yesterday night? last night?

[2006]

Originally Posted by Horsa

"Yesterday night" in the U.S.A. marks you as a foreigner. We always say "las' night."

Hold on there - we have a misunderstanding I think. To me 'yesterday night' is not the same as 'last night'. It refers to the night before 'last night' Maybe that's a point against using "yesterday night". Many people say 'the night before last'.

2006

[riverkid]

Originally Posted by Horsa

"Yesterday night" in the U.S.A. marks you as a foreigner. We always say "las' night."

Hold on there - we have a misunderstanding I think. To me 'yesterday night' is not the same as 'last night'. It refers to the night before 'last night'

At least one. Are Brits considered "foreigners"?

I'm shocked to hear that "yesterday night" means "the day before yesterday's night". Have I read that right?

That's idiom for ya'.

[blouen]

Guys, how about Yesternight. What do you think of it? I saw it in the dictionary.

[riverkid]

Originally Posted by blouen

Guys, how about Yesternight. What do you think of it? I saw it in the dictionary.

Sounds archaic to me, B, but I'm not really sure. Not used in my NOTWs.

[Anglika]

Originally Posted by blouen

Guys, how about Yesternight. What do you think of it? I saw it in the dictionary.

Lovely word, but archaic and now unused apart from the occasional historical novelist; "Yestere'en" is another one of this kind.

[blouen]

I see. Haven't heard of someone using these words. Perhaps "Yesterday evening" and "last night" would be enough.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by linsuman

...It is possible, but pretty far fetched, that because we have a tendency to shorten everything, we prefer the shorter "last" to the longer "yesterday"-? ...

On the subject of shortening, there's the very old (Elizabethan?) abbreviation of 'yesterday evening' - yestre'en. This can be safely ignored for purposes of ELT!

b

PS Anglika got there first