Learn Hardcore Russian: Мама не разрешает мне гулять вечером. - Mom doesn’t allow me to walk in the evening.

Мама разрешает детям гулять. – Mom allows the children (dative) to go out.
Учитель не разрешает нам говорить. – The teacher doesn’t allow us (dative) to talk.

Using меня here would be ungrammatical, because меня is not used after разрешать in this construction.

What is the grammatical structure of Мама не разрешает мне гулять вечером?

The core structure is:

Кто? – Мама (subject, nominative)
что делает? – не разрешает (verb in the present tense, 3rd person singular)
кому? – мне (indirect object, dative)
что делать? – гулять (infinitive, what she does not allow me to do)
когда? – вечером (adverbial time expression: in the evening)

Pattern with разрешать:

[Subject in nominative] + (не) разрешает + [person in dative] + [infinitive] (+ adverbials)

Examples:

Папа разрешает мне смотреть телевизор.
Учитель не разрешает нам пользоваться телефонами.

Why is гулять in the infinitive and not a form like гуляю?

In Russian, when you talk about allowing or forbidding someone to do something, that “to do something” is expressed by the infinitive:

разрешать / запрещать кому? что делать?

So you must say:

Мама не разрешает мне гулять. – Mom doesn’t allow me to go out.

Using гуляю would be wrong here, because that’s a finite form (I walk / I am walking), not the infinitive (to walk, to go out). The same happens with many similar verbs:

Он запретил мне курить. – He forbade me to smoke.
Они не позволяют нам опаздывать. – They don’t allow us to be late.

Could we say погулять instead of гулять? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say Мама не разрешает мне погулять вечером, but it changes the nuance.

гулять (imperfective) – the process in general, or the activity as such (to be out, to hang out, to walk), often habitual or unlimited in time.
погулять (perfective) – to go out for a while / for a single outing, focusing on the completed event.

So:

Мама не разрешает мне гулять вечером.
General rule: in the evenings, I’m not allowed to be out (habitual prohibition).
Мама не разрешает мне погулять вечером.
More like: she won’t let me go out this evening / on this particular occasion (often situational).

In many contexts, especially when talking about a standing rule, гулять (imperfective) is more natural.

Why is it разрешает, not a future or past form? Does present tense here mean a general rule?

Разрешает is present tense, 3rd person singular: she allows / she is allowing.

In Russian, present tense is very often used to express:

general rules
habits
regular behavior

So Мама не разрешает мне гулять вечером most naturally means:

My mom doesn’t (ever / generally) let me go out in the evening.

If you change the tense, the meaning changes:

Мама не разрешила мне гулять вечером. – She didn’t let me go out this evening / that time (one specific situation).
Мама не разрешит мне гулять вечером. – She won’t let me go out in the evening (future, prediction or expectation).

Why is there no word for “my” before мама? Shouldn’t it be моя мама?

In Russian, with close family terms like мама, папа, бабушка, дедушка, speakers very often omit the possessive when it’s obvious they are talking about their own family member.

So:

Мама не разрешает мне гулять вечером.
is naturally understood as My mom doesn’t let me go out in the evening.

You can say моя мама if you really want to emphasize my (as opposed to someone else’s) mother, or in contrast:

Моя мама разрешает, а твоя мама не разрешает. – My mom allows it, but your mom doesn’t.

But in everyday speech, saying just мама for “my mom” is extremely common.

What exactly is вечером grammatically, and why does it mean “in the evening”?

Вечером is the instrumental singular form of вечер (evening), used adverbially.

Russian often uses the instrumental case to talk about time of day / season in the sense “at that time / during that time”:

утром – in the morning
днём – in the daytime
вечером – in the evening
ночью – at night
зимой – in (the) winter
летом – in (the) summer

So гулять вечером literally is “to walk/go out in the evening”.

You could also see:

по вечерам – in the evenings (regularly, on evenings in general)
вечером в субботу – on Saturday evening.

Can the word order change? For example: Мама мне не разрешает гулять вечером or Мама не разрешает гулять мне вечером?

Russian word order is fairly flexible, but not all variants sound equally natural.

