I never quite answered the question. I think both sentences are correct, but "In the evening I went to the cinema with a friend" is better because you are talking about the time of an activity. On the other hand, you might say "I don't like to go to the movies during the day. It is such a shock to leave a dark theatre into bright sunlight. I think the right time to see movies is at night."

Either is fine, and the meanings overlap. To me (U.S. native speaker) "night" is a plain, easy, word; it suggests the entire period of time when the sky is very dark; it includes both times when you are awake and the time when you are asleep. It describes the sky. "Evening" is in a slightly higher register. It is a little more formal and fancy. It probably includes twilight, when the sky is not completely dark yet. And it refers to a time in the sequence of daily activities; it suggests that you are awake and doing something. It basically describes a time in a daily schedule of activity. You can see these shades of meaning in the words "nightgown" and "evening gown." A "nightgown" is a comfortable informal garment, worn in bed and for sleeping. You'd be a little embarrassed to answer the door in a nightgown. An "evening gown" is a fancy dress worn by women at important evening social events.

Either is fine, but we say: - Last night I went to the cinema - Yesterday evening I went to the cinema "evening" and "night" are not strictly defined, "evening" is approximately dinnertime to 9-10pm while "night" can be any time between sundown and sunrise. If the movie was around 8pm, I'd say "yesterday evening".

You should say "Last night I went to the cinema" because "At night" and "In the evening" are usually used with Present Simple Tense (or Future but that doesn't matter now) when talking about repetitive actions. For example: -I watch movies at night. (This is telling us that the person watches movies (almost) every night) -I do my homework in the evenings. (Every evening this person does their homework) I hope this helps! Good luck!

Thanks John!