In this lesson, you're going to learn a few new words and some new ways of thinking about words you already know. When you're done, you'll be able to greet people any time of day and you'll know how the different Romance speakers break up the day in their own minds. Assuming that you're reading this between eight a.m. and 2 p.m., we'll start by learning "Good day" (you'll just have to keep going till you get to the appropriate item if you're not).
In the Romance languages, the standard approach to a formal greeting is the formula "Good..." followed by the time of day. One of the tricky aspects that we'll see is how they distinguish the times of day.
The phrase, "Good day" we'll get you through up until five or six o'clock, even if there are other appropriate salutations available. So, let's learn this most versatile greeting.
In French and Italian, this is pretty easy stuff - slap together "good" and "day" and you're home free. Like this:
French bon jour becomes Bonjour (bohn-zhoor).
Italian buon giorno becomes Buongiorno (bwohn-jornoh).
Those generous Spaniards, on the other hand, aren't content with one "good day" - they wish you many:
Spanish for "Good day" is Buenos días.
So... Bonjour, Buongiorno - good day... and Buenos días - yes, many good days to you.
That's good for the day, next comes the night...
In the Romance languages, "Good night" tends to imply that someone is off to bed, at least as soon as they get home. We'll talk about what you usually say instead with the next couple word items. But since we already know the words, we're going to do this one first.
Note that it works pretty much like "Good day": good + night in Fr. and It., good(s) nights in Sp.
French bonne nuit... stays Bonne nuit (bun nwee) - this one doesn't smoosh together.
Italian buona notte becomes Buonanotte (bwohna-noh-teh).
Spanish "Good night" is Buenas noches.
Incidentally, you should now see why I taught you masculine and feminine and singular and plural right from the beginning - even the greetings are just goofy syllables before you know about them, but once you've learned about them the greetings will make sense and will give you good patterns for keeping the grammar straight in turn.
Now, on to finer distinctions:
In the Romance languages, morning runs until around noon, just like English. But you wouldn't know it from the greetings. People just say, "Good day." Here, then, the words for morning, but with a suggested greeting you already know. The words, by the way, come from the Latin mane - morning - and matutinus - of the morning.
French and Italian liked the adjective form; Spanish preferred the noun. Ready?
mane becomes Spanish mañana (ma-nya-na).
matutinus becomes Italian mattina (mat-teenah).
matutinus becomes French matin (mah-taihn - the second syllable has an "a" like cat but pronounced nasally).
But "Good morning" is Buenos días, Buongiorno, Bonjour in the order Sp./It./Fr.
Incidentally, the Spanish and Italian words are feminine (like "night"). The French is masculine (like "day"). But there is a feminine French form meaning "all morning long" - matinée. It used to be that watching the early show was a good way to fill up your morning. When they moved the early shows to the afternoon they kept the name.
Moving through the day...
The words for afternoon in Sp/Fr/It are each different, but each have a logic of their own.
In Spanish, the afternoon is the "late" time of the day - tarde (just like the "tardy slip" you get if you're late to class in school). It's feminine and, for the greeting it is of course plural:
Spanish tarde gives Buenas tardes (bweh-nahss tar-thase - pronounce the "th" as in "the").
The "late" time that is the tarde lasts until 8 or 9 p.m., when Buenas noches takes over.
In French, the afternoon is the time after noon but before evening. Makes sense. And here's the breakdown: The French word for noon is midi - midday (mi- = half + di = day - like Lat. dies and Sp. día). The word for after is après. Put them together and you get:
French après-midi becomes Bon après-midi (bohn ah-pray mee-dee).
By the way, Bonjour is more common, just as we're more likely to say "Hello" or "Good day" than "Good afternoon" in English.
In Italian, things are trickier. You know how we say "2 p.m."? That "p.m." stands for the Latin phrase "post meridio" - after noon. Now, imagine you're Italian and you're saying "post meridio" really fast. You just might get:
Italian pomeriggio gives Buon pomeriggio (bwohn poh-may-ree-joe). Buongiorno is probably more common.
And now comes evening...
In French and Italian, evening starts some time around when you get off work and finishes around 8 or 9. In Spanish, it's all tarde.
In French and Italian, the evening comes "late" - from the Latin serus, meaning "late". In Italian, they took the feminine, probably contracting from "hora sera" (late hour). In French, they took the masculine, but mangled it, as usual.
Unlike "morning" and "evening," French and Spanish really do make good use of "Good evening." Here we go:
Italian sera gives Buonasera (bwoh-na-say-rah).
French soir gives Bonsoir (bohn-swahr).
Spanish tarde continues to give Buenas tardes.
Incidentally, yes, soirée does mean "all evening," just like matinée means "all morning." A soirée is a party that fills up the whole evening, as opposed to either the dinner hour or the post-dinner hour.
And, if you were really wondering, tardus is Latin for "slow" (like a fire retardant slows the spread of flames) or "behind schedule". We're going to refrain from speculation about why the Spanish would so designate the time between lunch and dinner.
Well, you've made it through three lessons now. You can greet people at any time of day, which is pretty cool. You know how masculine and feminine and singular and plural work, which isn't bad. And you've learned a little bit about how the different Romance speakers divide up the day. So now it's time to get yourself a cup of coffee. Practice your French and get a café au lait. And be sure not to do the next lesson until you've had a break, had a chance to let things settle in and done a quick review.
Are you all rested and ready now? Then once it's up, you'll be ready for lesson 4. Or, if you want, you can check back on lesson 2.
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