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If I am someone who generally hates nighttime, which of these sentences can I say to express that idea?

- I hate nights.

- I hate night.

- I hate the night.

I am nearly completely sure that we can say, "I hate nights," but how about the other ones? I feel it would be wrong to use the article with "night" here while we could perhaps say "I hate the morning" or "I hate the afternoon". I am used to hearing "the night" when talking about a particular night instead of nights generally. "I hate night" also sounds like it might be wrong to me but I am on the fence. Which of these three sentences I provided can be used in your opinion?

Context: Say I am visiting a friend. When I am at his apartment, the night falls and I say one of the three sentences I gave to mean I generally hate nighttime.

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  • @Mari-LouA Thanks but I am hypothesizing a situation where I want to express that I hate nighttime generally as I stated in the question.
    – Fire and Ice
    Commented Jun 11, 2022 at 9:05
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    Describing our experience somewhere unusual (like prison), "I hate the nights" would be understood as "I hate the nights here." With no such context it's an uncommon statement and seems to require the clarity of "I hate the night-time" or "I hate night-times." "I hate night" is abrupt, and seems to need clarifying; just as "I like day" would. Both "I hate the night" and "I hate nights" are better. But in the US I believe people say "I work nights", so saying you hate nights might suggest you have an unusual job (probably posting on social media!)
    – Old Brixtonian
    Commented Jun 11, 2022 at 9:46

1 Answer 1

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  1. What I hate about nights is…
    This refers to every night

  2. I hate driving at night-time.
    This information refers to each time I take the car at night.

If I want to specify which period then

  1. I hate the night.
    This sounds more absolute than its equivalent

  2. I hate nights.
    I don't hate each and every night of the year, but I find it extremely unpleasant.

  3. I hate night.
    This makes "night" appear as an uncountable noun such as peace, noise, music, light (not the electric kind), injustice etc. I'd find it acceptable in a sonnet, in lyrics or a poem.

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