Breakdown of Вчера вечером мне было настолько лень, что я не оплатил квитанцию сразу.
я
I
вчера
yesterday
быть
to be
не
not
Questions & Answers about Вчера вечером мне было настолько лень, что я не оплатил квитанцию сразу.
Why is it вчера вечером and not вчера вечер or в вчера?
Вчера is an adverb meaning yesterday, so it normally appears with no preposition.
Вечером is the instrumental form of вечер and is commonly used adverbially to mean in the evening / in the evenings. So вчера вечером literally works like yesterday (in the) evening → yesterday evening.
What case is вечером, and why is that case used for time?
Вечером is instrumental singular of вечер. Russian often uses the instrumental case to express time when (especially parts of the day):
- утром (in the morning)
- днём (in the daytime)
- вечером (in the evening)
- ночью (at night)
Why does it say мне было лень instead of я был ленивый?
Мне было лень uses an impersonal construction: literally to me it was laziness → I felt too lazy / I couldn’t be bothered. It describes a temporary state/feeling.
Я был ленивый describes you as a lazy person (a trait), and it sounds more like a character judgment, not “I didn’t feel like doing it.”