Is the expression "yesterday afternoon" correct?


Is it proper to use the following expressions



I started to London yesterday afternoon .


I started to London yesterday morning



I ask because it is supposedly correct to say 'last night'. Why don't we say 'last afternoon' or 'last morning'?



Answer



Yes, constructions such as



  • The series will continue tomorrow evening.

  • The show closes next Wednesday night.

  • The package arrived on Christmas morning.


are quite common.


For night, it is more customary to say last night rather than yesterday night, although we do say yesterday evening, tomorrow night, Saturday night, and so on.


When the day is itself a compound, I think this compact form is less common, however. To say



We should arrive the day after tomorrow morning



sounds unnatural to me; my eyes jump to the set phrase "tomorrow morning," and then I wonder how there can be a full day after a part of a day, and then I realize I have parsed it wrongly. Better to have said



We should arrive the morning of the day after tomorrow.



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