Parts of the day: sabah, öğle, akşam, gece

The idea

The parts of the day are sabah (morning), öğle (noon), öğleden sonra (afternoon), akşam (evening) and gece (night). They answer when without any ending: sabah, akşam, gece. With bu, dün and yarın you say this morning, last night or tomorrow evening: bu sabah, dün gece, yarın akşam. For a habit add -ları or -leri: sabahları, akşamları, geceleri. The afternoon is öğleden sonra, literally after noon.

Examples

• Sabah kahvaltı yapıyorum.I have breakfast in the morning.The part of the day stands alone. No ending is added to sabah.
• Akşam arkadaşlarımla buluşuyorum.I am meeting my friends in the evening.
• Dün gece yağmur yağdı.It rained last night.Dün gece means last night. Dün akşam would be yesterday evening.
• Öğleden sonra toplantımız var.We have a meeting in the afternoon.The afternoon is öğleden sonra, literally after noon, with the ablative -den.
• Bu sabah hava çok güzeldi.This morning the weather was very nice.
• Yarın akşam bize gelir misin?Will you come to our place tomorrow evening?
• Hafta içi sabahları erken kalkıyorum.On weekdays I get up early in the mornings.The ending -ları turns one morning into every morning: a habit.
• Öğle yemeğini işyerinde yiyoruz.We have lunch at work.

Watch out

Do not add the locative as you would for a place: sabahta, akşamda and gecede are wrong, because the bare word already means in the morning, in the evening, at night. Also keep akşam (evening) apart from gece (night): dün akşam is yesterday evening, dün gece is last night.

Try it yourself

1. Name the part of the day: dinner is the ___ meal.

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   akşam

   akşam: dinner is the evening meal, and the word before yemeği stays bare, just as öğle yemeği is lunch.

2. Say last night: We watched television last night.

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   gece

   gece: the rain fell during the night, and dün gece is the usual way to say last night, with no ending.

3. Add the ending for a habit: I get up early in the mornings.

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   sabahları

   sabahları: the ending -ları follows the back vowel a of sabah and turns one morning into every morning, a habit.

4. Fill the gap in the day: morning, ___, evening, night.

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   öğle / öğlen

   öğle: noon sits between sabah and akşam; öğlen is also correct.

Use it today

Write one sentence for each part of the day about what you usually do, then one with bu sabah or dün gece and one with -ları or -leri.