Мне придётся остаться дома вечером.

I will have to stay at home in the evening.

Breakdown of Мне придётся остаться дома вечером.

• я: I
• дома: at home
• вечером: in the evening
• остаться: to stay
• прийтись: to have to

Questions & Answers about Мне придётся остаться дома вечером.

Why is it мне and not я, if the sentence means I will have to stay at home in the evening?

In Russian, many expressions of obligation use an impersonal construction with the dative case for the person who is affected.

• Мне придётся… literally: “To me it will be necessary…”
• The “real” grammatical subject is the situation, not я.
• Мне is dative of я, showing who is experiencing this necessity.

So instead of saying Я должен остаться… (I must stay…), Russian often says Мне придётся остаться… (To me it will be necessary to stay…).

What exactly is придётся? From which verb is it, and what tense is it?

Придётся is the 3rd person singular future form of the verb прийтись in its impersonal use.

• Infinitive: прийтись (literally “to come to (someone)” → figuratively “to have to” in this construction)
• Form here: (оно) придётся – impersonal “it will turn out necessary / one will have to”

• Combined with a dative: мне придётся = “I will have to”

  Even though there is no visible subject, grammatically it’s future tense, 3rd person singular, neuter being used impersonally.

How is Мне придётся… different from Мне нужно… or Я должен…?

All three express obligation/necessity, but with different nuances:

• Мне нужно остаться дома вечером.

  • Neutral necessity: “I need to stay home in the evening.”
  • Often more factual, less emotional.

• Я должен остаться дома вечером.

  • Stronger “must / ought to,” often with a sense of duty or rules.
  • Sounds more personal and direct.

• Мне придётся остаться дома вечером.

  • Suggests unpleasant or unwanted necessity, something you don’t really want but can’t avoid.
  • Often implies external circumstances forcing you: “I’ll have no choice but to stay home this evening.”

So мне придётся often carries a subtle feeling of reluctance or inconvenience.

Why is it остаться and not оставаться?

This is a choice of aspect:

• оставаться – imperfective: to be staying / to keep staying / to stay (as an ongoing or repeated action)
• остаться – perfective: to stay (as a single, completed decision or result: you end up not going anywhere)

In Мне придётся остаться дома вечером:

• The focus is on the result: that you will end up staying at home, not on the process of staying.
• Therefore the perfective infinitive остаться is used.

If you said Мне придётся оставаться дома по вечерам, with оставаться and по вечерам (“in the evenings” → regularly), that would suggest a repeated or habitual obligation.

Why is the verb остаться reflexive (with -ся)? Is there a non-reflexive form?

The verb остаться is inherently reflexive in Russian:

• Infinitive: остаться
• Non‑reflexive остать essentially does not exist in modern standard Russian as an independent verb with the meaning “to stay.”

Many Russian verbs involving states, changes, or positions are reflexive:

• остаться – to stay, remain
• остаться один – to be left alone
• остаться дома – to stay at home

You don’t have to think of it as “reflexive” in a literal sense; just remember that “to stay/remain” = остаться / оставаться, and they always have -ся.

Why is it дома and not дом or в доме?

Russian uses different forms of дом with different meanings:

1. дома (no preposition) here is a kind of adverbial form meaning “at home”:

   • Я буду дома. – I will be at home.
   • Мне придётся остаться дома. – I’ll have to stay (at) home.

2. дом (nominative) is “a house” as a subject:

   • Дом большой. – The house is big.

3. в доме (prepositional) is “in the house (inside the building)”:

   • Он в доме. – He is in the house.

In your sentence, the idea is “stay at home” in general, as your location, so дома is the natural choice.

What does вечером literally mean, and why is it in that form?

Вечером is the instrumental singular of вечер (“evening”), used here as a time adverbial:

• вечером ≈ “in the evening / this evening (as a time frame)”
• Russian often uses the instrumental to express “when” something happens:
  • утром – in the morning
  • днём – in the daytime
  • ночью – at night

So вечером here answers the question “когда?” – “when?”, and means “in the evening.”

Can I change the word order, e.g. Вечером мне придётся остаться дома? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:

• Мне придётся остаться дома вечером.
• Вечером мне придётся остаться дома.
• Мне вечером придётся остаться дома.

The basic meaning stays the same (“I’ll have to stay home in the evening”), but the emphasis shifts:

• Starting with Вечером… highlights the time:
  “As for the evening, that’s when I’ll have to stay home.”
• Putting вечером near дома (“остаться дома вечером”) sometimes makes them feel like one time-place unit: “stay home in the evening.”

In normal speech, all are natural; context and intonation will carry most of the nuance.

How would I say this for different people: “You will have to…”, “He will have to…” etc.?

You keep придётся the same (impersonal 3rd person) and change only the dative pronoun:

• Мне придётся остаться дома вечером. – I will have to…
• Тебе придётся остаться дома вечером. – You (singular, informal) will have to…
• Вам придётся остаться дома вечером. – You (formal or plural) will have to…
• Ему придётся остаться дома вечером. – He will have to…
• Ей придётся остаться дома вечером. – She will have to…
• Нам придётся остаться дома вечером. – We will have to…
• Им придётся остаться дома вечером. – They will have to…

So: [dative pronoun] + придётся + infinitive.

How do I negate this sentence? Is it Мне не придётся остаться дома вечером?

Yes, the most natural negation is:

• Мне не придётся остаться дома вечером.
  → “I won’t have to stay at home in the evening.”

Here you just put не in front of придётся, which negates the necessity itself.

Theoretically, Мне придётся не остаться дома вечером is possible, but it would mean something odd like “I will have to not stay at home in the evening,” i.e. I’m obliged to go out. This is rare and sounds marked or contrived. In normal speech, you negate придётся, not остаться.

How is придётся pronounced and stressed?

Stress and pronunciation:

• мне – [mnye], one syllable
• придётся – stress on дё: pri‑dyÓ‑tsa
  • ё is always stressed and pronounced “yo”.
• остаться – stress on та: a‑stÁ‑tsa
• дома – in this meaning (“at home”) usually дОма: DÓ‑ma
• вечером – stress on вЕ: VYE‑che‑ram

So the whole sentence:

Мне придЁтся остАться дОма вЕчером.