Questions & Answers about Вечером я немного устал.
Why is there no word for “in” before вечером? Why not в вечер?
Russian often expresses “in/at (a time)” by putting a noun into the instrumental case, without a preposition.
- вечер = evening (nominative)
- вечером = in the evening (instrumental, used adverbially)
So Вечером я немного устал = “In the evening I got a bit tired.”
You don’t say в вечер in this meaning; вечером by itself already means in the evening as a time expression.
What exactly is устал? Is it a verb or an adjective, and why is it masculine?
Устал here is the past tense form of the verb устать (perfective: “to get tired”), masculine singular.
Pattern of past tense for устать:
- я / он устал – I / he got tired
- я / она устала – I / she got tired
- мы / они устали – we / they got tired
It agrees with the subject’s gender and number:
- If a man is speaking: Я немного устал.
- If a woman is speaking: Я немного устала.
- If a group: Мы немного устали.
So it’s a verb form, not an adjective like “tired” in English.
Why isn’t there a separate word for “was”? In English we say “I was a bit tired.”