English Grammar Question: Why is it 'In the morning/afternoon/evening' vs. 'At night'

Question

0Hello all. I was teaching an ESL class yesterday and one of my students asked me why we use 'In the' for morning/afternoon/evening and we use 'At' for night. I tried to look online for the answer and couldnt find one. I am aware that it doesn't sound correct to use 'in morning'. However I was wondering more as to why it is incorrect. If anyone has any insight into this it would be appreciated.02br02br00Kevin0-

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

0 .02br
00To the best of my knowledge, it is purely idiomatic. You might note that 01i00morning02i00 ends at a precise point (noon) and 01i00afternoon02i00 begins at a precise point (noon), while 01i00night02i00 does not — but this is probably irrelevant.0-

Cool Breeze · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Mister Micawber12cite10.12br
10To the best of my knowledge, it is purely idiomatic. You might note that 11i10morning12i10 ends at a precise point (noon) and 11i10afternoon12i10 begins at a precise point (noon), while 11i10night12i10 does not — but this is probably irrelevant.12br
12blockquote

10Right you are, MrM. Besides, we can say 01i00in the night02i00 as well although it tends to sound a little poetic: 01i00I heard a train howling in the night.02i00 There is a tendency to use 01i00the02i00 after 01i00in02i00 even in contexts where 01i00the02i00 isn't really warranted:02br
01i00Flowers bloom in {the] summer.02i02br
00CB 0-

Anonymous · Answer

0Thank you to all who answered. This basically just confirmed what I was thinking. I however didn't want to pass along my thoughts as definative until I had someone echo them. 02br
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00Greatly appreciated.02br
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00Cheers02br
02br
00Kevin0-

Anonymous · Answer

Hello Kevin!

I'm teaching English as a foreign language and I'm not myself English but I love these grammar struggles. I'm quite intuitive with languages and certainly with grammar so my conclusion is, if it helps that "at" refers to a period:

At Easter

At Xmas

Why not: "At night" this is a period of time during which you sleep.

or: "at dark" this is the period when it isn't daylight.

Also because "in the" has a different meaning:

I study at dark (When it'sn't day there isn't daylight anymore)

I like studying in the dark (when there's no more light)

I study at night (in the sleeping period)

Some noises were heard in the night (any moment when it was dark)

Tell me if it makes any sense to you?

Thanks!

Anonymous · Answer

AnonymousHello all. I was teaching an ESL class yesterday and one of my students asked me why we use 'In the' for morning/afternoon/evening and we use 'At' for night. I tried to look online for the answer and couldnt find one. I am aware that it doesn't sound correct to use 'in morning'. However I was wondering more as to why it is incorrect. If anyone has any insight into this it would be appreciated. Kevin

Generally, the preposition "at" is used where the time or Place for which it is used, is very particular.
V use "In" for morning,afternoon and evening bcoz ,here u r refferring to a period of time rather than a point of time.

Whereas "The night" is considered as the time ,every1 would b sleeping.
So the whole period for which v remain inactive has been considered as a single point of time. And thus v must use "at" before "night"

Note: For "Noon" again v use "at"..coz it's a particular point of time

Thanks and Regards

M.S.Jitendra Prasad
Email Removed">Email Removed

Anonymous · Answer

A possible explanation:

A lot of English is connected one way or another with the Bible (it was the first printed book) In the Bible darkness is considered a place, as follows "He made darkness his secret place" (Psalm 18:11) But light is not considered a place, so darkness or night is a place to be 'at', hence 'at night'.

Anonymous · Answer

And then there's also the option "by night"... Why is that?!

English Grammar Question: Why is it 'In the morning/afternoon/evening' vs. 'At night'

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