student asking question

Why is "mornings" a plural, while "night" is singular?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

In order to answer this question, we need to look at the way prepositions are used in combination with words describing time of day. - Night: at night, in the evening, at night time - Day: during the day, in the daytime, in the morning. The speaker says "in the mornings ... at night." "At the mornings" is grammatically incorrect, so "during the day," "in the daytime," and "in the mornings" can be used. The speaker has used this expression to mean in a general way, so "in the morning" and "in the mornings" are both correct. Both the singular and plural form can be used in this sentence. "At nights" is grammatically incorrect, so the singular form must be used here. Thus, "at night" is the appropriate expression. Ex: I like to go to work early in the morning to avoid people. Ex: I often work overtime, so the subway isn't very crowded at night when I go home.

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