It’s 9:00 or 10:00 pm or so. You’re going home for the night. You say to the people, “Good night.” Right? Depends on where you are.
When I was learning other languages, I found that saying Bonne nuit or Buona notte or Buenas noches was just not said in those countries at such an early hour. Rather, it’s always the equivalent of “Good evening.” I’m not sure how late it has to get in Europe before you can start saying “Good night” — midnight? No matter how late I stayed out, it always seemed to be “Good evening.”
But then, I’m from English-speaking North America where, at school or at work, they say “Good night” as early as 4 or 5 pm if they don’t expect to see you again until the next day. I never felt quite right about saying “good night” while the sun was still up.
What do you think is the appropriate time to start calling a night “night”? Personally, I feel that 5 or 6 o’clock is “good evening”, 9 or 10 qualify as “good night,” and 7 or 8 could probably go either way. I never figured out what Europeans were thinking by not saying “good night.” Perhaps the idea was that as long as you’re still out on the street it’s always “evening” and “good night” is only appropriate for when you’re in your pajamas and on the verge of blowing out the candle and climing into bed.
I’ve always thought of “Good Evening” as a greeting and “Good Night” as a farewell. And “Have a Good Evening” as a farewell definitely implies that the evening isn’t over yet.
I’ve always thought of “Good Evening” as a greeting and “Good Night” as a farewell. And “Have a Good Evening” as a farewell definitely implies that the evening isn’t over yet.
Nice going, kittenblue. Here I was all happy thinking I’d gotten three replies, when it was just one in triplicate. How do you get multiple posts? I thought they’d done something to the software or server or something so that it wasn’t possible any more. (Yes, I tried to make a triple post on ATMB, just to be a wise guy. Didn’t work.)
Well, first submit when your server is running really, really slow, then press the stop button. Correct your grammar and hit submit again. When, after a few minutes it tells you the page can’t be displayed, hit the back button and see your post still in the reply box. Hit submit again and go to the bathroom. Come back and find all three displayed. Simple, really, but definitely an advanced technique.
Everybody who’s responded so far is from the Anglo world, so these ideas look familiar to me. I was just trying to understand how the continental Europeans view this concept.