Hai guys.. I want to ask how and when I can use for these words: 夜(よる＝night,evening) and… - Feed Post by Mika93
Hai guys.. I want to ask how and when I can use for these words: 夜(よる＝night,evening) and 晩(バン＝nightfall,night). What the difference between both of these words. And if I want to say 'I have a dinner tonight', so should I use 今夜(こんや) or 今晩(こんばん) for word of 'tonight'. Thank you ^_^.
posted by Mika93
Comments 23
Huh. Nice question. Now I'm also quite curious with the usage between "yoru" and "konban". Hopefully someone else can help.
nice question chibi
I always use konya for tonight and bangohan for dinner. I also use Yuu(go)han for an evening meal. Yoru for tomorrow night etc.- Maiban for every night
- Google Translate has been helpful to me because it has Romaji pronunciation.
- I have a dinner tonight.
Watashi wa yūshoku no kon'ya o motte imasu.
私は夕食の今夜を持っています。 - Watashi wa yūshoku no kon'ya o motte imasu.
I have a dinner tonight.
私は夕食の今夜を持っています。 I use Google Translate because while not exact I learn new words. I also searched Answers.com and Yahoo to get differences. It seems that "ban" is later at night while "yoru" is earlier. I use konya for this evening and konban for tonight. Maiban for every night and Yorumai for every evening. - Hey, forgive me if I'm wrong, but the translation of:
"Watashi wa yuushoku no kon'ya o motte imasu" for "I have a dinner tonight" might be incorrect.
Motte (持って) is a conjugation of Mochimasu (持ちます) in the -te form. Mochimasu means "have" in terms of holding an item. I.e. "I have the house key" in which the house keys is in my holding possession.
Also, "yuushoku (夕食) = dinner" and "kon'ya (今夜) = tonight" but using both in a single sentence of "yuushoku no kon'ya" is a bit weird. Because from my understanding, the grammar "no" means possession be it "items or descriptive". For example:
Possessions of item: "Watashi no kuruma" = "car of mine" or "my car".
Possessions of descriptive: "Aoi no sora" = "Skies of blue" or "blue sky".
So using "Yuushoku no kon'ya" = "Dinner of tonight" or "tonight's dinner".
If to say "I have a dinner tonight", I'd think it be suffice to say:
"(Watashi wa) Kon'ya yuushoku wo imasu"
"Watashi wa" is quite redundant to use in a sentence since you are saying the sentence therefore the other party will already know that you are speaking on your behalf. "Kon'ya" = tonight, "yuushoku wo imasu" = I have dinner.
Basically the whole sentence will be understood as:
"Tonight, I have a dinner."
I'm still learning and quite struggling with the Japanese grammar and the conjugation, but it will help me alot if someone else were to check on my explanation and understanding of the language and correct any of my mistakes. Thanks guys. - Oops, ban is evening while yoru seems to focus more on later at night.
- I believe that imasu means to be.
- ............yuushoku o 摂る (otoro)
- 今夜は、夕食を食べます。
Tonight, I will have dinner. 
Finally managed to find my post from a few months ago where I replied to a related, similar question to yours:
http://japaneseclass.jp/feeds/comment/7762
Hopefully reading that might give some clues, but to sum up the main point of what I was saying:
・夜間 "やかん" (nighttime) is the opposite of 昼間 "ひるま" (daytime).
・晩 "ばん" (evening) is the counterpart to 朝 "あさ" (morning).
・夕 "ゆう" = sunset
@Jackbosma, "otoro"? What's tuna sashimi got to do with this? :P- @mog86uk toro-to have (lunch) etc. It's in the site dictionary!
- @Jackbosma, I was trying to hint about the romaji spelling you used, which you've now writen as "toro" a second time... I don't know why romaji is even being used in the comments anyway, since Mika has been writing in kana... XD
- @mog86uk So basically, "yoru", "ban" and "yuu" are describing evening/night at specific time but they're usually used interchangeably as though there's no difference between each other, right?
Meaning I can treat all three words as evening/night time event. 
@JACKBOSMA @ItikKing and @mog86uk Thank you for helping me. I think I can understand it a little. Let me summarize it. Correct me if I wrong.
- 晩(ばん) is evening.
- 夕(ゆう) is evening(sunset).
- 夜(よる) is night.
- For the word of 'tonight', it is better to use 今夜(こんや) than 今晩(こんばん).
Well..this is not like summary at all. I just repeat what all of you had been said...XDD.- Send me the sentence translation!
