'por la tarde' (afternoon?) y 'a la tarde' (evening?)
Are they interchangeable?
This question got stuck in my head from trying to translate, "Jugaban en el patio de recreo cada tarde." My search showed that 'cada tarde' would be in the evening. Wrong the translation was in the afternoon. Maybe we know the patio de recreo doesn't have night lights. Further search on tarde in our dictionary led me to examples with 'por la tarde' being afternoon and an example with 'a la tarde' being the evening. For fun,(??) I searched and found this link in el foro which indicates 'a la tarde' as the afternoon.
Is it just the speakers intention that makes it evening or afternoon? Is there a reason to pick one construction over the other. Me duele mi cabeza. Can someone help me to better understand this? Thank you in advance.
9 Answers
Hahahaha Actually you are absolutely right!!! You've made me laugh thank you 
Tarde is afternoon until 5 and is evening after 5. Well actually I think that's because The time in Spain is really different. You can say ¡Buenos días! until 2 in the afternoon. and ¡Buenas tardes! until 7-8... I think after the siesta time! it's no more afternoon but they don't change the word. I didn't know the difference between a la tarde and por la tarde but if I find more information I'll edit my post.. 
EDIT : Hey , I've just talked to my teacher , and she said ,
" ¿ Quien usa "a la tarde...? ¿Mi abuela? I've never heard a la tarde maybe there can be a country in which it's used, but neither the spanish nor the mexican use it. It can be en la tarde , por la tarde... En la tarde is a more espesific time, and por la tarde is not that certain. And the other thing that can be said :
En la hora de merienda : which is about 5-6 o'clock but now they mostly say En la merienda just because it's shorter. "
I hope this helps you now ...
This is a little off the subject, but related.
"We'll see each other tomorrow afternoon" would translate to "Nos veremos mañana por la tarde." (same for tomorrow evening)
"We'll see each other tomorrow at 4 in the afternoon" would be "Nos veremos mañana a las cuatro de la tarde."
Note that when the time is specified, we use the preposition "de"; if it's an unspecified time we use "por."
In Argentina we have "la mañana" since wake up until noon.
We also use mañana to refer at the night after 1 AM. For example, 1AM is "la una de la mañana" to us, but we would also say "la noche" sometimes if we don't have a specific time.
For example if we talk about something that has happened yesterday at 2 AM we may say "ayer a la noche" if no specific time is addressed.
Between 1 and 2 PM we say "el mediodía". 12:20 PM will be 12 y 20 del mediodía".
After 1 PM and until 8PM it's "la tarde", and from 8PM to 12AM is "la noche".
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We are kind of complicated, aren't we?
Incidentally, one uses the definite article before parts of the body i.e Me duele la cabeza unless you want to emphasise ´my hand´ from ýour hand´or ´his hand´ in the same sentence I always thought the periods of time for La mañana, la tarde and la noche here in my part of Spain was fairly fluid but not so. La mañana is from dawn to ´la hora de comer´which is a long relaxed period until 3 pm. La tarde extends from that time until 9 pm or to the hour of darkness but not before 8 pm. La noche then extends until the sun rises. Being English I find these time periods difficult to assimilate and I am always being corrected by the locals but that´s the way the day is divided here. Sorry about leaving out my explanation on mañana, tarde and noche in Spain. I got carried away with posting the lovely dawn picture that I found. Reading other posts it would appear that all explanations depend upon which part of the spanish speaking world you live in.
"Tarde" in theory 12:00 pm until the night
But people in Spain use about 15:00 pm until the night. I think is evening, but i'm not sure.
Someone just explained this to me.
They said that in Madrid, Spain, you use "tarde" up until the sun sets.
Mostly that would be around 8 p.m., but in the summer it's actually closer to 10 p.m.
And, as far as I know, we always use "por" to describe times of the day, never "en."
In Bolivia
mañana until 12 noon.
Tarde until the sun goes down - then it becomes noche.
There is no word for evening.
My Spanish teacher (from Spain) told the class that one would say buenos días any time up until one had eaten lunch, regardless when lunch was. Afterwards, one would say buenas tardes until after sunset. Again regardless when that was. When it got dark, then one would say buenas noches until one went to bed.
People from Spain agree or disagree??
Hey, I've just edited my post.
