student asking question

Is there any difference between saying "in a single night" and "in one night"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Yes, there is a slight difference. Although they mean the same thing, the speaker has used "single" to emphasize the fact that one night was a very short amount of time. "Single" is commonly used in this way as a point of emphasis. We can understand this as meaning that the task given to Psyche was extremely difficult as she only had one night to complete it. Ex: I ordered a pizza and it's all gone! My family didn't even leave me a single slice. Ex: I finished the book in a single night.

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