Saying goodnight in Italian is easy…
Buonanotte!
But talking about the night in Italy can trip you up.
Why? Because in Italy, the concept of “night” and “evening” is quite different compared to in other cultures!
So in this article, you’ll learn how to say “good night” and “good evening” in Italian. You’ll also get tips on how to use these kinds of phrases like a local and avoid the common mistakes learners make.
Good Night, Good Evening and Other Useful Phrases
Here are the most common expressions you can use when greeting, saying goodbye and talking about nights and evenings in Italy:
| Buonanotte | Good night | BWOH-NAH NOT–TEH |
| Notte! | Night! | NOT-TEH |
| Buonasera | Good evening | BWOH-NAH SEH-RAH |
| Buona serata | Have a good evening | BWOH–NAH SEH–RAH-TAH |
| Stasera | This evening, tonight | STAH-SEH-RAH |
| Ieri sera | Yesterday evening, last night | YEH–REE SEH–RAH |
| Stanotte | Tonight, last night | STAH-NOT–TEH |
Notice anything strange about these expressions? Some are used quite differently compared to English!
Let’s learn how to use each one.
Buonanotte! Goodnight in Italian
This is the classic way to say “goodnight” in Italian. Use it when someone is about to go to bed, or to say goodbye at the end of the night:
Buonanotte, dormi bene! – Good night, sleep well!
Torno all’hotel. Buonanotte! – I’m going back to the hotel. Goodnight!
It’s made up of two words: buona (good) and notte (night). The “u” in buona sounds like a “w” and the double “tt” in notte is nice and long.
Sometimes you might also hear Italians say the shortened version, n otte! (night!)
Buonasera vs. Buona Serata! Good evening in Italian
What’s the difference between these two expressions? We use buonasera when arriving or meeting someone:
Buonasera, abbiamo una prenotazione. – Good evening, we have a reservation.
Buonasera! Come stai? – Good evening! How are you?
We use buona serata for parting ways, for example, when leaving a restaurant after dinner:
Grazie, buona serata! – Thanks, have a great evening!
Remember to pronounce the “u” in buona like a “w”. And if you really want to say this phrase with an Italian accent , be sure to enunciate all the vowels in serata!
Evening or Night? The Late Italian Lifestyle
You’re strolling around a lovely piazza in Rome when you notice something strange… all the restaurants are empty! Before 8pm, there’s not a local in sight.
That’s because in Italy, we do everything later. 5pm or 6pm is considered late afternoon and the evening starts around seven.
And when does the evening end? This is where it gets interesting! You’ll often hear Italians say things like:
Le undici di sera – Eleven in the evening
That’s right, 11pm is still considered evening! Italians use la sera (the evening) to talk about any time you’re still awake and doing things.
Stasera: This Evening (and Tonight!) in Italian
For Italians, the evening lasts until whenever you go to bed. So stasera can mean both “this evening” and “tonight”:
Ci vediamo stasera dopo il lavoro? – See you this evening after work?
Stasera andiamo a una festa! – We’re going to a party tonight!
The expression is made up of two words:
The word stanotte , literally “this night” follows a similar pattern, but the meaning is different! Let’s learn how to use it now.
Stanotte: In the Middle of the Night
Italians normally use stanotte to talk about the middle of the night, usually when you’re sleeping. For example:
Stanotte dormo in aeroporto – Tonight I’m sleeping in the airport
Dormirai stanotte dopo questo caffè? – Will you sleep tonight after this coffee?
But here’s where things get really weird! The word stanotte can mean BOTH tonight, and last night! You’ll often hear Italians say things like:
Ho dormito male stanotte – I slept badly last night
Stanotte hai russato molto! – You snored a lot last night!
This feels confusing at first, but you can nearly always tell whether Italians are talking about tonight or last night from the tense. When the sentence is in the past, you know Italians are talking about “last night”.
Ieri Sera: Last Night (When You Weren’t Sleeping!)
But what if you found an amazing pizza place last night and you want to tell everyone about it? In this case, you would say ieri sera, literally “yesterday evening”:
Ieri sera ho mangiato una pizza buonissima! – Yesterday evening I ate a delicious pizza!
As you know, notte (night) usually refers to the middle of the night. If you were up doing things, like eating in a pizzeria, that’s still evening for Italians.
