Tonight in Different Languages
Discover 'Tonight' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Updated on March 6, 2024
The word 'tonight' holds a special significance in our daily vocabulary, marking the start of the evening and the upcoming nighttime. Its cultural importance is evident in various art forms, including literature, music, and film, where it is often used to evoke a sense of anticipation, romance, or mystery.
Given its significance, one might wonder how 'tonight' is translated in different languages around the world. After all, exploring the nuances of language and culture can enrich our understanding of the world and bring us closer together.
For instance, in Spanish, 'tonight' is 'esta noche,' while in French, it is 'ce soir.' In German, the word is 'heute abend,' and in Japanese, it is '今夜 (konya).'
In this article, we delve into the translations of 'tonight' in various languages, shedding light on the cultural and historical contexts that have shaped these translations. Join us on this linguistic journey and discover the beauty of language and culture that exists 'tonight' and every night.
Tonight
Tonight in Sub-Saharan African Languages
| Afrikaans | vanaand | ||
| The Dutch word _vanavond_, from which _vanaand_ derives, referred originally to the eve before a religious holiday. | |||
| Amharic | ዛሬ ማታ | ||
| "ዛሬ ማታ" literally translates to "this evening". | |||
| Hausa | yau da dare | ||
| "Yau" means "today" and "dare" means "night." | |||
| Igbo | n'abalị a | ||
| "N'abalị a" is derived from the Igbo word "abalị," which means "night," and the prefix "n," which indicates "this" or "the present." | |||
| Malagasy | anio alina | ||
| The Malagasy word for "tonight", "anio alina", literally means "this night". | |||
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | usikuuno | ||
| The word "usikuuno" is derived from the words "usiku" (night) and "uno" (this), meaning "this night". | |||
| Shona | manheru ano | ||
| The term "manheru ano" in Shona can also refer to "this evening" or "the present time". | |||
| Somali | caawa | ||
| The verb caawa "to spend the night" is homophonous to the noun caawa "tonight," implying that "tonight" is conceived as a time specifically dedicated to sleeping and resting. | |||
| Sesotho | bosiung bona | ||
| Bosiung bona could mean the day after tomorrow, or the time between sunset and sunrise. | |||
| Swahili | usiku wa leo | ||
| The word “usiku” (night) originates from a Proto-Bantu language meaning “to be calm, to be at rest”. | |||
| Xhosa | ngokuhlwanje | ||
| The word "ngokuhlwanje" is an isiXhosa term referring to both the current "night" and the following "day" combined as one continuous 24-hour period. | |||
| Yoruba | lalẹ | ||
| In some contexts, "lalẹ" is used as an exclamation to express surprise or disbelief. | |||
| Zulu | kusihlwa | ||
| "Kusihlwa" in Zulu can also refer to a gathering or entertainment taking place in the evening. | |||
| Bambara | su ni na | ||
| Ewe | fiɛ̃ sia | ||
| Kinyarwanda | iri joro | ||
| Lingala | lelo na mpokwa | ||
| Luganda | kiro kino | ||
| Sepedi | bošegong bjo | ||
| Twi (Akan) | anadwo yi | ||
Tonight in North African & Middle Eastern Languages
| Arabic | هذه الليلة | ||
| The Arabic word "هذه الليلة" literally means "this night" and can also refer to a specific night of significance or an anticipated event. | |||
| Hebrew | היום בלילה | ||
| The word "היום בלילה" literally means "the day and in the night," indicating that the event discussed spans both day and night. | |||
| Pashto | نن شپه | ||
| The Pashto word for 'tonight', 'نن شپه', literally translates as 'this night'. | |||
| Arabic | هذه الليلة | ||
| The Arabic word "هذه الليلة" literally means "this night" and can also refer to a specific night of significance or an anticipated event. | |||
Tonight in Western European Languages
| Albanian | sonte | ||
| The Albanian word "sonte" ultimately derives from Latin "subinde", meaning "continuously". | |||
| Basque | gaur gauean | ||
| In formal Basque, the equivalent of "gaur gauean" is "gaur gau honetan", which literally means "this present night." | |||
