Learn Hardcore Russian: Мне трудно переключаться с работы на отдых вечером. - It is hard for me to switch from work to rest in the evening.

Here мне is dative case (“to me / for me”), and трудно is an adverb meaning “hard, difficult”. Literally: “To me it-is-difficult to switch…”.

You cannot say Я трудно переключаюсь. That sounds ungrammatical; трудно doesn’t modify the subject “I” like an English adverb. Instead, Russian treats “it is difficult” as something that exists in general, and then adds the affected person in the dative: мне, тебе, ему, etc.

What grammar pattern is Мне трудно переключаться? Why is there an infinitive instead of a conjugated verb?

The pattern is:

Дат. + [adverb/adjective in neuter] + infinitive
Мне трудно переключаться.
Ей легко вставать рано.
Нам интересно читать по-русски.

So переключаться is an infinitive (“to switch”). Russian uses the infinitive after words like трудно, легко, интересно, важно to say “it’s hard/easy/interesting/important to do X”.

If you conjugate the verb (я переключаюсь), it becomes a normal personal sentence and you would need a different structure (for example: Я с трудом переключаюсь…). The pattern in the original sentence specifically calls for the infinitive.

What kind of verb is переключаться? Why does it end in -ся?

Переключаться is:

a reflexive verb (ending in -ся), and
an imperfective verb (focusing on process/habit).

The base verb is переключать – “to switch (something)” (e.g. переключать канал – to switch channels).
With -ся, it becomes more like “switch oneself / switch over” – to change your own state or focus:

переключать канал – to switch the channel
переключаться с работы на отдых – to switch from work mode to rest mode

The reflexive -ся here doesn’t literally mean you act on yourself, but it makes the verb intransitive and describes a change of state.

What’s the difference between переключаться and переключиться in this context?

They are aspectual partners:

переключаться – imperfective, emphasizes the process, habit, or ongoing difficulty.
переключиться – perfective, emphasizes a single completed switch.

Compare:

Мне трудно переключаться с работы на отдых вечером.
– It’s hard for me in general / as a process to switch from work to rest in the evenings.
Мне трудно переключиться с работы на отдых вечером.
– It’s hard for me to make that switch (at a given time) from work to rest in the evening.

In many everyday situations both can sound natural, but переключаться highlights the ongoing nature of the difficulty; переключиться highlights achieving the moment of switching.

Why do we say с работы? What case is that, and could we use от работы or из работы?

С работы is:

preposition с (“from, off”) +
genitive case of работа → работы

With с + genitive, you often express movement from a surface/place or from one activity/state to another:

с работы домой – from work to home
переключаться с одного дела на другое – switch from one task to another

От работы usually means “because of work / from (the influence of) work” (cause), e.g. устал от работы – tired from work.

Из работы is generally wrong in this context; из is “out of (inside → outside)”, like из дома – out of the house. Work here is an activity/state, not a container.

So с работы is the normal, idiomatic choice for “from work (as an activity).”

Why is it на отдых and not к отдыху or something else?

The preposition на with accusative often marks movement / direction toward a state or activity:

пойти на работу – to go to work
переключиться на другую тему – to switch to another topic

So:

с работы (from work)
на отдых (onto rest)

Переключаться с X на Y is a very common pattern:
переключаться с новости на фильм, с русского на английский, etc.

К отдыху (dative) would emphasize movement “toward rest” in a more abstract or poetic way and does not fit the standard verb pattern переключаться с… на….

Why is отдых a noun here and not the verb отдыхать?

Russian often uses a noun after verbs like переключаться when it talks about changing from one type of activity/state to another:

переключаться с работы на отдых – from work to rest
переключаться с дел на семью – from work matters to family

The structure is с + noun → на + noun.

You could say переключаться с работы на то, чтобы отдыхать, but it’s longer and less natural in this everyday context. The short noun отдых (“rest”) is the idiomatic choice.

Why is вечером in the instrumental case? Does it always mean “in the evening”?

Вечером is the instrumental singular of вечер. The instrumental is often used for time expressions meaning “in/at/on [time period]”:

утром – in the morning
днём – in the afternoon / during the day
вечером – in the evening
ночью – at night (this one is an adverb formed from ночь)

So вечером here means “in the evening / in the evenings”. It’s very common and does indeed usually translate as “in the evening(s)” when used as a free-standing time adverb like this.

Can we change the word order? For example, can we say Вечером мне трудно переключаться с работы на отдых?

Yes, Russian word order is quite flexible, and both are fine:

Мне трудно переключаться с работы на отдых вечером.
Вечером мне трудно переключаться с работы на отдых.

The second version Вечером мне трудно… slightly emphasizes “in the evening” more strongly at the beginning, but the basic meaning is the same.

Other natural orders:

Мне вечером трудно переключаться с работы на отдых.
Трудно мне вечером переключаться с работы на отдых. (more emotional/colloquial)

The key elements (мне, трудно, переключаться, с работы, на отдых, вечером) stay the same; their order just shifts the focus.

Can we drop мне and just say Трудно переключаться с работы на отдых вечером?

Yes, that’s possible:

Трудно переключаться с работы на отдых вечером.

Without мне, the sentence sounds more general/impersonal:

Трудно переключаться… – It’s hard (for people / in general) to switch…
Мне трудно переключаться… – It’s hard for me personally to switch…

Context can still make it clear you’re talking about yourself, but grammatically мне marks it explicitly as your own difficulty.

Is there a difference between трудно and тяжело in this sentence?

Both work and are close in meaning:

Мне трудно переключаться… – It’s hard / difficult for me to switch…
Мне тяжело переключаться… – It’s hard / burdensome / emotionally heavy for me to switch…

Трудно focuses slightly more on difficulty (effort, challenge),
тяжело can add a nuance of heaviness, sometimes emotional or psychological.

In everyday speech, many people use them almost interchangeably here.