Here are some more examples:
Siamo tornati alle undici ieri sera – We got back at 11 yesterday evening.
Ieri sera sono uscita dopo cena – Yesterday evening I went out after dinner.
Common Learner Mistakes to Avoid
Learners often translate the expressions “tonight” and “last night” directly from English, which can lead to some funny sounding sentences in Italian. For example:
❌ Andiamo al ristorante stanotte ? – Shall we go to the restaurant tonight?
❌ Siamo andati al ristorante ieri notte – We went to the restaurant last night
This might make Italians imagine you going to the restaurant in the middle of the night in your PJs! If you’re still up and doing things, it’s better to say stasera and ieri sera:
✅ Andiamo al ristorante stasera ? – Shall we go to the restaurant this evening?
✅ Siamo andati al ristorante ieri sera – We went to the restaurant yesterday evening
Goodnight and Good Evening in Italian: Review
“Goodnight” in Italian is buonanotte and “good evening” is buonasera. Here are some similar expressions you might need:
Notte! – Night!
Buona serata! – Have a great evening!
Stasera – This evening, tonight
Ieri sera – Yesterday evening, last night
Stanotte – Tonight, last night (middle of the night)
You also learned a few details that will help you use these expressions like a local.
Remember that in Italy, we mostly use notte (night) to refer to the middle of the night, when you’re sleeping. Everything else before you go to bed is still considered sera (evening).
We hope you’re not feeling sleepy now, because we’ve got a little quiz for you!
Please note, this is not a word for word transcript.
K: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti! Hi everyone and welcome to “Learn Italian with Joy of Languages”.
You know how we talk about early birds and night owls in English? In Italian, we say mattiniero and nottambulo.
M: That’s me! I’m nottambulo (x2), which comes from the word notte, night. I go to bed at about 2 in the morning.
K: And I’m mattinera (x2). A morning person.
M: Which means you go to bed very early! Toooo early! Let’s listen to today’s conversation. How many phrases related to the night and evening can you hear?
K: Buonanotte. M: Come buonanotte? È presto! K: Sì, ma ieri sera abbiamo fatto le ore piccole. M: Le ore piccole! Abbiamo finito la serie a mezzanotte. K: E stasera ho fatto festa con gli amici. M: Ma sono le dieci e sei già a casa! K: Esatto! Buonanotte. M: Notte, nonna.
K: Let’s break it down. I said:
M: Buonanotte – goodnight
Buona – good
Notte – night
K: In Italian, it’s all one word buonanotte. This is our standard way to say “goodnight”. We say it when someone is about to go to bed, or when you’re parting ways at the end of the night. For example, “sleep well, goodnight!”
M: Dormi bene, buonanotte!
K: Or I’m going back to the hotel, goodnight!”
M: Torno all’hotel, buonanotte!
In Spanish you can use buenas noches when saying hello at the beginning of the night. In Italian it’s not like that. We only use buonanotte at the end of the night.
K: To pronounce it well, remember that the U is like a W. BW, BW, BUONA
M: Buona (x2)
K: And in notte there are two tts, so we make it nice and long. Not-te
M: Notte (x2). Buonanotte.
K: Then Matteo says:
M: Come buonanotte? – What do you mean goodnight?
Come – how
Buonanotte – goodnight
K: This is a nice way that Italians show being incredulous. Instead of “What do you mean?” they just say “how”. Come?! Then Matteo says:
M: È presto! – It’s early!
È – it is
Presto – early
K: I have my reasons for wanting to go to bed early, so I say:
M: Sì, ma ieri sera abbiamo fatto le ore piccole – Yes, but last night we stayed up til the early hours of the morning.
Sì – Yes
Ma – But
Ieri sera – yesterday evening (more on this soon)
Abbiamo – we have
Fatto – done
Le ore – the hours
Piccole – small
K: Fare le ore piccole , literally “to do the small hours”. This means to stay up past midnight, so one, two or three, because they’re “small hours”. Similar to the UK, particularly Scotland, where we say the “wee hours”.
An interesting thing to notice here is how I said ieri sera, yesterday evening, even though I was talking about 1 or 2 in the morning.
M: Yes, for Italians, the evening starts at around seven and it finishes whenever you go to bed. So we say things like le undici di sera (x2). 11 o'clock in the evening.
