходилось работать. – I had to work.
Ей приходилось ждать. – She had to wait.

Future: use будет приходиться or, more commonly in speech, you rephrase with надо / нужно / придётся:

Мне придётся работать вечером. – I will have to work in the evening.

So for this meaning, you mostly see the forms:

приходится (present)
приходилось (past)
придётся (future)

What’s the difference between приходится and придётся?

Both are from the same verb приходиться:

приходится – present: (someone) has to / has the necessity now or generally.
- Иногда мне приходится работать вечером. – Sometimes I have to work in the evening.
придётся – future: will have to / will be forced to.
- Завтра мне придётся работать вечером. – Tomorrow I’ll have to work in the evening.

So:

Present/general fact: приходится
Future necessity: придётся

Why is работать in the infinitive? Could I use a different form?

After приходится in this “have to” meaning, the action that you “have to do” is expressed by an infinitive:

Мне приходится работать.
Нам приходится ждать.
Ему приходится ездить туда каждый день.

So работать here is simply “to work.”
Using a finite verb like работаю after приходится would be ungrammatical in this construction.

Why is it работать, not поработать?

Работать is imperfective, поработать is perfective.

Here, you’re talking about a general or repeated situation:

“Sometimes I have to work in the evening” – focus on the ongoing activity / fact, not on it being completed.

For general habits, repeated actions, or ongoing processes, Russian prefers the imperfective:

Иногда мне приходится работать вечером. – Habitual, repeated.

You might use поработать if you focus on doing it for a while / getting some work done (a single occasion):

Сегодня вечером мне придётся поработать.
“Tonight I’ll have to do some work (for a while / get some work done).”

But as a general statement about your life or schedule, работать (imperfective) is correct and natural.

What case is вечером in, and why is there no preposition?

Вечером is the instrumental singular of вечер.

One of the common uses of the instrumental is to express time of day, especially with words like:

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

In these adverbial time expressions, Russian does not use a preposition:

Я работаю вечером. – I work in the evening.
Мы гуляем утром. – We walk in the morning.

So вечером here means “in the evening” by itself; no в is needed.

Can I say по вечерам instead of вечером? What’s the difference?

Yes, but the nuance changes slightly:

Иногда мне приходится работать вечером.
“Sometimes I have to work in the evening.”
– Focus on an evening or evenings as a time of day in general.
Иногда мне приходится работать по вечерам.
Literally “on evenings” → “in the evenings.”
– Stronger sense of regularity / repeated evenings, like on many evenings or usually in the evenings.

Both are correct, but по вечерам often sounds more explicitly habitual or recurring, while вечером can be either general or refer to a particular evening depending on context.

Is the word order fixed? Can I say Мне иногда приходится работать вечером or Иногда мне вечером приходится работать?

The word order is flexible in Russian; all of these can be correct:

Иногда мне приходится работать вечером.
Мне иногда приходится работать вечером.
Иногда мне вечером приходится работать.

The differences are mostly about rhythm and emphasis:

Starting with Иногда puts emphasis on “sometimes”.
Starting with Мне can slightly emphasize “for me” (as opposed to others).
Moving вечером closer to работать can make the time when you work feel more closely connected to the verb.

For a neutral sentence, Иногда мне приходится работать вечером is very natural and typical.

How would I negate this? How do I say “Sometimes I don’t have to work in the evening”?

To negate the “have to,” you usually negate приходится:

Иногда мне не приходится работать вечером.

This means:

“Sometimes I don’t have to work in the evening.”
Literally: “Sometimes, it does not happen to me that I have to work in the evening.”

Word order can vary:

Иногда мне вечером не приходится работать.
Иногда мне не приходится вечером работать.

All are understandable and correct; the most straightforward is:

Иногда мне не приходится работать вечером.

How do I pronounce приходится and where is the stress?

Phonetic hint (approximate): [prʲi‑ХО‑dʲit‑sə]

Stress is on the second syllable: прихо́дится
х is like a hard “kh” sound (as in German Bach or Spanish José).
Final -ся here is unstressed and sounds like -ца [tsə].

Syllable breakdown: при‑хо́‑ди‑тся.