Be it formal or informal, we all have said the wishing phrases more than once for greetings and farewells. While saying these words, we did not bother to see the spelling or how it is written. However, while texting, e-mailing, or writing in a paper, we seem to hesitate whether this one or that one is correct. Moreover, today’s world is more online-oriented.
Because of the Covid-19 lockdown situation, we all have to communicate through online platforms. This is why the very first text we receive or send is mostly “Good morning” whether we are office workers or students. And, ending the day by saying “Good Night”/ “Goodnight” is also a part of it.
Though we don’t really get confused by “Good morning” or “Good afternoon”, we more or less get pretty confused about is Goodnight or Good night one or two words?
Because sometimes auto-correct programs of certain devices or applications either correct “Goodnight” or “Good night.” Sometimes they even accept both spellings. This very thing messes up with our brain all the time which is why we get bewildered about which one to use at certain times. There are many questions about it like “Is goodnight one word or two?” or “How to spell goodnight?” and so on. Let’s go through all of them one by one.
Goodnight vs Good night
Okay, here comes the answer. Goodnight and Good night, both are used for bidding farewell. Both of them are used in a wide range and are accepted in their own way. People do not find fault in your goodnight spelling since it is now used by everyone. Whether you say Goodnight or Good night, the actual thing to accept is that you want to end the conversation and this is for today.
Fun fact is goodnight is more common to use by people such as
“I have to go, goodnight.”
When conversing we tend to use short forms or words that do not need more typing. When typing “Good night,” it requires an extra space than “Goodnight.” Personally, I also use goodnight as a habit of typing fastly. It is up to people’s personal opinions that matter. I cannot force you to use “Good night” just because I use “Goodnight,” right? Since both of them are correct, we can use whichever one we want.
Now comes the exceptional theory. There are odds about “Goodnight” being the right word. Many say that it can only be used as an adjectival phrase. For example,
“My mother gives me a goodnight kiss every night.”
Grammatically “Good night” is to say farewell but “Goodnight” is not. Rather it is a part of speech depending on the sentence.
Goodnight as different Parts of speech
If you are familiar with English grammar, you most probably came upon some words that can be used as more than one application. For example, ‘But’ can be used as a conjunction and preposition. The word ‘well’ can be an adverb, an adjective, and an interjection also. Likewise, Goodnight is a noun and an adjective at once. Rather than an adjective, it is more of a noun adjective.
Adjective:
As we have said before about the odds of goodnight which is used as adjectival phrases. When used as an adjective, goodnight is used as one word to express the noun of the sentence like goodnight kisses, goodnight hugs, etc. Using ‘Good night kiss’ does not emphasize the main noun ‘kiss’ which is why it is not appropriate. That’s why goodnight became one word as an adjective to focus on a noun emphasizing its meaning. Since it is for the noun, it is also called a noun-adjective.
Noun:
A noun is one of the main components of a sentence that refers to things, quantity, ideas, feelings, people, and so on. A word can be a noun under different circumstances. It can be used as a subject, subject complement (like pronoun), indirect or direct object, adverb, adjective, and more. The noun is mostly the pointing factor of a sentence. It can be one word or two words, it doesn’t matter.
Goodnight is also a noun depending on how you use it. For an instance,
“Did you say your goodnight to your grandma?”
This goodnight is a noun since it is referring to a thing.
In short, while bidding farewell, you should use ‘Good night’ as two words. However, when using it as a noun or adjective, sticking to ‘goodnight’ is the right way.
Why does ‘Good night’ not work as an application?
When using two words Good and night, it solely emphasizes one word. Either it is good or it is night. Such as “They had a good night there.” This sentence points at the night which was good. It is not like a farewell phrase.
While using just these two words like ‘Good night,’ it refers to a farewell phrase. But using it as two words in a sentence does not work as the same or one word. That’s why these two words are not parts of a speech altogether to mean bidding or something similar.
Is good night two words? Of course, it is two words when used as a phrase for farewell. Let’s see an example, “Have a good night.” This sentence is correct and “Have a goodnight” is also correct at some point. Because both of them conduct the end of the conversation.
Is goodnight a compound word?
First of all, what is a compound word? How can we define it? It is simple. When more than one word unites to become one word, it is called a compound word. The words can be joined with a hyphen or without a hyphen. Whether you use goodnight or good-night, two words compiling to become one word indicates a compound word. That’s why goodnight is a compound word.
Are Goodnight and night the same thing?
In a sense of meaning, Goodnight and night are the same things. There is a slight barrier between both of them. Goodnight is more formal than night. ‘Night’ is mostly used between friends and close ones. In the sense of formality, ‘Good night’ the two words win. One should be using this in e-mails for sending to an interview, or to the office boss, or to the teacher, etc. Goodnight will also suffice but sending night to your teacher or an unknown person is not at all respectful.
Is Goodnight a Greeting?
The greeting is something that we exchange upon meeting first. Like Good morning is a greeting. But Goodnight is definitely not a greeting. It is used to part ways or bid farewell. We don’t use Goodnight when we are just meeting. Phrases like ‘Good evening,’ ‘Good afternoon,’ are both greetings and farewells but ‘Goodnight’ is just not.