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I had a question if this was the best way to describe the English sentence

Rosquillas and Coffee in the morning is delicious.

In Spanish would I use por for the description of the time of day?

Rosquillas y café por la mañana es delicioso.

Is this alright to use, or is there a better way to describe 'in the morning'?

Thanks

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  • Here is a similar question: spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/10420/…
    – Rodrigo
    Dec 22, 2014 at 13:17
  • The correct traslation (and if you want to consder in that way) of the sentence in the morning is en la mañana, it may be also a informal or a regional way of say the same sentence. You should check the similar question linked by @Rodrigo in his comment. Dec 22, 2014 at 13:52

2 Answers 2

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Por is the preposition used to refer to a general part of the day

Por la mañana, por la tarde

It can be used with other nouns that determine time

Por Navidad. Por agosto.

The preposition en can be used to form locuciones temporales

Denota en qué lugar, tiempo o modo se realiza lo expresado por el verbo a que se refiere

  • with the name of months: En agosto.
  • names of seasons: En primavera.
  • with years: En 1984.
  • certain nouns: Los Reyes Magos vienen en Navidad.

The preposition a can be used to refer to hours of the day

a las diez de la mañana (or de 10am a 7pm)

It seems that most Spaniards would say "por la mañana" and some Latin Americans accept "en la mañana". There are even some regionalisms that would accept the use of a

Nos vemos a la tarde

But I don't think I have ever heard this with "mañana" ("a la mañana") and means something closer to "next evening" than "every evening".

My suggestion would be to user por to describe a time frame of the day by name.

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  • I've only ever heard a la mañana in a sequence like Y a la mañana siguiente, acaeció algo to mean, basically, al amanecer, acaeció algo where the concern isn't that it took place in the morning, but upon the arrival of the morning. Dec 22, 2014 at 15:54
  • @guifa, I don't really think that I have ever heard of it to refer to recurrent actions. Almost always conveys "next" (nos vemos a la tarde--> Nos vemos luego). And I agree that is almost followed by "siguiente" (I also just found this page researching it a little bit more). Also, notice that is a regionalism.
    – Diego
    Dec 22, 2014 at 16:07
  • I wouldn't use it for recurrent either. Probably should have said "arrival of the following morning" haha Dec 22, 2014 at 16:33
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Yes, it's correct.

In Spain we say it like that, in Latin America they might say en la mañana, which is also fine if you speak that variant of Spanish.


One correction:

Rosquilla(s) y café por la mañana son deliciosos.

Since the subject is plural (rosquilla(s) y café, more than 1 element), the adjective has to be plural, too. In English sounds fine, because rosquillas and coffee forms a unit and you can use is, but Spanish doesn't work that way in this regard.

Also, to sound more natural, I'd add some determinants:

Unas rosquillas y un café por la mañana son deliciosos.

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  • Does un café equate to coffee or a coffee? Because I would read coffee in the OP's question not necessarily being limited to one coffee.
    – Peter M
    Dec 22, 2014 at 15:23
  • @PeterM subjects almost always need determinantss, but because these are in coordination, you could leave out the un. Another alternative would be "algo de café". If it were just coffee, you could just use "el café" Dec 22, 2014 at 15:39

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