"Meinen Sie den Abend?"

Translation: Do you mean that evening?

[Franci285003]

Why is it DEN abend to say THAT night? Why the article is den to say that?

[RyuYan]

The owl is a bit unstable at times.

[Lee374561]

I just could not figure this out until it occurred to me that "Meinen" is the verb "mean" and not the possesive pronoun "my".
What an aha moment that was.

[slackbeard]

this came straight after a question where i translated Abend to night instead of evening... duo you are mocking me

[Hiztorybuff]

I believe that Nacht is the more correct word for night and Abend for evening. Gute Abend is usually used to say Good Evening.

[AdrianJosh]

isn't it guten abend since abend is masculine?

[XoooOverdose]

Yes, it's Guten Abend not Gute Abend. I'm not too sure why though.

[AdrianJosh]

It is because of the declension rule and it is in accusative case

[AnaSrsh]

I think Abend is for any time of the night from evening to before going to bed, and Nacht is when you go to sleep but I could be wrong.

[jaxojax]

what makes this dative? or is "den" a word of its own meaning "this/that" as well as the dative form of der?

[AdrianJosh]

it's about declensions you will learn about it later. one of the most fun german lessons. aha. Den here is accusative.

[Leomary15]

I may be very wrong, but I think in this case DEN is the accusative form of DER... and again, I'm not sure, but I believe you have to use accusative here because this is an expression of time, which as far as I know, always takes the accusative case

[John804122]

Why is it "that" evening instead of "in the evening?"

[1lynnielynn]

Since Abend is translated night in the hints, why isn't it accepted in the answer: Do you mean this night?

[XoooOverdose]

Abend shouldn't even mean night....It's more common to use "Nacht" for night. Maybe the dictionary is wrong. I think you should report it...

[AdrianJosh]

this is the usual state as nacht is after 10pm

abend is after 5pm and before 10pm

[XoooOverdose]

Oh Danke sehr!

[Alipersian]

why meinen came with sie ?!

[JasonVBlack]

6 years ago and the dictionary hints are still wrong for meinen :/

[ShashankGhai]

Do they mean the Evening - warum ist es falsch?

[Levi]

@ShashankGhai : Capitalized Sie - not being the first word in the sentence - does not mean "they", it means (formal) you.

[ShashankGhai]

Oh! Ich habe es nicht gesehen. danke schoen. Eine Geschenk (Lingot) fuer dich.

[Chrys-Tarly]

Is "afternoon" wrong? isn't it the same as evening?

[KarinGrant]

Afternoon is usually 12:00 PM to about 5:00 PM. Evening is from 5:00 PM to maybe 10:00 PM or so.

[Jonohislop]

Is this the formal version? Is there an informal version, like maybe Meinst du ?