17.3 Parts of the Day
We use the following words to refer to different parts of the day.
We can combine an expression for the day (e.g., 琴日 kam4 jat6 ‘yesterday’) and a part of the day (e.g., 朝早 ziu1 zou2 ‘morning’) to mean ‘yesterday morning, tomorrow afternoon, etc.’. We first say the expression for the day and then the part of the day.
琴日朝早
kam4 jat6 ziu1 zou2
yesterday morning
聽日晏晝
ting1 jat6 aan3 zau3
tomorrow afternoon
When combining an expression for the day with 朝早 ziu1 zou2 (‘morning’) or 夜晚 je6 maan5 (‘evening, night’), we can use the following contracted expressions. Notice we contract 朝早 ziu1 zou2 to 朝 ziu1, but 夜晚 je6 maan5 / je6 maan1 to 晚 maan5 / maan1. Also, we don’t contract some of the combinations.
We can also combine a day of the week (e.g., 星期六 sing1 kei4 luk6 ‘Saturday’) with a part of the day to mean ‘Saturday morning, Sunday night, etc.’. We first say the day of the week and then the part of the day.
星期六朝早
sing1 kei4 luk6 ziu1 zou2
Saturday morning
星期日夜晚
sing1 kei4 jat6 je6 maan5
Sunday night
When we say a day of the week with 朝早 ziu1 zou2 (‘morning’) or 夜晚 je6 maan5 (‘evening, night’), we can contract 朝早 ziu1 zou2 to 朝 ziu1 and 夜晚 je6 maan5 to 晚 maan5. Notice we usually don’t contract 夜晚 je6 maan1 to 晚 maan1 in this case.
星期六 + 朝早 → 星期六朝
sing1 kei4 luk6 + ziu1 zou2 → sing1 kei4 luk6 ziu1
Saturday morning
星期日 + 夜晚 → 星期日晚
sing1 kei4 jat6 + je6 maan5 → sing1 kei4 jat6 maan5
Sunday night
We put a time expression before the verb we want to modify.
我晏晝踢波。
ngo5 aan3 zau3 tek3 bo1.
I will play football in the afternoon.
The time expression 晏晝 aan3 zau3 (‘afternoon’) is put before the verb 踢波 tek3 bo1 (‘to play football’).