ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: In the night/at night

Teo — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:55:39 GMT

Philip
Google the entire phrase (with quotation marks) and you'll find the source(s) of the phrase.

Things that go bump in the night

Meaning

Frightening but imagined supernatural events.

Origin

The earliest known example of the phrase in print is in the 1918 Bulletin of the School Oriental and African Studies:

"To a people ... who ... believe in genii, ghosts, goblins, and those terrific things that 'go bump in the night', protective charms are eagerly sought for."

That usage suggests that the author expected his readers to be familiar with the phrase. Around the same time the phrase was incorporated into a prayer:

From goulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night
Good Lord, deliver us!

This was recorded in The Cornish and West Country Litany, 1926, but it quite likely to be much earlier.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/378900.html

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Re: In the night/at night

Philip — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 17:48:34 GMT

Teo wrote:
What does "go bump" mean?

Make a noise by "bumping" into something. = running into, coming into contact with, touching. Google the entire phrase (with quotation marks) and you'll find the source(s) of the phrase.

Re: In the night/at night

Teo — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 16:24:40 GMT

What does "go bump" mean?

Re: In the night/at night

Philip — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 16:17:47 GMT

"Things that go bump in the night": at night just doesn't go.

Re: In the night/at night

Teo — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:44:50 GMT

http://www.englishclub.com/esl-forums/viewtopic.php?t=27211

'At night' means simply 'during the night', whereas 'in the night' has the rather more specific meaning of 'in the middle of the night', and thus tends to be limited to more poetic or graphic contexts than its simpler equivalent. Thus, we might have e.g.

I heard an owl hooting in the night.

(meaning 'at some point in the middle of the night')

but we would not say

?He works in the night.

to mean that his work occurs during the night hours.

Re: In the night/at night

Teo — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 11:07:03 GMT

It often rains quite heavily in the night. At night, I relax. During the night, the rain stopped.

Re: In the night/at night

Rodrook — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 06:34:34 GMT

Teo wrote:
If something happens regularly during this period, you say that it happens at night.

If you want to say that something happened in the night, during the night, or last night.

Collins Cobuild English Usage, 1992

I would like to make the bottom half of your quote a bit clearer in terms of the context.
I also cite a related but not the same reference.

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.
        He had died in the night.
        There had been reports that a motorized division had crossed the border during the night.
        ...the hill they had climbed the previous night.

Collins Cobuild Lexicon, 1997-2001

Re: In the night/at night

Teo — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 06:10:58 GMT

If something happens regularly during this period, you say that it happens at night.

If you want to say that something happened in the night, during the night, or last night.

Collins Cobuild English Usage, 1992

Re: In the night/at night

Teo — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 16:38:08 GMT

We usually use "at night" to express an action that occurs at a more or less
precise point in that time period.

"I go to bed at night."

We use "in/during the night" to express an action that occurs over a period of
time within that time period.

I sleep (usually for eight hours) during the night.

The stars appear at night, but they shine "in/during" the night.

I hope that this helps.

Peace,

David

Re: In the night/at night

Jandi — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 13:16:15 GMT

Yes, we are, MM! It's another happiness, isn't it?
Thank you and enjoy the end of not-working day.
Love!

Re: In the night/at night

Mister Micawber — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 13:00:09 GMT

Ah, Ms. Jandi-- onto the bandwagon, are we?

1. They ran away in the night. I like this one best; it sounds the most surreptitious.

2. The enemy attacked by night / at night / in the night. All three sound fine here, with slightly different nuances-- see below.

3. All week, the enemy attacked our left flank by night / in the night. 'At night' here sounds too mundane for the situation.

'At night' is the matter-of-fact, objective form. 'By night' suggests the timing of an activity. 'In the night' suggests clandestine matters. That is how the three forms seem to me (in addition to idiomatic concerns, like 'I always watch TV until 11 o'clock at night').

Re: In the night/at night

Jandi — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 11:40:41 GMT

What about these sentences?

1. They ran way [by night, at night, in the night].
2. The enemy attacked [by night, at night, in the night].
3. All the week, the enemy attacked our left side [by night, at night, in the night].

all the best.

Re: In the night/at night

CalifJim — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 08:44:04 GMT

a night OR every night

Neither "at night" nor "in the night" sounds good to me.

Re: In the night/at night

Teo — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 06:25:08 GMT

How about this question? Thanks a lot for your reply.
I sleep eight hours _____.at nightin the night

Re: In the night/at night

CalifJim — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 06:02:15 GMT

at night