What is the difference between ばんごはん and よるごはん?


I looked at two different sentences:

>   * 六時半に母とばんごはんをつくりました。(At 6:30, I made dinner with my mother.)
>
>   * よるごはんのあと家族とえいがをみました。(After dinner, I watched a movie with my family.)
>
>

In both sentences, they mention the word _dinner_. I know that breakfast,
lunch and dinner end in ごはん (gohan), so the only words that must mean dinner
in these sentences are,

>   * ばんごはん
>
>   * よるごはん
>
>

* * *

> > _**What is the difference between ばんごはん and よるごはん? If there is no
> difference and they mean the same thing (although different words), when and
> when not is it used in a sentence?**_

I asked my teacher, and my teacher said that they _do_ mean the same thing,
and we can use either word in any case and/or scenario in a sentence. If that
be, why are there two different words? What is the history behind that? (I
know the "gohan" history, but it did not include the development of these two
words meaning the same thing.) Is my teacher correct?

ありがとうございます。  
Thank you in advance.

* * *

[This post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/3249/the-difference-
between-%E4%BA%BA%E6%96%87%E7%A7%91%E5%AD%A6-and-%E7%A4%BE%E4%BC%9A%E7%A7%91%E5%AD%A6?rq=1)
and [this one](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/6487/what-is-the-
difference-between-%E6%81%B0%E5%A5%BD-and-%E6%A0%BC%E5%A5%BD?rq=1) and [this
one, too](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/2673/whats-the-
difference-
between-%E3%81%AA%E3%81%9C-%E3%81%A9%E3%81%86%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6-and-%E3%81%AA%E3%82%93%E3%81%A7-when-
meaning-why?rq=1) are all related, but do not answer my question. (There are
countless other posts like this, but when typing out my title, the possibility
of a duplicate post did not show.)

I would like an answer that is descriptive and detailed like the answers in
the links.




I don't see any difference in meaning or formality between the two, but 晩ごはん
is much more common. 夜ごはん is not uncommon nor strange, either. Here are some
hit counts from [BCCWJ](http://pj.ninjal.ac.jp/corpus_center/bccwj/en/).

  * 晩ごはん: 83
  * 晩御飯: 221
  * 晩ご飯: 158
  * 夜ごはん: 27
  * 夜御飯: 3
  * 夜ご飯: 34

And there's also 夕ごはん【ゆうごはん】, which is more common than 夜ごはん.

  * 夕ごはん: 34
  * 夕御飯: 9
  * 夕ご飯: 61

I also checked [this
forum](http://komachi.yomiuri.co.jp/t/2004/1114/022088.htm?o=0&p=1). It seemed
that 晩ご飯 is clearly dominant in Kansai (western Japan), but there seemed to be
no apparent tendency in the other parts of Japan. 夕 means "evening" rather
than "night", so people who usually eats late at night might want to avoid it.

(BTW, 夕食 and 夜食 are clearly different. 夕食 is simply dinner, whereas 夜食 refers
to light midnight meal/snack.)

I'm not aware of any interesting background story specific to this topic, but
every language has tons of synonyms, after all.




I don't see any difference in meaning or formality between the two, but 晩ごはん
is much more common. 夜ごはん is not uncommon nor strange, either. Here are some
hit counts from [BCCWJ](http://pj.ninjal.ac.jp/corpus_center/bccwj/en/).

  * 晩ごはん: 83
  * 晩御飯: 221
  * 晩ご飯: 158
  * 夜ごはん: 27
  * 夜御飯: 3
  * 夜ご飯: 34

And there's also 夕ごはん【ゆうごはん】, which is more common than 夜ごはん.

  * 夕ごはん: 34
  * 夕御飯: 9
  * 夕ご飯: 61

I also checked [this
forum](http://komachi.yomiuri.co.jp/t/2004/1114/022088.htm?o=0&p=1). It seemed
that 晩ご飯 is clearly dominant in Kansai (western Japan), but there seemed to be
no apparent tendency in the other parts of Japan. 夕 means "evening" rather
than "night", so people who usually eats late at night might want to avoid it.

(BTW, 夕食 and 夜食 are clearly different. 夕食 is simply dinner, whereas 夜食 refers
to light midnight meal/snack.)

I'm not aware of any interesting background story specific to this topic, but
every language has tons of synonyms, after all.

