Buenos días...

Question

I had a curiosity moment.... why are "buenos días", "buenas tardes", and "buenas noches" plural?

Quite the philosopher, jeje... - SonrisaDelSol, Sep 20, 2011

At first I thought this was a dumb question -- then I changed my mind. :) - pesta, Sep 20, 2011

Answer 1

Here's an interesting link.

I hope it helps

Excellent answer. I learned a lot. - pesta, Sep 20, 2011

Answer 2

just as wile [sic] in Spanish one asks:”¿qué hora es?” (singular), while in Portuguese it is “que horas são”, (plural).

---

---

From the link Sonrisa provided (not attributed to her, mind you), I hear Spanish-speaking people ask "¿Qué horas son?" all the time (no pun intended!)... so this isn't particular to the Portuguese in any way... I'm not saying it's correct, but again with the idiosyncrasies of the Spanish language... I personally will greet individuals with "Buen día" most mornings in an attempt to be "linguistically correct," shall we say? jeje

Answer 3

I realize this, being a studier of latin Do you know where explanation is of why it was in the accusitive plural in vulgar latin? As opposed to the dative or ablative singular used for greetings? (bono die, or bono diei?)