Can a person say 'Good morning' after 12:00 AM?

[Rollercoaster1]

What if someone works night shift? His duty starts at 12:30 A.M., he reaches his workplace and says 'good morning' to his colleague who's finished his job and is going home, is it OK for him who has come to work to say 'good morning' to the one leaving?

 

[Rover_KE]

Certainly. Why not?

 

[probus]

Long ago a very upper-crusty Englishman said "good morning" to me. When I pointed out that it was past noon he stopped me dead with "I haven't had my lunch yet." �� I guess that is the rule in certain circles.

 

[Rover_KE]

But he couldn't have complained if you'd said 'Good morning' after midnight.

 

[emsr2d2]

For me, lunch has nothing to do with it. If I glance at my watch at 12.01pm as I greet someone, I would say "Good afternoon". In fact, where I work, if a customer comes in at a time that I am already aware is sometime around noon, I often find myself saying "Good morning", then checking my watch, discovering it's 12.10 and saying "Nope, sorry! Good afternoon!" Frequently that's met with "Wow. Is it afternoon already?!"

As far as meeting someone at 3am goes, I don't think any of our commonly used greetings starting with "Good" really work. Technically, of course, it should be "Good morning" but I would probably stick with "Hello" or "Hi".

 

[jutfrank]

As far as meeting someone at 3am goes, I don't think any of our commonly use greetings starting with "Good" really work. Technically, of course, it should be "Good morning" but I would probably stick with "Hello" or "Hi".

I'd say it's very situational. If I hadn't been to bed yet, when greeting someone at 3 am, I wouldn't say Good morning. However, if I've just got up I might. Especially if I knew that the listener had also just got up.

 

[Rollercoaster1]

I'd say it's very situational. If I hadn't been to bed yet, when greeting someone at 3 am, I wouldn't say Good morning. However, if I've just got up I might. Especially if I knew that the listener had also just got up.

What if two persons are talking over the internet late at night and they end their conversation after 12:10 AM (This given time is just an example, they might end at any hour from midnight until dawn), will it be fine to say 'Good night'?

 

[jutfrank]

'Good night'?

Yes. In fact, that would be the most natural thing to say.

 

[Rollercoaster1]

Yes. In fact, that would be the most natural thing to say.

I often ended my conversation in dawns with my friends living abroad, and I, most of the times, was confused about what to say before ending the calls. I didn't find it right to say 'Good night' at 5:30 AM, instead I used to say 'sweet dreams' before ending the calls.


The time difference between our (my and my friends' countries vary) countries is not more than 1 or 2 hours.

 

[Rover_KE]

[STRIKE]in dawns[/STRIKE] at dawn

To end a conversation, just say 'Goodbye'.

 

[Rollercoaster1]

[STRIKE]in dawns[/STRIKE] at dawn

To end a conversation, just say 'Goodbye'.

There are three stages/types of dawn. I think during the daytime we also don't say 'at noon', instead we say 'in noon'.

I met him in the afternoon (can be understood from 1:00 PM until evening).

 

[emsr2d2]

There are three stages/types of dawn. I think during the daytime we also don't say 'at noon', instead we say 'in noon'.

I met him in the afternoon (can be understood from 1:00 PM until evening).

"in the afternoon" is correct. It means any time after 12pm and before whatever time you/we think evening starts.
"in noon" is never correct. "Noon" means only exactly 12pm so it's always "at noon".

 

[Rover_KE]

There are three stages/types of dawn. I think during the daytime we also don't say 'at noon', instead we say 'in noon'.

I met him in the afternoon (can be understood from 1:00 PM until evening).

I agree that dawn is not a single instant of time (like noon is), but 'in dawns' or even 'at dawns' is not correct. You can say 'in the early hours'.

As ems said, afternoon begins immediately after the stroke of 12pm (well before 1pm).

Note for interested/curious learners: the different ways we choose to write these times (12:00 PM and 12pm) are both acceptable, but that's not the issue here.