why is it "Good night" but "nice Day"?

India
November 29, 2012 9:11am CST
I have observed that people say "Have a nice day" to each other but they say "Good night" when it is night. Why they don't say "Have a nice night"? Do you think there is some major difference between the two wishes?
7 responses
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
29 Nov 12
Say it out loud nice night it doesn't seem to strike a good tuning but if you say nice dream which I often hear, it compliments well.
1 person likes this
• India
16 Dec 12
Yes it may be the reason behind all this. I think it is all to do with the fashion which once started will continue.
@asliah (11137)
• Philippines
22 Jan 13
hi, for me the word good and nice are only the same meaning because good are usually used also in day such as good day and we used that actually in our email here in my work,so i think nice is more good to the word night coz when we say nice night sounds like incompatible.
• India
22 Jan 13
So it is all about the feeling of the compatibility, which all the people co-incidentally have the same. I agree to you. Thanks for sharing.
@YamiKiba (937)
• United States
29 Nov 12
Have a nice night sounds very awkward to most people. Even if it doesn't it's not really used because most people say good night. People just say good night because it sounds better. There's no difference at all when you think about it just that people don't really use the phrase like that.Also I think its because when its day time you have to deal with the stress of the day and they'd like to wish you a nice one and hope your day isn't too stressful, and good night to imply they wish you a restful night of sleep. That can be "nice" but no one really says they had a nice night of sleep, but rather they had a good night's rest. Because again it sounds awkward lol.
• India
22 Jan 13
Yeah! that is what I have observed from all the people here. I think it is all about the feeling of the compatibility between the sounds of the words together. Thanks for share.
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
1 Dec 12
No major differences really I think. We say Good Morning here and Good afternoon too. The good morning and good afternoon are usually greetings. Have a nice day or night are conclusions or good byes. Good night is a conclusion too because you won't see them until the next day.
• India
11 Dec 12
yeah we use it like a conclusion also. I am thankful for the light you put on the matter, now the question is this that why they generally use the "good" with the "night" and "nice" with the "day". I also use the good morning and good afternoon as the greetings and good night as the conclusion.
@sishy7 (27167)
• Australia
29 Nov 12
Here we say 'Good day' all the time...
• India
30 Nov 12
I think you take all the 24 hours as one complete day. It is different at different places but at maximum places they say it like "nice day" and "good night". Which country do you belong to?
1 person likes this
@Angelpink (4034)
• Philippines
29 Nov 12
We don't say have a nice night though we say , have a nice day because it is awkward to say it . It doesn't sound good to our ears , like it doesn't rhyme.
@beamer88 (4259)
• Philippines
29 Nov 12
I don't think there's really any difference between the two since the word 'good' is synonymous with 'nice.' But some people also say "Have a nice evening" which is just the same as saying "Have a good night." Maybe people prefer "Good night" for brevity's sake.