Morning, day, evening, night

Four fixed words for four parts of a day

To say in the morning Russian does not use a preposition at all. It changes the noun into a special form and leaves it standing alone. These four forms are worth learning as words in their own right; the case they belong to arrives much later.

The boundaries are not the ones you may expect. День runs from about noon to five, вечер from five until people go to bed, and ночь covers the small hours. A Russian who greets you at eleven at night says добрый вечер, not доброй ночи.

A day in order

The verbs of a daily routine come in a fixed sequence, and most of them carry the -ся you met in the bonus lesson.

Early, late, usually

Рано and поздно describe the hour, обычно and всегда describe the habit, and all four stand next to the verb without any ending of their own.

Утром я пью кофе, а вечером чай.In the morning I drink coffee, and in the evening tea.

Обычно я встаю рано.I usually get up early.