Is "heute Nacht" sometimes used in German for the night of the previous day? I have just heard/read the following sentence in the "Schlafende Hunde" TV series:
Man fand ihn heute Nacht auf einem Spielplatz in Kreuzkölln.
This sentence is said in the morning, so it's impossible that the speaker is talking about today's night, which starts after the sunset. My guess is the translation to English is "He was found in a playground last night in Kreuzkölln".
The term "heute Nacht" (literally: today [at] night) can mean both: the night before day broke or the coming night. Which one is meant depends on context:
Heute Nacht hatte ich einen schlechten Traum.
Heute Nacht werde ich ruhig schlafen.
The first sentence refers to the night that was, the second to the night which comes. Here (this is one possibility, but not the only one) the context is esatblished by the tenses used: Präteritum (about: past tense) in the first, Futur (future tense) in the second.
Since your example sentence is in Präteritum ("man fand ihn) said context points to last night, not the coming one.
Yes. The Oxford-Duden and Langenscheidt dictionaries as well as reverso.com confirm it can mean either tonight or last night.
Nacht is the time between Abend (evening) and Morgen (morning).
If someone says heute Nacht in the morning and is talking about the past (fand) then it's about the night before this morning but it doesn't have to be after midnight even though it would be logical in combination with heute.
So: if someone says heute Nacht it could be last night or the coming night. If the verb is in a present or future tense, we're talking about the following night, if in past about last night.
