late at night/late into the night

[joham]

We argued about politics till late at night/till late into the night.

Do these two phrases mean the same thing? Does 'till late at night' mean 'happening often at night'?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Barb_D]

No, with "late into the night" it means the argument started earlier and continued for hours, far into the night.
The first is a bit odd. Maybe you waited until the children had gone to bed so your arguing wouldn't scare them, but you aruged only late at night.

 

[billmcd]

We argued about politics till late at night/till late into the night.

Do these two phrases mean the same thing? Does 'till late at night' mean 'happening often at night'?

Many thanks in advance.

As Barb_D posted, "into etc." would be more specific/descriptive, but " 'till late at night" would be just as understandable and probably more commonly used in casual conversation with the same meaning.

 

[emsr2d2]

To me, "late at night" and "late into the night" are different. Late at night is sometime towards midnight, but late into the night could mean anything up to about 5am.

He always watches TV late at night = He watches programmes which are shown at perhaps 11.30pm.
He always watches TV late into the night = He is probably still awake at 3am watching TV.

 

[5jj]

To me, "late at night" and "late into the night" are different. Late at night is sometime towards midnight, but late into the night could mean anything up to about 5am.

He always watches TV late at night = He watches programmes which are shown at perhaps 11.30pm.
He always watches TV late into the night = He is probably still awake at 3am watching TV.

I agree, but I also think that 'into' has the idea of continuing for hours, as Barb suggested.

 

[emsr2d2]

I agree, but I also think that 'into' has the idea of continuing for hours, as Barb suggested.

Yes, I agree. I should have made it clearer with my second example - when I said "he is still awake at 3am watching TV", I meant that he had started watching it hours earlier.

He starts to watch TV late at night and watches late into the night.

 

[5jj]

He starts to watch TV late at night and watches late into the night.

I seem to be being a bit picky this morning, but I think he could start watching quite early in the evening, or even in the morning, and still watch late into the night. It's the duration and the end-point that are significant, not the time of the beginning of the action.

 

[emsr2d2]

I seem to be being a bit picky this morning, but I think he could start watching quite early in the evening, or even in the morning, and still watch late into the night. It's the duration and the end-point that are significant, not the time of the beginning of the action.

Again, I agree. I was just trying to give an example of a sentence which included both "late at night" and "late into the night". Of course, he could start watching at 7am, 10am, 3pm, 5pm etc etc and still watch late into the night. I'm quite sure there are people in the world who happily watch TV almost all day and night!