If "mañana" is feminine, why do I see so many more instances of "mañana sería bueno" than "mañana sería buena"?

Question

The other day, I was trying to figure out the best way to say "Tomorrow would be good." In the process of trying to figure this out, I discovered that "mañana sería bueno" was far more common than "mañana sería buena":

Web pages containing these phrases

This confused me because this dictionary entry:

did not list "mañana" as a noun meaning "tomorrow"。

The word "mañana" is translated as "tomorrow" 88,584 times in the context dictionary Reverso and 19,913 times as "morning"。 The vast majority of the time, when "mañana" means "tomorrow" it is serving as an adverb, not a noun. Still, that does not tell my why I see so many instances of "mañana sería bueno" where the adjective is clearly a reference to "mañana" but declined for a masculine noun.

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Si "mañana" es femenina, ¿por qué veo tantos más casos de "mañana sería bueno" que "mañana sería buena"?

El otro día, estaba tratando de encontrar la mejor manera de decir "Mañana sería bueno". En el proceso de tratar de entender esto, descubrí que "mañana sería bueno" era mucho más común que "mañana sería buena":

[Véase arriba.]

Esto me confundió porque esta entrada del diccionario:

[Véase arriba.]

no incluyó "mañana" como sustantivo que significa "tomorrow".

La palabra "mañana" se traduce como "tomorrow" 88.584 veces en el diccionario de contexto Reverso y 19.913 veces como "morning". La gran mayoría de las veces, cuando "mañana" significa "tomorrow" sirve como adverbio, no como sustantivo. Aún así, eso no me dice por qué veo tantos casos de "mañana sería bueno" donde el adjetivo es claramente una referencia a "tomorrow" pero declinado para un sustantivo masculino.

Nota: Por el amor del tiempo, usé el traductor DeepL para ayudarme en esta traducción.

Answer 1

Mañana can be a feminine noun (la mañana = "the morning"), a masculine noun (el mañana = "the future"), or an adverb (mañana = "tomorrow"). Most of the cases that you found are instances of mañana as an adverb, so no gender agreement applies.

What is being assigned the masculine gender in phrases like Mañana sería bueno is an implied subject, which is most probably a subordinate proposition or an infinitive:

• Mañana sería bueno que habláramos del tema.
• Mañana sería bueno reunirnos más temprano.

In an actual dialogue this could be:

—¿Cuándo podríamos hablar del tema?
—Mañana sería bueno.

These things are assigned masculine gender because that is the default. Note that in English, because you cannot drop the subject, you have to have a placeholder "it" in the corresponding sentences: "Tomorrow it would be good...". In Spanish that "it" is implied, and masculine by default.

Something very similar happens when the implied subject is the weather, with the verb estar:

• Mañana estará lluvioso.
• Mañana estará nublado.

Of course this works also with other temporal adverbs, like ayer (which can be also a masculine noun).

Answer 2

The reason why you see more instances of bueno in the phrases looked for, is due to what that word [good] applies to. (It does not have to do with the word mañana* itself, despite it being masculine) The results are probably showing that there are more masculine things being referred to ( things that would be 'good to happen or be done "tomorrow"**)

¿cuando te parece que debamos decirles eso?

Mañana sería bueno" [decirles eso]]

Likewise —still talking for cases in which mañana is used to mean *the next day"—, buena may apply too, if the thing being referenced has a feminine gender (think of la oportunidad, or la conveniencia

mañana sería buena [la oportunidad de anunciarles eso a todos / la conveniencia de dar ese paso, etc]

See that the point is that what is being qualified then (with bueno/buena), as shown in the examples, is not the day tomorrow, but something else. Again, it is true that as tomorrow, mañana is masculine but the gender does not correspond to it, rather to whatever else, —be that feminine or masculine— goes along the word

In the other hand, the use of good in its proper feminine form (buena)—as you said—, will always be found when the morning la mañana is meant, the time of day from sunrise to noon

La primera pesca ocurrió a los cinco minutos de haber llegado; al minuto otra, y enseguida, una tercera Los muchachos se miraron y sonrieron contentos, la mañana sería buena.

Note that when adjectives are applied to the day itself (masculine) el mañana, the gender matches to what you expected to see

Saben que el mañana es incierto

Les pido que no pierdan su esperanza en un mañana venturoso

Answer 3

Though "mañana" is most often used as an adverb when it means "tomorrow," it can also be a noun and when it is, its gender is masculine, as this entry from WordReference shows you:

The entry indicates this is true only when "tomorrow" is being used figuratively, but I think this also applies to literal uses as in "tomorrow would be fine."

Having said all of that, I think a better translation for "tomorrow would be fine" might be "mañana será bueno" since the use of "would" in this sentence isn't being used as an obvious conditional. It is conditional in that the "if" part of this conditional is implied. For example, "Tomorrow would be good (if you can make it/agree to it)." Anyone able to back me up on that?

In the meantime, it looks as if the web reflects this, whether you're referring to a "tomorrow" or a "morning," if numbers are any indicator:

Answer 4

First you have to know that the form "mañana" can be an adverb o a noun, as noun it has gender but not as adverb. So, in the cosntruction you are doubting about, the form mañana corresponds to an adverb of time. In mañana sería bueno the adverb can answer to the question: when?, while a noun can not. Just add an article before "mañana" and you can have the concordance of gender you are looking for la mañana sería buena, because in this sentence the form mañana corresponds to a noun. In your sentence, bueno refers to something that is not in the sentence itself, but in the wider context of the situation.

Just to clarify what is explained above:

mañana = tomorrow > adverb

mañana = morning > noun