K: Yes. You only say notte (night) to talk about the time when you’re usually in bed sleeping, is that right?
M: Yes. Everything else is sera (evening) for us.
K: And this is a common mistake that learners make. They want to translate tonight or last night literally and they use notte, night. But if you’re up and doing stuff, in Italian, it’s sera. So last night is usually “yesterday evening” in Italian.
M: Ieri sera (x2)
K: For example, if you wanted to say “last night I ate a delicious pizza”, you’d say “yesterday evening I ate a delicious pizza”:
M: Ieri sera ho mangiato una pizza buonissima (x2)
K: Now we have a quick little favour to ask. If you’re finding this episode useful, could you click the follow button in your podcast app, right now as you’re listening? You’ll get notified when we release new episodes and it helps us grow so we can continue to create episodes like this for free.
M: Grazie!
K: Next, Matteo said:
M: Le ore piccole! – The small hours! Matteo repeats this because he doesn’t agree.
M: Abbiamo finito la serie a mezzanotte. – We finished the series at midnight.
Abbiamo – we have
Finito – finished
La serie – the series
A – at
Mezzanotte – midnight
K: Then I said:
M: E stasera ho fatto festa con gli amici – and tonight I partied with my friends. Literally:
E – And
Stasera – this evening
Ho – I have
Fatto – done
Festa – party
Con – with
Gli – the
Amici – friends
K: Here you heard stasera which means “this evening”. It comes sta, which is the short version of questa, meaning “this” and sera, “evening”. It’s all one word stasera. S-T-A-S-E-R-A.
M: Stasera (x2). And this is another example of how for us, if you are out and doing things, it’s always the evening sera . It would sound very weird to use notte in this case, even if you stayed out really late, it would sound weird. I would imagine you out with your friends in your pyjamas.
K: But in this case, I didn’t stay out late, because Matteo said:
M: Ma sono le dieci – But it’s 10 o’clock. If you want to learn more about how to tell the time, check out episode 31. Then Matteo said:
M: e sei già a casa! – and you’re already at home!
E – And
Sei – You are
Già – already
A – at
Casa – home
K: For me this means I already had a wild night out, so I said:
M: Esatto! – Exactly!
Buonanotte – Goodnight.
K: Then Matteo said:
M: Notte, nonna. – Night, grandma.
K: This is nice. Sometimes Italians will just say the short version notte just like how we can say “night!” in English. Let’s listen to the whole conversation again:
K: Buonanotte.
M: Come buonanotte? È presto!
K: Sì, ma ieri sera abbiamo fatto le ore piccole.
M: Le ore piccole! Abbiamo finito la serie a mezzanotte.
K: E stasera ho fatto festa con gli amici.
M: Ma sono le dieci e sei già a casa!
K: Esatto! Buonanotte.
M: Notte, nonna.
K: In this episode we talked a lot about how we normally use sera to talk about last night and tonight. Last night is usually ieri sera. And tonight is usually stasera. But we also have expressions with notte in them, for example stanotte, literally “this night”. When do we use them?
M: Oh yes, that’s a funny one! You’ll find the answer in our blog post for this episode.
K: You’ll also learn more expressions for greeting Italians in the evening, see everything from today’s lesson written down and get bonus materials, like vocabulary cards and a quiz. You can head over to our website by clicking on the link in the description.
M - See you next time.
K - Or as we say in Italian.
Alla prossima!
Time to check your understanding and remember everything you just learned! Below you’ll find a mini-quiz and some vocabulary cards to help it all go in.
Quiz
How much did you learn? Find out in the quiz!
Click here to take the quiz for this episode: Goodnight and Good Evening in Italian
Vocabulary
Buonasera! = Good evening!Buona serata! = Have a good evening (when leaving)Stanotte = Tonight, last night (middle of the night)Dormi bene, buonanotte! = Sleep well, goodnight! Torno all’hotel, buonanotte! = I’m going to the hotel, goodnight!Ieri sera = Last night (lit. yesterday evening) Ieri sera ho mangiato una pizza buonissima! = Yesterday evening I ate a delicious pizza! Stasera = Tonight (lit. this evening)Notte! = Night!
Flashcards: Goodnight and Good Evening in Italian
Remember the vocabulary from this lesson by downloading the digital flashcards
Goodnight and Good Evening in Italian Download
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