Quote Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман View Post
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.
Боб -- first, thanks for the corrections! Is it really impossible to say Как проходило утро? I instinctively wanted to use the imperfective in order to emphasize the "whole process", instead of only the result.

And to answer your question: I would say that "evening" roughly corresponds to the time period from 5 PM to 9 PM. But that's only approximate, because people don't necessarily perceive "evening" in terms of exact "clock time." Rather, it may signify "from the time you leave work till after you've eaten dinner." It's also roughly tied to закат -- from the time when it's beginning to get dim, until the sun has completely set and it's dark as night.

But the expression "tonight" can cover both вечер and ночь. Like, if you say to a coworker "I have a date tonight," it means "Sometime after I leave work, and before I go to bed."

"I have a date this evening" is correct, but can sometimes sound overly-precise and uncolloquial. You could say it, though, if friends invite you to go out drinking after work, but you already have some sort of appointment: "I'm having dinner with my parents this evening, but I'll be free by 9:30 or so, and could join you guys then." (But in the case of a romantic date, saying "this evening" may sound pessimistic, as though you expect the date to end early -- so "tonight" sounds better!)