Morning, noon and night

Morning, noon and night in the sense of continually is easily translated as continuamente.  But if you want to convey the touch of exasperation or impatience often present in this phrase there’s little to choose from, apart from todo el díá and sin parar, escalating to the rather rude but far more expressive todo el puto día.

Mañana is a curious word because it means tomorrow as well as morning although the Spanish are no more inclined than anyone else to put off until tomorrow what should be done today. Of all the stereotypes that have been done to death about Spain and the Spanish, the mañana syndrome is the least insightful. 

Even the reluctance on the part of officials to get a job done and the red tape that sometimes unravels at a snail’s pace is the legacy of decades – centuries! - of bureaucracy – burocracia, not procrastination.

As well as tomorrow, mañana also means morning which, as it does everywhere, lasts until noon – mediodía.  A Spanish mid-day does not always correspond to an English-speaker’s mid-day, which is less than surprising in a country where lunch and dinner reach the table a good couple of hours later than in more northerly climates. 

So be prepared for a mediodía that can stretch to 1 or even 2 p.m. and expect to hear buenos días until after lunch, which on reflection is neither eccentric nor unpunctual because this greeting (in the plural for good measure) has the literal meaning of good day and not good morning,

Our afternoon is a Spanish tarde and this also signifies late in the sense of what else but tardy?  Once lunch is over, you greet people with a plural buenas tardes – good afternoon and this sees you through until evening. 

Nightfall is described by the verbs anochecer and atardecer as well hacerse de noche, literally to become night, which is appropriate for a country where twilight exists as crepúsculo but is rarely observed, since day’s journey into night is never noticeably long in Mediterranean Spain.

Twilight is fleeting

At this point you switch to buenas noches and because Spanish is satisfyingly precise when it is not being impressively prolix, there is a specific verb, trasnochar, which means to be up late or, if you really push the boat out, to be up all night.

On occasions like this, you experience firsthand la madrugada - the early hours of the morning alongside those who want or have to madrugar – another supremely precise verb meaning to get up early at the crack of dawn - el amanecer.

While we’re on the subject, the saying no por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano - daybreak comes no sooner however early you get up implies that everything happens in its own time.  So forget about the mañana syndrome: this one is nearer the truth.