How to Say "Yesterday Evening" in Japanese

昨日の夕方

kinō no yūgata

The Japanese phrase for "yesterday evening" is 昨日の夕方 (kinō no yūgata).

昨日の夕方 is used to describe the period of time between the afternoon and the night on the day before today.

What does it mean word for word?

The phrase is composed of 昨日 (kinō, yesterday), the possess possessive particle の (no, 's) and 夕方 (yūgata, evening).

While 昨日の夕方 specifically refers to the twilight or early evening period, 昨日の晩 (kinō no ban) refers more generally to the night or late evening.

Adding the particle に (ni) after 昨日の夕方 specifies a particular point in time, though it is often omitted in casual conversation.

kinō no yūgata

The word 夕方 (yūgata) contains the character 方 (kata), which can mean 'direction' or 'way'. In a poetic sense, it refers to the 'direction' of the setting sun.
In Japanese, the word 夕 (yū) appears in the name of 夕立 (yūdachi), which refers specifically to a sudden evening rain shower in summer.
If you wanted to say 'yesterday evening' more formally in a business setting, you might use the word 昨晩 (sakuban) instead of 昨日の夕方.

昨日の夕方、トムを見かけたよ。
I saw Tom yesterday evening.
This sentence is useful for showing how to mention seeing someone using 昨日の夕方.
Tatoeba #10305983 by small_snow, translation #10305946 by CK
昨日の夕方６時にここに着いたんだ。
We arrived here at six yesterday evening.
This sentence is useful for expressing a specific arrival time using 昨日の夕方.
Tatoeba #11281884 by bunbuku, translation #247956 by CK
昨日の夕方、雨が降り始めた。
Kinou no yuugata, ame ga furihajimeta.
It started raining yesterday evening.
1 more sentence on Tatoeba

Two friends are talking about the weather.

陽太 Yota

昨日の夕方は、すごく寒かったね。
Kinou no yuugata wa, sugoku samukatta ne.
It was really cold yesterday evening, wasn't it?
陽葵 Himari

本当だね。陽太君は風邪を引かなかった？
Hontou da ne. Youta-kun wa kaze o hikanakatta?
True. Youta, did you catch a cold?
陽太 Yota

大丈夫だよ、元気だよ。
Daijoubu da yo, genki da yo.
I'm fine, I'm feeling good.
陽葵 Himari

よかった。無理しないでね。
Yokatta. Muri shinai de ne.
That's good. Don't overwork yourself.

Sources

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