Вечером я вспоминаю наш отпуск.

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Breakdown of Вечером я вспоминаю наш отпуск.

• вечером: in the evening
• отпуск: the vacation
• наш: our
• вспоминать: to remember

Questions & Answers about Вечером я вспоминаю наш отпуск.

What case is вечером, and why does it end in -ом instead of using a preposition like в вечер?

Вечером is the instrumental case of вечер (evening):

• вечер → вечером (instrumental singular)

In Russian, the instrumental is very often used to express “when?” for parts of the day:

• утро → утром – in the morning
• день → днём – in/at daytime
• вечер → вечером – in the evening
• ночь → ночью – at night

So instead of saying в вечер, Russian uses this instrumental form without a preposition. It functions almost like an adverb meaning “in the evening”.

Could I change the word order and say Я вспоминаю наш отпуск вечером? Is there any difference?

Yes, Я вспоминаю наш отпуск вечером is also correct.

Both sentences are fine:

• Вечером я вспоминаю наш отпуск.
• Я вспоминаю наш отпуск вечером.

The difference is mostly in emphasis:

• Starting with Вечером puts more focus on when: As for the evening, that’s when I remember our vacation.
• Putting вечером at the end sounds a bit more neutral in English: I remember our vacation in the evening.

Grammatically they are equivalent; Russian word order is flexible, and here both are natural.

Why is it вспоминаю (imperfective) and not вспомню (perfective)? What’s the difference?

Вспоминать (imperfective) and вспомнить (perfective) are an aspect pair.

• вспоминать – to recall / be recalling, to think back to (a process, repeated/habitual)
• вспомнить – to recall once, to suddenly remember (a single completed act)

In the sentence:

• Вечером я вспоминаю наш отпуск.
  → In the evenings I (tend to) think back to / recall our vacation.
  This suggests a regular, habitual action or a longer process of reminiscing.

If you said:

• Вечером я вспомнил наш отпуск.
  → In the evening I (suddenly) remembered our vacation.
  That would describe one specific moment when the memory came back, and then it’s done.

So вспоминаю fits better for a habit or ongoing evening activity.

What is the infinitive of вспоминаю, and how is this verb conjugated?

The infinitive is вспоминать (imperfective).

Present-tense conjugation (with stress):

• я вспомина́ю – I remember / I recall
• ты вспомина́ешь – you (sg., informal) remember
• он / она / оно вспомина́ет – he / she / it remembers
• мы вспомина́ем – we remember
• вы вспомина́ете – you (pl. or polite) remember
• они вспомина́ют – they remember

The stress is on на́: вспомина́ю, вспомина́ешь, etc.

What’s the difference between вспоминать and помнить? Could the sentence use помню instead?

They are related but not the same:

• помнить кого/что – to remember, to have something in your memory as a state

  • Я помню наш отпуск. – I remember our vacation (I haven’t forgotten it).

• вспоминать кого/что – to recall, to actively think back, to call the memory up

  • Вечером я вспоминаю наш отпуск. – In the evening I (tend to) recall / think back to our vacation.

So:

• помнить is about the state of not having forgotten something.
• вспоминать is about the mental action of recalling or reminiscing.

You could say Вечером я помню наш отпуск, but it would sound odd: In the evening I remember our vacation (implying maybe that at other times you don’t). The verb вспоминать is much more natural in this context of evening reminiscing.

Why is there no preposition like о or про before наш отпуск? In English we say “think about our vacation.”

This is because of the verb’s government (which cases it uses):

• вспоминать кого? что? → takes a direct object in the accusative case
  
  • вспоминать наш отпуск – to recall our vacation

If you wanted to use о / про, you’d typically combine them with verbs like:

• думать о / про – to think about
  
  • Думаю о нашем отпуске. – I’m thinking about our vacation.
• говорить о / про – to talk about
  
  • Говорим о нашем отпуске. – We’re talking about our vacation.

So with вспоминать you normally don’t use о / про; you just put the object in the accusative: наш отпуск.

What case is наш отпуск, and how do we know?

Наш отпуск is in the accusative case as the direct object of the verb вспоминаю.

• The verb вспоминать answers the question кого? что? (whom? what?)
  → что? – наш отпуск

For masculine inanimate nouns like отпуск, the accusative form is the same as the nominative:

• Nominative: отпуск
• Accusative: отпуск

That’s why it looks like nominative, but its function in the sentence shows it is accusative.

Why is it наш отпуск and not свой отпуск? What’s the difference?

Both are possible, but they have different nuances.

• наш отпуск – our vacation (belongs to “us” as a group)

  • Could mean the vacation taken by you and your partner, family, friends, etc.

• свой отпуск – my own vacation (reflexive possessive, referring back to я)

  • Often used when talking about your own vacation time, as opposed to someone else’s vacation.

In this specific sentence:

• Вечером я вспоминаю наш отпуск.
  → In the evening I remember *our vacation (the one we took together).*

If you said:

• Вечером я вспоминаю свой отпуск.
  → Emphasises my own time off (from work), maybe less about shared experience and more about your personal leave.

For я, мой and свой can both be used; свой just stresses that it belongs to the subject, while наш explicitly says it was “ours,” not just mine.”

What’s the difference between отпуск and каникулы? Could I say нашИ каникулы instead?

Отпуск and каникулы are not interchangeable:

• отпуск – vacation / leave from work (adults, employees)

  • Я иду в отпуск. – I’m going on vacation (from my job).

• каникулы – school or university holidays, breaks for students

  • Летние каникулы. – summer holidays (for pupils/students).

So:

• наш отпуск → our vacation from work (e.g., a trip you and your partner took).
• наши каникулы → our school/university break.

You would choose отпуск here if the speaker is talking about time off from a job. Use каникулы if it’s about students’ breaks.

Why is the English translation often “In the evenings I remember our vacation” and not just “In the evening…”?

The Russian вечером can mean either:

• a single evening (if the context is clearly one-time)
• or evenings in general, i.e. a habitual action

In combination with the imperfective verb вспоминаю (which often suggests a habit), the most natural English rendering is:

• “In the evenings I remember / think back to our vacation.”

Russian doesn’t need a special plural form here (like по вечерам) to show habit; the verb aspect already pushes the interpretation toward “usually / generally in the evening.”

If you want to stress repeated evenings even more, you can also say:

• По вечерам я вспоминаю наш отпуск. – In the evenings / In the evenings I usually remember our vacation.

Can I drop я and just say Вечером вспоминаю наш отпуск?

Yes, you can omit я:

• Вечером вспоминаю наш отпуск.

Russian often drops subject pronouns because the verb endings show the person (-ю = 1st person singular).

However:

• Including я (Вечером я вспоминаю…) is neutral and slightly clearer, especially in written or formal language.
• Omitting я is common in more colloquial or context-rich situations, where it’s obvious who is speaking.

Both forms are grammatically correct.