宵

[moa1918]

What's the difference between 宵 and 晚 or 夜? I saw in a dictionary that 宵 means 夜, but there were also the phrase 今宵, which is supposed to mean "tonight". So, what's the difference between 今宵 and 今晚?
Moa

Comments

[bride]

Just my take:

宵 has a concept of "inside, at night". There's usually a connotation
of the "where" or location aspect to it.

晚 has a connotation of time to it, like "later", "younger", etc.

夜 is a more general, all encompassing idea of nighttime.

[tonync]

今晚 is used in everyday conversation. 今宵 has a poetic touch to it. Hong Kong used to have a nightly variety show called 歡樂今宵 | 欢乐今宵 ... I think it broke the world record for being the longest lasting variety show!