Guten Abend, Gute Nacht and others

Hi. I am a spanish native speaker. I learned english by myself and now I am learning german using Supermemo. There is a problem with some of my items, specially farewells, thankings, greetings, etc: some of my items are too similar (My questions are in spanish and my answers in german)

example 1:
item1
Q: Buenas noches
A: Guten Abend
item2
Q: Buenas noches
A: Gute Nacht

example 2:
item1
Q: Muchas gracias
A: Vielen Dank
item2
Q: Muchas gracias
A: Danke schön

You will notice that questions in example 1 are the same. Why? Because there is only one "Buenas noches" in spanish. So, to differentiate, I would use Buenas noches 1 and Buenas noches 2. You will realize this is not the best. To differentiate well between these items I would have to know exactly when "Guten Abend" is used and when
"Gute Nacht" is used. Any help?
By the way, I realized I´ve never really known the difference between "Good evening" and "Good night" in english.
And about thankings (example 2), How do I know when to use "Vielen Dank" or "Danke schön"? (at least the best translation in english)

De antemano, muchas gracias J/ Thanks in advance J/ vorherein Danke (?)

guten Abend — bonne soirée — buona sera — buenas tardes

gute Nacht — bonne nuit — buona notte — buenas noches

d'avance merci = merci d'avance — (besten) Dank im Voraus

<guten Abend — bonne soirée — buona sera — buenas tardes>

But I have the four first chapters of the Radio Deutsche Welle German by Radio Course and they say "Guten tag" is used for the morning and the afternoon (buenos días y buenas tardes)

Ah, alors dans ce cas : guten Abend — bonne soirée — buona sera, simplement.

:)

You say Guten Abend as a greeting to someone. You only use Gute Nacht when departing for the night (or going to bed).

Dr. WEK, Jr.

<<By the way, I realized I´ve never really known the difference between "Good evening" and "Good night" in english.>>

Same as the examples above. Use "good evening" when greeting someone, and "good night" when expressing your farewells.

In portuguese there is entardecer. It is when the' tarde' ends, that's a good time to say : good evening or guten abend.
the evening / abend / avond is between entardecer and anoitecer.

Interesting is that anoitecer is when the night begins and atardecer is when the afternoon finishes.

Danke schön

Vielen Dank and Danke Schoen mean about the same thing.

Vielen Dank literally means "(with) Many Thanks"

and Danke Schoen means "Thanks beautifully"

they are interchangeable.