We talked until late
Is this sentence correct? It sounds strange to me but I'm not sure what's grammatically wrong about it.
What about this?
We talked into the night
This sounds better to me. But is there a simpler way to put this that has the same meaning?
Best Answer
OED late sense 3 - Of the time of day: at or till a late hour (first citation 1400).
So there's no reason to suppose "We talked until late" (or, for example, "Go to bed! It's late!") are in any way "shortened" or "informal" versions of something longer and more "grammatical".
I would just say that "We talked late" (without until) sounds slightly "odd" to me, but that's probably because I assume the talking started earlier, and continued until late. I see nothing unusual about "We ate late", because I assume it means we didn't start eating until late.