| Catalan | aquesta nit | ||
| The Catalan word "aquesta nit" also means "this night" in English. | |||
| Croatian | večeras | ||
| The word 'večeras' derives from the Old Church Slavonic word 'vьčerŭ', meaning 'yesterday', and has undergone a semantic shift over time to its present meaning of 'tonight'. | |||
| Danish | i aften | ||
| The Danish word "i aften" is related to the German "Abend" (evening) both sharing the common Indo-European root ‘h₂wes-, meaning evening, night. | |||
| Dutch | vanavond | ||
| 'Vanavond' derives from the archaic 'van avonde', meaning 'from the evening' or 'from this evening'. | |||
| English | tonight | ||
| The word "tonight" is derived from the Old English term "to niht," meaning "on this night." | |||
| French | ce soir | ||
| The French phrase "ce soir" is a contraction of "cette soir," where "cette" is the feminine form of "ce" (this). | |||
| Frisian | fannacht | ||
| The Frisian word "fannacht" is a contraction of "foan deis nacht," meaning "from this night." | |||
| Galician | esta noite | ||
| In some areas "esta noite" also refers to dusk. | |||
| German | heute abend | ||
| The word "heute Abend" literally means "this evening" in German, but it can also be used to refer to the entire night. | |||
| Icelandic | í kvöld | ||
| Í kvöld is a contraction of í kveldi, which translates to 'in the evening', indicating a time within the early evening, rather than late at night. | |||
| Irish | anocht | ||
| "Anocht" is derived from the Old Irish word "anochd," meaning "the night after this one." | |||
| Italian | stasera | ||
| The Italian word "stasera" comes from the Latin "ista sera," meaning "this evening." | |||
| Luxembourgish | haut den owend | ||
| The phrase 'haut den Owend' in Luxembourgish is derived from the words 'haut' meaning 'high' and 'Owend' meaning 'evening', together meaning 'the high evening' or 'the evening when the moon is high'. | |||
| Maltese | illejla | ||
| The word “illejla” comes from the Arabic word “al-layla,” which also means “tonight.” | |||
| Norwegian | i kveld | ||
| The Norwegian word "i kveld" is a contraction of the phrase "i kveldingen," meaning "in the evening." | |||
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | esta noite | ||
| The word "esta noite" literally means "this night" in Portuguese and it can also refer to the evening before a specific date | |||
| Scots Gaelic | a-nochd | ||
| The word 'a-nochd' is derived from 'an-nochd' in Early Modern Scottish Gaelic, meaning 'the night'. | |||
| Spanish | esta noche | ||
| The Spanish word “esta noche” literally means "this night", deriving from the Latin "ecce hac nocte" meaning "behold! this night!" | |||
| Swedish | i kväll | ||
| }i kväll' means 'this evening' or 'tonight' and was originally used to refer to the evening after a full day's work. | |||
| Welsh | heno | ||
| The Welsh word "heno" means "tonight" but also refers to "this evening" and "yesterday evening". | |||
Tonight in Eastern European Languages
| Belarusian | сёння ўвечары | ||
| The word "сёння ўвечары" is an example of a calque: it is a translation of the Russian expression "сегодня вечером" | |||
| Bosnian | večeras | ||
| "Večeras" is cognate with "veče" ("evening") in other Slavic languages, but also means "dinner". In Serbo-Croatian it also functions as "last night". | |||
| Bulgarian | тази вечер | ||
| "Тази вечер" (tonight) in Bulgarian, literally means "this evening". | |||
| Czech | dnes večer | ||
| The Czech word "dnes večer" also means "this evening". | |||
| Estonian | täna õhtul | ||
| The Estonian word "täna õhtul" comes from the Proto-Finnic "*tänä illa", meaning "this evening". | |||
| Finnish | tänä yönä | ||
| "Tänä" is the inessive case of "tämä" in Finnish, denoting location or a specific instance. While "yönä" refers to "night", "tänä yönä" translates to "this night" or "this evening." | |||
| Hungarian | ma este | ||
| "M este" (this evening), the Hungarian translation of Latin "hac nocte", originally meant "this night", but gradually shifted to mean "tonight" | |||
| Latvian | šovakar | ||
