italki – by noon ,at noon Hi everyone! could you please tell me the difference between these two? by noon and

Hey ali sirous, how are you?

1) ”At”: You use ”at” when you are mentioning a precise time.
E.g.: ”He arrived at noon.”
E.g.: ”At 2.30 a.m. he returned.”
E.g.: ”The train leaves at 9 a.m.”

* You can also say that something happened or will happen ‘at dawn’, ‘at dusk’, or ‘at night’.
E.g.: ”She had come in at dawn.”
E.g.: ”It was ten o’clock at night.”
E.g.: ”She left at dusk.”

2) ”By”: it is used to mean ”not later than”; ”around/near the time/hour concerned”. So, if something happens ”by” a particular time, it happens at or before that time.
E.g.: ”She said she would be arriving by noon.”
E.g.: ”We all had agreed upon starting our meeting by 09:30 a.m.”.

As regards your second question, you should know that ”at night” and ”in the night” are completely different expressions. In that regard, they should not be used interchangeably:

1) ”Night” is the period during each twenty-four hours when it is dark. If something happens regularly during this period, you say that it happens ”at night”.
E.g.: ”The doors were kept closed at night.”
E.g.: ”I used to lie awake at night, listening to the rain.”

* If you wish to make it clear that you are talking about a particular time in the early part of the night rather than the morning, you add ”at night”.
E.g.: ”This took place at eleven o’clock at night on our second day.”

2) If something happened during the night before the present day, you say that it happened ”in the night”, ”during the night”, or ”last night”.
E.g.: ”I did not hear her in the night.
E.g.: ”I had the strangest dream last night.”

* If you are talking about a day in the past and you want to say that something happened the night before that day, you say that it happened ”in the night”, ”during the night”, or ”the previous night”.
E.g.: ”His father had died in the night.”
E.g.: ”This was the hotel where they had stayed the previous night.”

Hope that helps! 🙂