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I don't think this should be translated into 'nightly', because in English the adverb 'nightly' has the very specific meaning of EVERY night. If you say "The dogs and cats play nightly" in English it's taken to mean the dogs and cats play every night. The Esperanto 'nokte' does not have this meaning, it means 'by night' or 'at night'.
Oddly, this dictionary has "nightly" translated as "nokta" and "by night" or "at night" as "nokte". http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16967/16967-h/16967-h.htm#letterN
This dictionary has the same for "nokte", but has "nokta" mean "nocturnal". http://esperanto-panorama.net/vortaro/eoen.htm
....and this dictionary says that "nokte" means "dum nokto". http://reta-vortaro.de/revo/
Also, "on Friday" does not mean "every Friday" which would be "on Fridays" but means instead "sometime during the 24 hour day of Friday".
To Philip Davis below:
I think "every night" would be "ĉiu nokto".
nokte is an adverb and I have never seen a plural adverb.
I am learning though, just like you and I await someone more knowledgeable.
"Every night", as an adverb, can be "ĉiunokte". By the way, "ĉiutage" means "every day". See some examples here: http://bertilow.com/pmeg/vortfarado/principoj/frazetvortigo.html#i-o8c
About Phillip_Davis' question: an adverb can never take the plural ending -j.
"Ili ludas nokton" would mean that they play "night" (which would presumably be the name of a game), whereas "ili ludas nokte" uses "night" as an adverb, meaning they play at night.
Similarly "ili ludas rapido" means they're playing speed (a card game), and "ili ludas rapide" is "they're playing speedily (or quickly)". Of course speed is, as the name implies, a game played quickly: oni ludas rapido rapide.
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Does this work with the verb "estas"? For instance, how do I say "There is a party in my house at night"? Or "At night there are stars in the sky"?
Also, what about sentences without any verb? for example: "-when is your shift at the hospital tomorrow? -at night."
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Q1: This is "estas" without a subject, like this: There is a dog at my party - Estas hundo ĉe la festo.
Q2: For your example, it would be nokta
because your shift at the hospital is at night. When there's nothing there, it's -e: Bone demando!
That would have to be "dormi estas malfacile", because in Esperanto you can't have two ordinary verbs together. In English, the same word "sleep" can be a noun and a verb, so it is possible to say "Sleep is difficult". However, suppose the verb was "write". Just as you would never say in English, "write is difficult", so in Esperanto you never say, "Skribas estas malfacile". It has to be "to write" in English and "skribi" in Esperanto. Actually in the first part of your post, you had the right idea - you didn't put "jes, mia kato tre sxatas ludas nokte", but "jes, mia kato tre sxatas ludi nokte".