I've been learning Spanish for 2 years now but I can't wrap my head around parts of day. I asked natives, my teacher, even Claude, but I still don't get it. So I finally decided to ask here.

So in English and Russian we have 4 parts of day:

- morning
- afternoon
- evening
- night

And 4 greetings accordingly:

- good morning
- good afternoon
- good evening
- good night

So when I think about what to say in Spanish, in my head I translate:
- buenos días = good afternoon
- buenas tardes = good evening
- buenas noches = good night

But the option for "good morning" doesn't seem to exist! So people use "buenos días" for the bigger part of the day. But then again, saying "buenas tardes" at like 3 p.m. also feels weird, isn't it too early?

So far, the most compelling argument is (based on Claude AI) that historically people only differentiated DAY vs NIGHT in Spanish, kind of like 1 and 0. And the concepts of "morning" and "evening" didn't exist, so that's why they didn't develop separate "good morning" greeting.

My question is:

As native / advanced Hispanic speakers, how do you feel about parts of day? Do you struggle with them in English?

Our office of emergency management put out a brochure translated into Spanish with the title Una Portland Resistente. (A resilient Portland). A Spanish speaker stopped by our table and took a look to check the quality of the translation from English. He said that conventionally, cities are treated as masculine, so that the correct form of the title would be "Un Portland resistente"

Further questions I'd consider if I were publishing would be 1) would it be better to put the adjective before the noun; and 2) how necessary is the indefinite article (as opposed to its use in English?)

Comments?

I've always been told, and agree with, the idea that the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it with other speakers and those learning. Unfortunately I do not really have the time to go to Spanish events like meetups or cultural events. I do, however, have a few Spanish speakers at my job. I would love to speak with them in Spanish, but I do not want them to think i am just using them for practice or think I think they are bad at English.

I'm from UK. I could say to people I know "thanks brother/bro/man" kind of slang. Of course depending on circumstances and usually someone round my age/similar enviroment.

For example when training jiu jitsu I'll say gracias mano. I hear Mexicans say it to others and to myself so it rolls smoothly.

I'm just wondering what would I say to a woman? A girl my age. I don't want to accidentally saying something flirty or wrong basically. Just something normal/cool.

As I understand it, the majority of words in Spanish can take this diminutive suffix. However when I hear one, I can’t seem to instantly recognise its meaning in a sentence (even if it’s modifying a word that I already know)

My question is mainly to advanced learners (but natives please also feel free to chime in):

How have you learned to understand these words? Is it by simply memorising each word as a new word, or sort of doing a “manual calculation” in your head in which you work your way backwards to find the root of the word and make sense of its meaning? Or does it come naturally after a while learning the language?

So yesterday I saw a movie with Penelope Cruz called The Invite. It was in English but she and her movie husband spoke a bit in Spanish.

In one conversation they both answered a question with the same word or phrase. Then both said "Chispas!", followed by a phrase that I didn't catch. What is that phrase?

So I took Spanish from kindergarten through 10th grade and then after high school I had a few jobs where some coworkers spoke Spanish but like I would just use phrases here and there. About 6 years ago I started teaching at a school with a heavy Spanish speaking population, so I decided it’d be a great idea to start practicing Spanish again. Made note cards, did some grammar exercises, listened to podcasts in Spanish, played video games in Spanish etc. Eventually I realized my brain Spanish was fine but I wasn’t comfortable holding a conversation, so I got an online tutor last September.

Anyways I knew I had been getting a lot better but when I went to the language exchange, it turns out I was one of the more advanced non native speakers there. This includes pronunciation, verb tense, and sentence variety. I even had a native speaker say “You speak really well”. So my vibes are up rn.

Point is, there’s no shortcut to all of this. This was years of consistent practice and immersion, not some cheap gimmick where “you’ll become fluent in 3 months”. So keep working hard out there yall and try to hit Spanish from all angles!

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