How to Say Morning and Tomorrow in Spanish

Key Takeaways

• La mañana with the article is the morning. It is a thing, a time of day.
• Mañana with no article in front is tomorrow. It works as an adverb, a when.
• That means mañana en la mañana is correct. It is tomorrow morning, not a typo.
• Por la mañana is also correct Spanish and it is the default in Spain. In Mexico you will mostly hear en la mañana.
• When someone answers mañana about getting something done, it can work the way ahorita does: soonish, with no promise attached.

Did you know that in Spanish we use the same word for both morning and tomorrow? Morning and tomorrow in Spanish are translated as mañana. And here it gets confusing: how do you know which mañana is morning and which one is tomorrow?

This is the kind of mix-up that clears up fast when you practice it out loud in a free Spanish Roadmap Session.

Not to make matters worse, but we also have the classic… mañana por la mañana. To understand the difference between morning and tomorrow in Spanish, we’ll first go over the parts of the day in Spanish. I promise this will clear things up!

Times of day in Spanish

In Spanish, “the day” is translated as el día. As you may notice, we use the masculine definite article el (yes, even though día ends in “-a”). We’ll also use the definite article for the times of day in Spanish, but this time the feminine definite article la:

• la mañana (morning)
• la tarde (afternoon or evening)
• la noche (night or evening)

Want to learn more? Check out how to tell the date in Spanish.

The case of the definite article

The article la will help you in 99% of the cases to figure out whether the mañana is morning or tomorrow. Most of the time, if you see mañana preceded by la or por la, you can be sure it means morning in Spanish. Here are some common examples:

• por la mañana: in the morning
• por la mañana temprano: in early morning
• mañana por la mañana: tomorrow in the morning
• mañana por la noche: tomorrow in the evening

Morning and tomorrow in Spanish

If we’re talking about mañana as morning, then it will be a feminine noun: la mañana. As a noun, it will have a plural (las mañanas) and can be preceded by articles, prepositions, and adjectives: la mañana, por la mañana, etc.

Now, if our mañana means tomorrow, then it will be an adverb, and it will show you when an action will take place. Typically, we’d place mañana (tomorrow) after a verb: Nos vemos mañana (See you tomorrow). And maybe it goes without saying, but it doesn’t have a plural form. That makes things easier: if you see mañanas, you’re looking at “mornings.”

• Esta mañana me desperté con dolor de muelas. (This morning I woke up with a toothache.)
• ¿Estudias español en las mañanas o en las tardes? (Do you study Spanish in the mornings or in the afternoons? )
• Hannah desayuna a las ocho de la mañana. (Hannah has breakfast at eight in the morning.)
• ¿Qué vas a hacer mañana? (What are you going to do tomorrow?)
• Mañana tengo mucho trabajo que hacer. (I have a lot of work to do tomorrow.)
• Tenemos hasta mañana para pagar el boleto de tren. (We have until tomorrow to pay the train ticket.)
• Jorge y Luz tienen un examen mañana en la mañana. (Jorge and Luz have a test tomorrow morning.)

That’s all folks! If you want more Spanish lessons, download our free Spanish conversation course ebook, sign up for our weekly newsletter, and don’t forget to check out our upcoming Day of the Dead trip to Mexico! Thanks ❤️

From our research: Morning and tomorrow is one of the four videos that hold more than a quarter of every comment on our YouTube channel, and all four are about telling two similar words apart. More on what learners argue about in public.

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Full Transcript

Read the full transcript

Mañana en la mañana. If that phrase makes your brain hurt, this video is for you. Because yes, Spanish uses the same word for morning and for tomorrow. And yes, Mexicans say tomorrow in the morning all the time and nobody blinks. By the end of this video, you will not only be able to tell them apart instantly, you will know the clue that does all the work for you. And near the end, I’ll show you how mañana connects to ahorita, which is the real reason time in Mexico confuses people. So, stay for that.

First, the fair complaint. English gives you two separate words: morning, tomorrow. Spanish looked at those and said one word is fine, we’ll figure it out. And honestly, Mexicans do figure it out instantly every time. So, the good news is there is a system and it’s small. Here’s the whole system: the article.

Article meaning, in this case, la. That little word in front. So, la mañana with la is the morning. It’s a thing. A time of day. Me gusta la mañana. I like the morning. “Mañana” with no article is tomorrow. It’s actually an adverb. A when. Te veo mañana. I see you tomorrow. That is the one-letter clue, more or less. Or one-word clue, I should say.

Hear la, think time of day. No la, think tomorrow. Your ear can learn this in a week. Let me prove it to you with pairs. Listen to the difference. “Trabajo en la mañana.” I work in the morning. There’s the la, time of day. “Trabajo mañana.” I work tomorrow. No la, it’s a when. One more. “Hasta mañana.” See you tomorrow. You’ve known that one since your first Spanish class. And look, there’s no article. It was following the rule the whole time.

Now the phrase from the beginning. “Mañana en la mañana.” First, mañana, no article. That means tomorrow. Then the second one, en la mañana, with the article. In the morning. Tomorrow in the morning. Perfectly logical. Say it out loud right now, wherever you are. “Mañana en la mañana.” Congratulations. You just said something that used to look like a typo.

Quick side note for my grammar people. You may have learned “por la mañana” from a textbook. That is correct Spanish. And in Spain, it is the default. In Mexico, you will mostly hear “en la mañana.” Both work. If you want to sound like Monterrey instead of Madrid, then “en la mañana” is your phrase. Tell me in the comments, or wherever you are listening, what time phrase in Spanish still trips you up? I’m collecting these to make future videos. So, help me out.

Now the part I promised, because the real confusion with Mexican time isn’t so much about the grammar. It’s the culture. And mañana sits right next to “ahorita” in that story. So, you ask when something will happen. The answer is “mañana.” Does that mean tomorrow, literally, at some point during the day? Sometimes. And sometimes “mañana” works like “ahorita” works, which is to say, it means “soonish, but don’t hold your breath.”

So, the electrician who says “mañana” is not necessarily making you a promise that he’s going to come tomorrow. So, I live this. When we’ve had work done on our house, or on my car, or things like that, “mañana” is not so much a date, and it’s more so a mood. So, here’s the thing I tell my students. This isn’t lying, and it’s not laziness. It’s a politeness system. A hard “I do not know when” feels rude here. So, “mañana” keeps the relationship warm. Once you hear it that way, it stops being frustrating and starts being information.

So, how do you pin down when you actually are going to get the real answer? You ask with the article and a clock. So, “mañana en la mañana” or “mañana en la tarde”? Tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon? Giving two options politely forces a real answer. That’s a coaching trick, not a grammar trick, and it does work. So, let’s practice the whole thing out loud. Four phrases. “Trabajo en la mañana” – I work in the morning. “Trabajo mañana” – I work tomorrow. “Mañana en la mañana” – tomorrow morning. “Hasta mañana” – see you tomorrow.

If you said those four phrases out loud, you now handle “mañana” better than most people who have studied Spanish for years. Because most people have never had it explained. They just guessed from the context and hoped. So, that gap between studying Spanish and having someone explain how native speakers actually use it, that’s the gap we close here at Speak Better Spanish. If you want to plan for your specific Spanish, where you are, where you’re stuck, what to do next, I offer a free Spanish roadmap session. You leave with a plan whether or not we ever work together. The link is below wherever you are watching or listening. And, a full written guide with all the examples is linked below, too. “Hasta mañana” – and now you know exactly which “mañana” I mean.

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