Choose between at night and in the night

Use at night when your message describes what normally happens during nighttime. Imagine explaining your apartment building to a new neighbor. You might describe the entrance, the lights, or the noise from the street. You are giving information that applies generally, rather than telling yesterday's story. Words such as usually and often can help show this meaning.

Use in the night when you place an event within a particular night. The conversation can tell the listener which night you mean, so you do not always need to give a date. After asking about someone's sleep, for example, you can understand in the night as referring to the night that has just ended.

Você pode praticar isso novamente em Among or between: choose the right word e Nighttime or Night-time? Listen, Choose and Write Clearly.

During the night is another natural way to place an event within a night. In American English, it is often more usual than in the night. It does not mean that the event continued for the whole night. A brief sound, a short phone call, or a change in the weather can all happen during the night.

Learn these expressions as short groups: at night, in the night, and during the night. The general expression at night has no the. The other two expressions include it. When you name the previous night with last night, you normally need no word before it. Write I called last night, without adding at or in.

Do not choose in the night simply because the verb describes the past. A past sentence can describe an old routine, and at night still fits. At night can also describe one event when the speaker wants to say it happened after dark. Ask what matters here: the general nighttime setting or an event within a particular night.

In ordinary speech, night often sounds stronger than the words before it. The word at may be short, and its final t may be difficult to hear clearly before n. In the night contains two quieter words before night. Listen for them, then check the sentence meaning. During has two syllables, which can make that alternative easier to recognize.

A short message becomes clearer when you separate the normal situation from an unusual event. State the routine first if it helps explain the problem. Then describe what happened during the particular night. For recall practice, cover your examples and write one sentence about a routine and one about an interruption. Check the time meaning before checking the small words.