in night or at night

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in night or at night

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in night or at night

Hi,

Pls help me to correct following matter.

Which one is the correct one.

01- I sleep at night.

02- I sleep in the night.

Normally we are using in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. but I am confused how to use it with night.

Best Regards.

Indrajith

21 Sep 2018

FrauSue

Hi Indrajith,

In your example, I would prefer number 1. "At night" is the equivalent of "in the morning/afternoon/evening" to refer to that period of the day, usually in a general sense. You can use "in the night" to really emphasise that an event happened right in the middle of the night.

Compare: Burglars prefer to work at night. / The burglar broke into our house in the night.

My cat is always active at night. / My cat loves to wake me up in the night.

21 Sep 2018

yanogator

I agree with FrauSue. Generally "at night" is used for regular/repeated things, with a meaning close to "every night", while "in the night" is more for individual incidents. FrauSue ´s example of "My cat loves to wake me up in the night" is referring to single actions, even if it happens every night.

Think of "at night" as being a description of lifestyle, instinct, habit, etc.

Bruce

21 Sep 2018

ldthemagicman

Dear Indrajith/desha1547:

"A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Languge", 2010, Quirk et al, Section, 934, Pages 687/688.

PREPOSITIONS of TIME, ´at; on; in; by ´.

"... there are only two dimension-types, viz ´point of time ´ and ´period of time ´.

´At ´ is used for points of time (chiefly clock-time [1]) and also, idiomatically, for holiday periods [2].

[1] at ten oclock; at 6.30 p.m.; at noon.

[2] at the weekend; at Christmas; at Easter.

The reference is to the season of Christmas/Easter, not to the day itself.

´At ´ can be used for periods when conceived of as points of time, as in

at the time; at that time; at breakfast time; at night.

´On ´ is used for referring to days as periods of time:

on Monday; on the following day; on May the first; on New Year ´s Day.

Also in the expression:

Trains leave the station on the hour. [ ´hourly ´, ie 1 o ´clock, 2 o ´clock, etc.]

´In ´ or, less commonly, ´during ´ is used for periods longer or shorter than a day:

in the evening; in summer; in August; during Holy Week; in 1969; in the eigthteenth century; in the months that followed.

So, FrauSue, Yanogator, Professor Quirk and his 5 colleagues, and I, are all in agreement.

"I sleep at night."

Les Douglas

23 Sep 2018

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Hi FrauSue/Las Douglas/Bruce

I am really appreciating your guidance for the above confusion.

It is very clear now with your help.

Thanks again.

I wish you to have a good day!

Desha

24 Sep 2018