| "Šovakar" and its cognate Lithuanian "šį vakar" mean "this evening" rather than "tonight" and come from the Proto-Baltic *šĭ vákăras "late afternoon, evening". | |||
| Lithuanian | šiąnakt | ||
| The word "šiąnakt" ("tonight" in Lithuanian) is derived from the Proto-Baltic root *naktis, meaning "night". | |||
| Macedonian | вечерва | ||
| The word "вечерва" comes from the Proto-Slavic word *větьčerъ, which also means "evening". | |||
| Polish | dzisiejszej nocy | ||
| The word "dzisiejszej nocy" derives from the Proto-Slavic word *dnьsь (today), with the addition of the suffix -ej (genitive singular), and the preposition "noc" (night). | |||
| Romanian | astă seară | ||
| The Romanian word "astă seară" means "this evening" and is composed of the definite article "astă" and the noun "seară" meaning "evening." | |||
| Russian | сегодня ночью | ||
| The word "сегодня ночью" is composed of the words "сегодня" (today) and "ночью" (at night), and it can also mean "last night" in some contexts. | |||
| Serbian | вечерас | ||
| "Вечерас" is derived from Old Church Slavonic and is related to other Slavic words for "evening". | |||
| Slovak | dnes večer | ||
| The Slovak word "dnes večer" is a combination of two words, "dnes" (meaning "today") and "večer" (meaning "evening"), making its literal translation "today evening" | |||
| Slovenian | nocoj | ||
| "Nocoj" originates from a contraction of the Old Slavic words *nočь* and *sego" which translates to "today evening". | |||
| Ukrainian | сьогодні ввечері | ||
| The Ukrainian word “сьогодні ввечері” (“tonight”) shares its root with the word “вечір” (“evening”), and is literally translated as “this evening”. | |||
Tonight in South Asian Languages
| Bengali | আজ রাতে | ||
| The word "আজ রাতে" is also used to mean "this evening" or "tonight". | |||
| Gujarati | આજની રાત | ||
| "આજની રાત" literally means "this night" in Gujarati, but is also interpreted as "the day after tonight" and "any night within this week" | |||
| Hindi | आज रात | ||
| 'आज रात' literally means 'today's night' in Hindi, but it is used to refer to the following night. | |||
| Kannada | ಇಂದು ರಾತ್ರಿ | ||
| Malayalam | ഇന്ന് രാത്രി | ||
| In Malayalam, the word "ഇന്ന് രാത്രി" can alternatively mean "this evening" or "later tonight" depending on the context. | |||
| Marathi | आज रात्री | ||
| The Marathi word "आज रात्री" (tonight) is a compound word formed by the words "आज" (today) + "रात्र" + "-ी". | |||
| Nepali | आज राती | ||
| राती and रात are synonyms, and their combined meaning is "night". आज is an affix that refers to the present day. | |||
| Punjabi | ਅੱਜ ਰਾਤ | ||
| The word "ਅੱਜ ਰਾਤ" does not have an alternate meaning in Punjabi, but it shares etymology with English "today night". | |||
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | අද රෑ | ||
| "අද රෑ" can refer to either the upcoming night or the night just before the current day, based on context. | |||
| Tamil | இன்று இரவு | ||
| Telugu | ఈరాత్రి | ||
| The word "ఈరాత్రి" (tonight) is derived from the Sanskrit word "अत्ररात्रि" (atraraatri), meaning "this night." | |||
| Urdu | آج کی رات | ||
| The word "آج کی رات" literally means "of today's night" in Urdu, while in English it is a single word. | |||
Tonight in East Asian Languages
| Chinese (Simplified) | 今晚 | ||
| "今晚" comes from "今夜" meaning "this night." | |||
| Chinese (Traditional) | 今晚 | ||
| 今晚 means 'tonight' in Chinese (Mandarin) and is composed of two characters: 今 (today) and 晚 (night). | |||
| Japanese | 今晩 | ||
| 今晩 (konban) was originally a Buddhist term that had the meaning "tonight, before midnight only", while 夜 (yoru), as it is used today, was always "any time after sunset till daybreak". | |||
| Korean | 오늘 밤 | ||
| "오늘 밤" can also be used to refer to the night of a wedding. | |||
| Mongolian | өнөө орой | ||
| "Өнөө орой" is a Mongolian word meaning "tonight" but also means "today". | |||
| Myanmar (Burmese) | ဒီည | ||
| The word "ဒီည" ("tonight") can also mean "this evening" or "this night." | |||
Tonight in South East Asian Languages
| Indonesian | malam ini | ||
