On/in the night

Question

Hello everyone,Are the prepositions "on,in" correctly used in the following sentences?1. I saw him on the night.2. I saw him in the night.3. I worked in the nght.Kind regards,JA

Teechr · Accepted Answer

Can you clarify what you mean by "the night" please? Do you perhaps just mean "at night" instead?

CalifJim · Answer

Joseph A
Hello everyone,
Are the prepositions "on,in" correctly used in the following sentences?
1. I saw him on the night.
2. I saw him in the night.
3. I worked in the night.
Kind regards,
JA

I'd say that the examples are correct, but they don't demonstrate a complete understanding of how to use these phrases idiomatically.

on the night is used with 'when ...' or 'that ...' or 'of ...'.

on the night [when/that] [you were born / his son died / we saw the accident]
on the night of [November 12; the Thanksgiving party; the concert]

When 'on the night' is used without a modifier, most often 'of the performance' is implicit, as of a play, a musical, or a concert. In any case, it is some sort of prearranged or scheduled event. Thus:

The band practiced all week for their Friday night gig. They were sounding really good. But everything went wrong on the night. [Meaning: on the night of the performance]

in the night simply means 'in the darkness (of night)'. Many of the expressions that 'in the night' can modify represent sounds:

[a cry / noises / voices / things that go bump] in the night

But there is also the very common [a thief / thieves] in the night. And then there's Strangers in the Night, a song sung by Frank Sinatra.

'in the night' tends to be perceived as more poetic than other similar expressions like 'at night', so it does not sound particularly idiomatic with mundane concepts like work. So I worked in the night doesn't sound quite right even though technically it is correct.

CJ

On/in the night

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