When someone leaves at 4pm - should I say "Have a good afternoon" or "evening"? [closed]

Solution 1:

I personally think that 4pm is late enough to use the word evening.

"Enjoy the rest of your day!" is always a nice way to send people off if you don't know the time.

There are no time rules for when the times of day start and end as they shift throughout the year. This said here is how I go for it.

• If you can't tell were the sun is it is night.
• Following night comes morning.
• At noon we transition from morning to afternoon.
• Wikipedia defines evening to begin as when the temperature has dropped noticeably, but society's definition: “After you leave work and before it gets dark is evening.”

With this in mind, take note of when a majority of your co-workers have left, the ones who remain are working into the evening. This is lose definition open to correction.

Now if you say "Have a nice evening" at 3 in the afternoon that's OK. Think of someone who is about to go to the movie, you may say, "enjoy the movie!" before they are at the movie. In the same sense it is reasonable to wish someone a nice evening before the evening has begun granted that there is no reasonable expectation that you will see them again between when you say it and when the evening does begin.

I hope this helps.

Solution 2:

It depends on where you are. In India, where I live, we say "good morning" from the time people wake up to 12 noon. Then we switch over to "good afternoon" till about 5 pm, when we begin saying "good evening" which lasts until bedtime.

For time-neutral goodbyes, you could use "Good day!" or one of your own suggestions.