Hola buenas noches or...???

Question

Hola, I'm having a little problem, I'm wondering if you would say "Hola buenos noches!" like you would say "Hola buenos dias!"? I'm confused because "buenos noches" means good night and "buenos dias" means good morning, but if you use it as a greeting in spanish it sounds awkward when you translate it into an english greeting. It sounds like you are telling them "Hello good night" when you are greeting them. The "buenos dias" is not confusing me, but the "buenos noches" is.

Answer 1

I think if you met someone in the evening and wanted to say "Hello, good evening!" you would say "Buenas tardes". Generally we would think of it as being Good Afternoon, however, I think it would work in this kind've a situation. But, if you were telling someone "Good night", for example, if you were leaving, then you would say "Buenas noches".

In other words, I don't think you use Buenas Noches in the same way that you might use Buenos Dias.

Also, on a side note, remember that Noches is feminine, so you would say Buenas Noches, not Buenos Noches.

Thanks. Yeah I noticed that I did buenas noches wrong after I had posted it. It started bugging me. Thanks again! - justincase, Feb 2, 2010