Most neutral options here:

Мама не разрешает мне гулять вечером. – very natural, standard.
Мама мне не разрешает гулять вечером. – also natural; мне is emphasized slightly (it’s me she doesn’t allow).

Less natural or odd variants:

Мама не разрешает гулять мне вечером.
Grammatically possible, but here гулять is pulled towards the verb, and мне is separated; it can sound clumsy or like you’re stressing мне in an unusual way.

General rules:

не goes immediately before the verb: не разрешает.
Pronouns like мне usually go close to the verb, often right after it or right before it, depending on emphasis:
- Мама мне не разрешает гулять вечером. – focus a bit more on мне.
- Мама не разрешает мне гулять вечером. – neutral: focus on the fact of not allowing.

What’s the difference between разрешать and позволять? Could we say Мама не позволяет мне гулять вечером?

Yes, you can say:

Мама не позволяет мне гулять вечером.

It’s grammatically correct and close in meaning. Both разрешать and позволять can translate as to allow / to permit, and they use the same grammar pattern:

позволять / не позволять КОМУ? ЧТО делать?

Nuances:

разрешать often feels a bit more like explicit permission (permission granted or refused), sometimes more official or rule-based.
позволять can sound a bit more like to let / to not prevent, and is also used metaphorically (e.g. Моё здоровье не позволяет мне много гулять. – My health doesn’t allow me to walk a lot).

In your sentence, the difference is small; both are natural, with разрешать maybe sounding a bit more “rule-like” (house rules, parental authority).

Is there a more general or impersonal way to say I’m not allowed to go out in the evening in Russian?

Yes, two very common alternatives are:

Мне нельзя гулять вечером.
Literally: It’s not allowed for me to go out in the evening.
Нельзя is a very general “not allowed / must not / should not”.
Мне не разрешают гулять вечером.
Literally: They don’t allow me to go out in the evening.
Here не разрешают is 3rd person plural; the subject (“they”) is vague – parents, adults, authorities, etc.

Compared:

Мама не разрешает мне гулять вечером. – specifically my mom.
Мне нельзя гулять вечером. – a rule applying to me (whoever set it).
Мне не разрешают гулять вечером. – some unspecified people don’t let me.

How is everything pronounced? Where are the stresses in мама не разрешает мне гулять вечером?

Stresses:

МА́ма – ма́ stressed: МА-ма
не – unstressed: не
разрешА́ет – stress on -ша́-: ra-zre-ША́-yet
мне – one syllable: мне (mnye)
гуля́ть – stress on -ля́-: gu-ЛЯ́ТЬ
ВЕ́чером – stress on ВЕ́-: ВЕ́-che-rom

Together (with rough rhythm):
МА́ма не разреША́ет мне гуля́ть ВЕ́чером.

Why use гулять here, not something like выходить or идти?

Гулять in modern colloquial Russian often means not just “to walk”, but more broadly “to be out, to hang out, to spend time outside / out of the house for leisure”.

So Мама не разрешает мне гулять вечером usually means:

My mom doesn’t let me go out / hang out in the evening.
(not just physically walking, but being out somewhere for fun)

Other verbs:

выходить – to go out (physically leave a place):
Мама не разрешает мне выходить вечером. – She doesn’t let me go out (of the house) in the evening.
идти – to go (on foot) to some place:
Мама не разрешает мне идти на вечеринку. – She doesn’t let me go to the party.

Гулять is the most natural, general word for “going out to hang out / wander / be outside socially or for leisure.”

How would I turn this sentence into a yes–no question in Russian?

You usually keep the same word order and change only intonation:

Мама не разрешает тебе гулять вечером? – Does your mom not let you go out in the evening?

Things to note:

You normally don’t add any helping verb like do/does – Russian doesn’t have them.
The question is signaled by rising intonation on the stressed word(s) or at the end.
If you want to check/confirm something you think is true, you might add что, ли or a tag:
- Мама тебе не разрешает гулять вечером, да? – Your mom doesn’t let you go out in the evening, right?
- Тебе мама не разрешает гулять вечером, что ли? – So your mom doesn’t let you go out in the evening or what? (colloquial, a bit emotional)

But the simplest yes–no question is just the same sentence with questioning intonation.