14 Conversational Ways to Say Good Night in Spanish

Saying ‘good night’ is one of the very basic beginner Spanish phrases, and one you should definitely know, as you’ll hear it or use it yourself very often. Good night in Spanish is simply Buenas noches. You may have heard of this phrase before – and while it is very commonly used, there are plenty of other ways to say goodnight.

In this article, you will not only find the standard ‘good night’ in Spanish but also many ways to say goodbye before going to bed.

Good Night in Spanish at a Glance

All the Ways to Say Good Night in Spanish

Buenas noches

Buenas noches is the standard way of saying good night in Spanish.

However, in Spanish, it isn’t only used before going to bed. It is also used to greet people. In this context, it’s similar to saying ‘good evening’ as a greeting. If you meet people at night or in the late evening, you might greet them with a buenas noches and you might also say goodbye to them with a buenas noches. And before going to bed at home, you might also say buenas noches. What a multifaceted phrase, right? It is even used sarcastically during the day sometimes to greet someone who has arrived late to a meeting or a class, for example.

This phrase can be used with anyone, really. It can be a polite way of saying good night to a sales clerk. Alternatively, we can add a little tenderness to it if you are saying farewell or goodnight to a loved one by adding one of the many terms of endearment in Spanish. For example, you can add cariño (‘sweetie’), mi amor (‘my love’), bonita (‘beautiful girl’), or guapo (‘handsome’) to the end of this phrase to refer to a loved one. For example, if you’re saying good night to your child, you might say Buenas noches, cariño.

Que tengas buenas noches

You can also say good night by saying Que tengas buenas noches . This phrase means ‘have a good night’ in Spanish and though it includes buenas noches, you can only use it to say goodbye at night or to say goodbye before going to bed, and not for greeting.

The structure is similar to the way you say Have a Good Day in Spanish, which is que tengas un buen dia.

Que descanses

Another way of saying good night in Spanish is by wishing the other person a good night’s rest. You can do this with a phrase like Que descanses , which means ‘have a nice rest.’ Given its meaning, this phrase is quite sweet as well, and you can also add cariño, mi amor, bonita, or guapo to the end of que descanses to address a loved one.

Que duermas bien

Que duermas bien can also be used to wish someone a good night’s sleep. It literally means ‘have a nice sleep.’

Related topic: 3 Useful Ways to Say Sleep in Spanish

Dulces sueños

Another way of wishing the other person a good night is by saying dulces sueños which means sweet dreams in Spanish. You can also say Que tengas dulces sueños, which means ‘have sweet dreams.’

This phrase is mostly used for kids rather than between adults. So you can also add cariño, mi amor, bonita or guapo to address your child if you wanted to.

Hasta mañana

To say good night we can also use hasta mañana which literally means ‘until tomorrow’. This phrase can be used to say goodbye right before bed and it can also be used to say goodbye to someone in any situation if you’re going to see them tomorrow. For example, if you’ve met a friend for dinner and you’ve made plans to go to the movies the following day, after dinner you can say goodbye to them with hasta mañana.

Nos vemos mañana

Nos vemos mañana is similar to hasta mañana. This one means ‘see you tomorrow’ and is used for the same situations as hasta mañana. We can also simply use nos vemos, which means ‘see you’ to say goodbye when we don’t know exactly when we’ll see the other person, but we don’t generally use it right before bed, because the people we can say it to right before bed are usually people who live with us and we’ll see in the morning.

Me voy a dormir

Me voy a dormir can be used to announce that you’re going to bed. It means ‘I’m going to sleep’ and can be a bit impersonal. Depending on your tone, it can sound like you’re tired, happy, or even angry.

Me voy a la cama

Me voy a la cama means ‘I’m going to bed.’ Similar to the phrase me voy a dormir and is also a bit cold and impersonal.

Me voy a acostar

This phrase works in the exact same way as me voy a acostar , but it means ‘I’m going to lie down.’ You may use this one at night or if you’re going to take a nap. For example, if you’re not feeling well and you’re feeling dizzy, you might say Me voy a acostar and go lie down during the day to see if you feel better afterward. So me voy a acostar is an expression you could use in the middle of the day, unlike buenas noches, which is only reserved for the evening.

Acuéstate

If you are a parent, you might also need to command someone else to go to sleep. For that, we use acuéstate which means ‘go lie down’ and can be a strong order or a mild one depending on our voice tone or the words around it. If we were to simply shout ¡Acuéstate!, then it would probably be an angry order, but if you said Acuéstate, cariño, it would be a mild order.

Ve a dormir

Ve a dormir means ‘go to sleep’ and is another way of telling someone to go to bed. Again, it can be a strong order or a mild one depending on our tone.

Es hora de dormir

Es hora de dormir literally means ‘it’s bedtime,’ and can also be used to tell your children to go to bed.

Me voy al sobre

Me voy al sobre is a very colloquial phrase. It literally means ‘I’m going to the envelope.’ It could be taken as a counterpart for ‘I’m hitting the hay.’ There is a chance that not everyone will understand you if you use it because it is a set phrase that others may not know.

Conclusion

Well, it’s time to say Que tengas buenas noches.

There are many ways to say good night in Spanish. We’ve seen that we can say buenas noches, hasta mañana, que duermas bien, me voy a dormir, among many others.

And you can also combine some of them if you mean to say different things. For example, you can say Buenas noches, me voy a acostar if you want to say good night and announce that you’re going to bed. Or Nos vemos mañana, que descanses if you’re going to see the other person tomorrow and you also want to wish them a good night’s rest.

Moreover, you can add cariño, mi amor, bonita, guapo and many other words to the end of most of these ways of saying good night to refer to a loved one. For example, you can say Hasta mañana mi amor; Que duermas bien, cariño; Nos vemos mañana, bonita, and even Me voy a la cama, guapo.

But right now I’ll say Me voy al sobre, nos vemos.