Russian Vocabulary (and Wisdom)

How to say "night" in Russian

This Russian word is one of the top 1000 words in Russian. The complete list of most common Russian words is available here.

ночь

Meaning: night

Pronunciation: [nohch']

Part of speech: noun (feminine noun)

Rank: #169 (see frequency list)

Night falls at the Seaside Grill.
Photo by dakotaduff, licensed under CC SA 2.0

Example sentences:

Ночь былá холóдная.
The night was cold.
Пóздно нóчью мы поéхали домой.
We left home late at night.
Я всю ночь не моглá засну́ть.
I couldn't sleep all night.
По ночáм мы чácто слы́шим стрáнный шум.
We often hear a strange noise at night.
Вы успéли что-нибу́дь сдéлать зá ночь?
Have you managed to complete anything during the night?
Нóчи на ю́ге тëмные.
Nights are dark in the south.
Вдру́г наступи́ла ночь.
Suddenly the night fell.
Ночáми он писáл стихи́.
He wrote poems at nights.

Idioms and set expressions:

остáться нá ночь = to stay overnight
Спокóйной (дóброй) нóчи! = Good night!
нá ночь гля́дя = at this time of night
literal too late at night
бессóнная ночь = sleepless night
бéлые нóчи = white nights

Related words:

нóчка = night (diminutive form)
вéчер = evening
полночь = midnight

Proverbs and sayings:

Нóчью все кóшки сéры.
All cats are grey in the dark.
Тëмна ночь вóру роднáя мать.
A dark night is a thief's mother.
Бу́дет день, бу́дет и ночь.
There're good times and bad times.
literal There will be the day, there will be the night.

Other forms of the word (declensions):

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	но́чь	но́чи
Genitive	но́чи	ноче́й
Dative	но́чи	ноча́м
Accusative	но́чь	но́чи
Instrumental	но́чью	ноча́ми
Prepositional	но́чи	ноча́х
Locative	в ночи́	-

Vocabulary lesson: By Russificate blog exclusively for MasterRussian

Phrase recordings: Copyright(c) 2011 MasterRussian.com. All rights reserved.
Word recordings: Copyright(c) 2006 Streit Goulnara, Streit Eric, Vion Nicolas. Copyright(c) 2007 S. Sakhno, N. Vion. Distributed under CC-BY.

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