Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[blackk jack]

Why can not I use "in the night" insted of "at night"? ,but you all use "in the morning".
and
Just like you sleep more, can I say "you read more" instead of"you read more books"?

[lotus]

Hi blackk jack,

I don't really know the answer to your question. I just know that we say:

I get up in the morning.
I go to sleep at night.

We do say "In the evening", where there can be a lot of activity. Nighttime is more calm. We sleep through the night. We can think in the still of the night.

We can say "Thieves prowl in the night" or "Owls hunt in the night." These sentences are not wrong. They are just not commonly used in modern English. We tend to say "Thieves prowl at night" and "Owls hunt at night."

It could be that in the old days, things didn't happen much at night. So, when things do happen, they happen mysteriously in the night.

Here is the last paragraph of Poe's great short-story, "The Masque of the Red Death."

"And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."


READ:

You can say:

You read more.
You read more than I.
You read more books than I.


--lotus

[blackk jack]

I am glad to get your message.thank you so much
the question wheather "in the night" is grammerly correct is very difficlt.I think so. being used to "at night" is important,and it is easier than explaining the reason. grammer sometimes ties me .
By the way
"I read bookes more" can I also say ?I want the "more" as adverbs to modify "read".