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I disagree.Originally Posted by maxmixiv
In Russian, the concepts of «утро, день, вечер и ночь» are not fixed. They depend on a person’s daily schedule, and different people may have different opinions when the night ends and the morning starts.
For those who are accustomed to waking up early, yes, 4:00 am can already be considered the morning. But not for everyone! As to me personally, I would say 4:00 am is still night time. Sometimes my friends and I have weekend parties which end later than 4:00 am, and we would not say that it’s already morning! Although, if I go to bed at 6:00 am, I would admit that it is a morning time. So, psychologically "my morning" starts somewhere between 4:00 am and 6:00 am (the border is not clearly defined), and "my day" starts somewhere between 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm.
Other people would say differently, though.
But the most common concept that «утро» is the period between someone’s wake up and the noon.
Now, you can see why «Как прошло утро?» is not a popular question in Russia. What do the most people usually do in the morning? They wake up, wash, clean their teeth, have some breakfast at home, or just a cup of tea/coffee, and leave for their work. And then they start their business activity, and … and it’s already the noon!
That’s why it is meaningless to ask «Как прошло утро?» in a normal situation (without a specific context).
On the other hand, it is perfectly fine to ask «Как прошёл день?» (when being asked in the evening time, вечером).
And it is perfectly fine to ask «Как прошёл вчерашний вечер?» (when being asked the next day).
And yes, "день" is usually the period between the noon and the end of business (the end of "день" can vary from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm or even 7:00 pm for some people).
"Вечер" is usually one's free time (after the end of business and before going to bed). Usually "вечер" ends at 11:00 pm, for some people -at 12:00 am, for others - even at 10:00 pm. We never use "ночь" for "вечер".
That explains why many Russians rarely use the English expression "tonight" although they understand what it means. They usually stick to saying "this evening", including myself
And "ночь" is normally the time for sleep. So, for me "ночь" is between 12:00 am and 5:00 am or 6:00 am.
To put it more accurately, this concept is not only linked to someone's daily schedule, it is somewhat of interrelation between:
- the daily schedule on the one hand,
- and the daily sun cycle on the other hand (so "ночь" is still associated with the dark time, "день" - with the sunny time, "утро" is somehow related to the sunrise and beginning of the sunny time, but not exactly, "вечер" is related to the sunset and twilight, but again, does not exactly coincide).
So, two factors matter of how someone understands утро, день, вечер и ночь.
And also have in mind: Russia is located mostly in high geographical latitudes, that leads to the big differences between day duration and night duration throughout the year (in winter the sunrise is late - 9 - 10 am, and the sunset is very early, it can be just after 4 pm in December; in summer the sunrise is very early - after 3 am in June, and the sunset is late - 10 - 11 pm). That is why you cannot fully rely on the daily sun cycle.
And that is why in the summer time I would agree 4:00 am is already morning, even if I am not in the bed yet. But in the winter I would never say 4:00 am is a morning, it is definitely night time to me.
However, sometimes when I go for a business trip, I have an early morning flight, and I have to wake up at 3:30 am to be in time at the airport for the check-in. In this case, I say 3:30 is the morning!
Sorry for the long post, it’s just an interesting subject to discuss.
When I first time was in the US, it surprised me a lot to hear "this morning" just a few minutes after the midnight!
And finally, a question to native English speakers:
I have never understood what is the difference between "evening" and "night" in English. It seems as you can use "night" for the whole evening period.
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