Vesperi & vespere

[Hermesianax]

Salvete,

The Duolingo course teaches us the form vesperi, "in the evening", apparently a locative of vesper, "evening". Does anyone know the difference in meaning with the ablative vespere, which can also mean "in the evening"?

[slogger]

Acc. to the Lewis and Short dictionary:

vesper, ĕris and ĕri (in class. prose mostly acc. vesperum, and abl. vespere, or adverb. vesperi; the plur. not used), m. . . .

You can see examples of the use of both forms in the article linked to.

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And, from the Oxford Latin Dictionary, just to be really nerdy about it:

[Gente460644]

Bene factum est.

[slogger]

Gratias tibi ago.

[karasu4]

Vesperi is an adverb, but in practise there is no difference in meaning. Both forms appear in Classical literature.