How to Talk About Different Parts of the Day in English
There are different stages of the day and different prepositions and phrasal verbs related to them. We can start with:
'In the morning'. This usually refers to the time before 12 'noon'. We say 'sunrise' or 'dawn' to refer to the time when there starts to be light. We can use the phrasal verbs to 'wake up' to describe the time we awaken from our sleep and 'get up' for the time we rise and get out of our beds. We can say 'early morning' to refer to the time soon after sunrise, and 'late morning' to refer to the time shortly before 12 noon. Sometimes, we can say 'in the early hours of the morning' to refer to a time between approximately 2-5 a.m. For example, "Unfortunately, my flight is in the early hours of the morning." This can also be called 'in the night' or 'during the night'. Any time between midnight and midday is called 'a.m.'
'At midday' or 'at noon' refer to 12 o'clock. We can also say 'at lunchtime' and this is usually between 12-2 o'clock. After this time we change to 'in the afternoon'. We can have 'early afternoon,' 'mid-afternoon' and 'late afternoon'. 'In the day time' is the time between morning and evening.
'In the evening' starts at around 6 o'clock. Again, there can be 'early evening' and 'late evening'. 'At sunset' is the time that the sun is no longer visible. We can say 'at dinner time' when we eat our evening meal and 'at bedtime' for the end of the evening. 'At night-time' can start at the end of the evening, perhaps around 10 p.m, until sunrise.
Any time after midday, up until midnight is 'p.m.' 'Midnight' is 12 o'clock at night. 'Overnight' is the time between night and morning.
When we talk about different days, we use the preposition 'on'. For example, "I will meet you on Monday." "We are flying on Thursday."
Please practise using these in the comments below and we can check your usage. Good luck!
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