Buenos días, buenas tardes y buenas noches
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening in Spanish are Buenos días, buenas tardes y buenas noches.
Buenas tardes is used from after lunch until sunset. Buenas noches is used both as a greeting when you arrive somewhere in the evening and as a goodbye when leaving or going to bed.
What does it mean word for word?
Buenos días literally means good days. Unlike English, which names a time of day, Spanish uses the word for days in the morning greeting.
How does it change in a sentence?
The word for good agrees in gender with the noun. It is buenos with the masculine días, and buenas with the feminine tardes and noches.
What mistakes should you avoid?
Do not mix up the endings. It is always buenas tardes and buenas noches, with the feminine ending, while only Buenos días takes the masculine one.
Did you know?
- In many Spanish-speaking countries, people often shorten the morning greeting to just ¡Buenas!, which works for any time of day.
- In many Spanish-speaking cultures, the transition from buenas tardes to buenas noches is tied specifically to the presence of darkness or sunset, rather than a fixed clock time like 6:00 PM.
- The word y used to join these greetings is a direct descendant of the Latin 'et', which is the ancestor of the English word 'and'.
Examples in context
- Buenas tardes, señora. ¿Cómo ha sido su día hasta ahora?Good afternoon, ma'am. How has your day been so far?
- Buenas noches, señor. ¿Le gustaría acompañarnos en nuestra cena esta noche?Good evening, sir. Would you like to join us for dinner tonight?
- Hola, buena noche. ¿Quieres ver una película juntos?Hello, good evening. Do you want to watch a movie together?
- Buenos días, buenas tardes y buenas noches a todos.Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to everyone.
- Siempre digo buenos días, buenas tardes y buenas noches.I always say good morning, good afternoon, and good evening.
- Aprendí a decir buenos días, buenas tardes y buenas noches.I learned to say good morning, good afternoon, and good evening.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries buenas, y, CC BY-SA 4.0.
