Por/De/En

[cwilson]

I'm a little bit confused if por de and en are interchangable when talking about time of day. yo Suelo trabajar por la noche... yo suelo trabajar en la noche...and i know I hear things like "Manana a las seis de la manana"...could that be "manana a las seis en la manana"

THANKS for the help.

DETROIT MICHIGAN

[Beckett]

I'm a little bit confused if por de and en are interchangable when talking about time of day. yo Suelo trabajar por la noche... yo suelo trabajar en la noche...and i know I hear things like "Manana a las seis de la manana"...could that be "manana a las seis en la manana"

THANKS for the help.

DETROIT MICHIGAN

Hi CWilson from the Motor City!

The Spanish prepositions por, de and en cannot be used interchangeably with time phrases in Spanish. But don't worry, once you know the rules behind each one, it will be easy to keep them straight.

The preposition "en" in Spanish is used for centuries, years, seasons and months, but not with days or hours. Estamos en septiembre.

If you're referring to a part of the day, "in the morning," in the evening," "at night", etc., use "por".
Suelo trabajar por la noche. Me gusta correr por la mañana.

If you're talking about a specific hour of the day, use "de."
Tengo que levantarme a las seis de la mañana. La película empieza a las cinco de la tarde.

Espero que te sirva. :)

[El Confuso]

"Manana a las seis de la manana"...could that be "manana a las seis en la manana"

Hello, cwilson. If you've had some exposure to Spanish as spoken in the USA or Latin America, you may have heard some regional variations from what Beckett has posted or what you hear on the podcasts. Maybe this is the reason for your confusion. As to your specific question, however, I agree with Beckett that it should be "a las seis de la manana" (or whenever a specific time is given), but it wouldn't totally surprise me if someone replies that your form is used in some region.

For me, it's not so clear when identifying a part of the day without naming a specific time, such as "in the morning/afternoon" or "at night". For example, I've certainly heard this both ways: "No me gusta trabajar (de/por la) noche" (I don't like to work at night). I've also heard "prefiero trabajar de dia" (I prefer to work in the daytime, or during the day), but not with por el. Also, there's the proverb: De noche, todos los gatos son pardos.

For emphasizing "very early" in the morning I would use "muy de mañana." Ayer, nos levantamos muy de mañana. (Yesterday we got up very early in the morning). Similarly, for "very late at night", I would use "muy de noche". I don't remember ever hearing "muy por la mañana."

I looked up noche in the WordReference dictionary and there are several possibilties for "at night," with some variations being regional: de noche, por la noche, en la noche, a la noche. Por la noche is evidently the commonly used form in Spain. Similarly, there a variations for "in the morning" or "in the afternoon".

I'm afraid I've only added to your confusion. If you stick with what Beckett has written I'm sure you'll be understood most of the time by any Spanish speaker, but you should be prepared to recognize other possibilities.

[Beckett]

Hello, cwilson. If you've had some exposure to Spanish as spoken in the USA or Latin America, you may have heard some regional variations from what Beckett has posted or what you hear on the podcasts. .....you should be prepared to recognize other possibilities.


I totally agree with the last point about being able to recognize other possibilities. There's just one other point I'd like to add...it can be difficult at times for non-native Spanish speakers to distinguish between so-called regionalisms and what are essentially mistakes in grammar. This may come as a shock to some, but not all native Spanish speakers know grammatically correct Spanish. This is particularly true in the United States where many native Spanish speakers grow up speaking Spanish at home but are not necessarily schooled in Spanish, so we can't always assume that what we hear them say is a standard or grammatically correct way of saying some things.

Think of this issue from the perspective of a native English speaker. For example, imagine if a Spaniard went to the U.S. to study English and heard people in the street saying things like "I be talking to you" and "I don't got nothing," etc. Would we encourage a non-native English speaker to model those ways of speaking by telling them that was "American English"? Or would we tell them that yes, while that's how some native speakers speak English, it is not grammatically correct? Obviously, my vote would be for the latter.

This comment isn't a critique on what El Confuso wrote. Not at all. Just wanted to add a note of caution to all the Spanish learners out there who may automatically assume that whatever they hear coming out of a native Spanish speaker's mouth is cien por cien, 100% correct.