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"In the late afternoon, we would often be visited by one or more of the failed Beat poets who always, very coincidentally, found themselves in the neighborhood.?"

I have a question about the definite article. In the sentence above, there is "the" before "late afternoon". However, I do not think the author is talking about a particular afternoon when he/she was visited by the failed Beat poets seeing that the word "would" implies not a particular time but habitual times. So I do not get why it has to be "the late afternoon" instead of "late afternoons" to match with the word "would."

Please explain as in detail as possible.

Huidong Im
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    It's an idiom. If someone tries to explain why it's logical to use the definite article in the common expressions 'in the morning', 'in the evening' etc, they're going to struggle with the fairly common expressions 'of an afternoon' etc. ['Often, of an afternoon, we would drive out to the Rogers ranch and oversee a practice game ...': internet] – Edwin Ashworth Oct 13 '14 at 16:35
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    I've noticed that time related phrases must be difficult for non-native speakers, because they often mess these up. My guess is that there aren't very many hard rules for time references in English. (I couldn't count how many times I've heard non-native speakers say "today morrow" for tomorrow, or "this day" instead of "today".) – Calphool Oct 13 '14 at 21:31
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    It is not irrelevant to note here that such expressions tend to have definite articles in most Western European languages: in the afternoon, (pendant) l’-après-midi, en la tarde, am Nachmittag, om eftermiddag-en, στο απόγευμα, etc., all with a definite article before the noun meaning ‘afternoon’. (Ignore the hyphens before/after italics—they’re just there to make the Markdown work properly.) – Janus Bahs Jacquet Oct 13 '14 at 22:16

4 Answers4

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Good question, I had to think for a bit and my immediate reaction, I don't think was correct.

However, my understanding would be that the author is talking in a specific manner about a generic afternoon. This occurs a lot in English with time:

In the morning we would wake up and have breakfast

In the afternoon I would play soccer

In the evening I would often go to town

I'm not an etymologist, and am not certain about the origin of this practice, but in each situation, it describes a single, specific 'average day'. It is also tied with using the word 'in'.

As you suggested, you can use this form, or you can also use the alternative:

On late afternoons...

Or even

On a late afternoon...

But these two require usage of the word 'on' rather than 'in'. I'm unable unfortunately to, at this point, explain the why each of these words is used.

davecw
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I would see such when-indications as

in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening

as idiomatic adverbials and it is no use trying to analyze the use of "the" with grammar rules. These when-indications have a good rhythm for speaking and the use in this form became the normal thing.

rogermue
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  • I totally agree with you. The more I study English, the more I am inclined to think that learning a language is best done when you just try to absorb it without much concern for grammar. Thank you! – Huidong Im Oct 14 '14 at 15:00
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"the late afternoon" is a time of day, just as "early in the morning" or "at 3:00 in the afternoon"

Ishan Yadav
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  • This doesn’t actually answer the question, which is why those times all have the definite article. Simply stating that they do is just repeating the premise of the question. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Oct 13 '14 at 22:07
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Americans say 'In the morning not 'in morning' or 'on morning' because it's just the way we speak. Idiomatically. On morning may be grammatically correct but it sounds wrong, archaic to Americans. No American would ever say 'call me in early afternoon' but apparently that's good grammar in India.

Kerry Brown
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