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Parts of the day with 'por' and 'de'

When you start talking about your daily routines, you need to use words for the different parts of the day. In English, we use a mix of prepositions, saying "in the morning", "in the afternoon", and "at night".

When learning Spanish, many English speakers try to translate "in" directly to en. While you might hear this in some regions, Spanish has a unique and highly consistent pattern for these phrases. You will learn to use por for general times of the day, and then switch to de when you mention a specific hour.

Word list
mañanafA1 morning por la mañana = in the morning; de la mañana = AM nochefA1 night por la noche = at night; de la noche = PM tardefA1 afternoon por la tarde = in the afternoon; de la tarde = PM madrugadafB1 dawn por la madrugada = early morning hours before sunrise; de la madrugada = AM
General times of day

If you are talking about an action that happens sometime during a broad part of the day, Spanish uses the preposition por followed by the feminine article la. This pattern is beautifully consistent. You use it for mañana and tarde.

Estudio por la mañana.
(I study in the morning.)
Siempre tomamos café por la tarde.
(We always drink coffee in the afternoon.)

Unlike English, which changes the rule to say "at night", Spanish keeps the exact same structure for noche. You will also use this pattern for madrugada. This word does not have a perfect single-word equivalent in English, but it refers to the early hours of the morning before the sun comes up, usually between midnight and sunrise.

Me gusta leer por la noche.
(I like to read at night.)
Los pájaros cantan por la madrugada.
(The birds sing at dawn.)
Specific clock times

The trickiest part of this quirk is that the rule changes as soon as you mention a specific hour. When you attach a part of the day to a time on the clock, you must drop por. Instead, Spanish uses the preposition de.

Think of this as saying that it is three o'clock "of the afternoon". This rule applies to all the words we have covered. You will use de la mañana, de la tarde, de la noche, and de la madrugada to specify whether a time is AM or PM.

El tren sale a las siete de la mañana.
(The train leaves at seven in the morning.)
La reunión es a las tres de la tarde.
(The meeting is at three in the afternoon.)
Cenamos a las nueve de la noche.
(We have dinner at nine at night.)
Llegaron a las dos de la madrugada.
(They arrived at two in the morning.)
Watch out for direct translations

The most common mistake learners make is trying to force English grammar onto Spanish. Because we say "in the morning", you will often see beginners write sentences using en la mañana. You will actually hear this spoken in several parts of Latin America, so it is perfectly understood. However, por la mañana is the standard construction taught worldwide and is the default in Spain.

An even bigger trap is mixing up the two rules you just learned. Never use por right after a specific hour. Saying that an event starts at eight por la tarde sounds very unnatural to a native speaker. Always rely on de when the clock is involved. Finally, keep in mind that the words for noon and midnight behave differently altogether, usually pairing with the preposition a instead of por or de.

Summary

When talking about a general part of the day, use por la. As soon as you mention a specific hour on the clock, switch your preposition to de la.