| "Malam" is similar to the Malay word "Malem" or "malam". In Sundanese it is known as "malem" and in Javanese it is known as "wengi". | |||
| Javanese | bengi iki | ||
| "Bengi iki" literally means "this night" in Javanese, where "bengi" means "night" and "iki" means "this". | |||
| Khmer | យប់នេះ | ||
| In Khmer, "យប់នេះ" (pronounced "yob niih") can also mean "this evening" or "tonight". | |||
| Lao | ຄືນນີ້ | ||
| คำว่า ""คืนนี้"" ยังสามารถหมายถึงคืนในอดีตได้ เช่น ประโยคภาษาไทย ""เมื่อคืนหลับฝันดีไหม"" | |||
| Malay | malam ini | ||
| The word "malam ini" (tonight) can also be used as a poetic way to refer to death. | |||
| Thai | คืนนี้ | ||
| คืนนี้ is derived from the Sanskrit word "nisha" meaning "night" and is also used to refer to the evening or dusk. | |||
| Vietnamese | tối nay | ||
| In the southern dialect of Vietnam, "tối nay" can also mean "this evening" | |||
| Filipino (Tagalog) | ngayong gabi | ||
Tonight in Central Asian Languages
| Azerbaijani | bu axşam | ||
| "Bu axşam" consists of "bu" (this) + "axşam" (evening), thus the meaning of the word - "tonight". | |||
| Kazakh | бүгін кешке | ||
| The word “бүгін кешке” derives from the Kazakh words for “today” (бүгін) and “evening” (кешке). It can also refer to a specific time in the evening, such as sunset or dinnertime. | |||
| Kyrgyz | бүгүн кечинде | ||
| Tajik | имшаб | ||
| "ИМШАБ" - от слова "ИМШАВ", что значит "вечер". Так же от слова "ИМШАВ" образовались слова "ИМШАВИЯ" - "вечерний" и "ИМШАВГОХИ" - "вечерний гость". | |||
| Turkmen | şu gije | ||
| Uzbek | bugun tunda | ||
| The word "bugun tunda" literally means "this night today" in Uzbek. | |||
| Uyghur | بۈگۈن ئاخشام | ||
Tonight in Pacific Languages
| Hawaiian | kēia pō | ||
| The Hawaiian word "kēia pō" literally means "this night" and can also refer to "the present time" or "now". | |||
| Maori | a te po nei | ||
| "A te po nei" is a Māori phrase meaning "tonight". It is derived from the words "a" (meaning "at"), "te" (meaning "the"), "po" (meaning "night"), and "nei" (meaning "this"). | |||
| Samoan | po nei | ||
| The Samoan word "po nei" can also mean "this evening" or "this night". | |||
| Tagalog (Filipino) | ngayong gabi | ||
Tonight in American Indigenous Languages
| Aymara | esta noche | ||
| Guarani | ko pyharépe | ||
Tonight in International Languages
| Esperanto | ĉi-vespere | ||
| Ĉi-vespere is a compound word meaning "tonight" and composed of ĉi “this” and vespere “evening". | |||
| Latin | hac nocte | ||
| "Hac nocte" can also be translated as "on this night" or "this very night". | |||
Tonight in Others Languages
| Greek | απόψε | ||
| "Απόψε" originates from the ancient Greek "από" (apo, meaning "from") and "ψε" (pse, meaning "night") and literally means "from the night" | |||
| Hmong | hmo no | ||
| The word "Hmo no" in Hmong can also mean "this evening" | |||
| Kurdish | îro êvarî | ||
| "Êvar" originated from the Proto-Iranian word *haparah, meaning "night, darkness, late at night". | |||
| Turkish | bu gece | ||
| "Bu gece" means "tonight" in Turkish, but it also literally means "this night" or "the night of this". | |||
| Xhosa | ngokuhlwanje | ||
| The word "ngokuhlwanje" is an isiXhosa term referring to both the current "night" and the following "day" combined as one continuous 24-hour period. | |||
| Yiddish | היינט נאכט | ||
| The Yiddish word "היינט נאכט" ("tonight") is derived from the German words "heute" ("today") and "Nacht" ("night"). | |||
| Zulu | kusihlwa | ||
| "Kusihlwa" in Zulu can also refer to a gathering or entertainment taking place in the evening. | |||
| Assamese | আজি নিশা | ||
| Aymara | esta noche | ||
| Bhojpuri | आज के रात | ||
| Dhivehi | މިރޭ | ||
| Dogri | अज्ज रातीं | ||
| Filipino (Tagalog) | ngayong gabi | ||
| Guarani | ko pyharépe | ||
| Ilocano | ita a rabii | ||
| Krio | dis nɛt | ||
| Kurdish (Sorani) | ئەمشەو | ||
| Maithili | आइ रात | ||
| Meiteilon (Manipuri) | ꯉꯁꯤ ꯅꯨꯃꯤꯗꯥꯡ | ||
| Mizo | zanin | ||
| Oromo | har'a galgala | ||
| Odia (Oriya) | ଆଜି ରାତି | ||
| Quechua | kunan tuta | ||
| Sanskrit | अद्यरात्री | ||
| Tatar | бүген кич | ||
| Tigrinya | ሎሚ ምሸት | ||
| Tsonga | namuntlha namadyambu | ||