If you say “afters” to mean dessert or pudding…

[BottleBlondeMachiavelli]

….where are you, your parents and/or grandparents from?

Is it a class thing, or a regionalism, or fairly neutral?

I think afters is a lovely phrase, I interchange with dessert for fancier occasions. My dad always said sweet. SE.

Yay! First Scottish use of afters.

london now SE. Pudding (unless treacle) is savoury ie steak and kidney mmmm

Yes I’m very fond of it. It’s a bit “Ronseal”.

Just to add , afters was always quite basic …
my mum would make angel
delight or semolina …
but definitely always “ afters “
Never pudding / dessert etc ( I find those terms really posh from a home point of view )

Grew up in Devon. Had breakfast, dinner then tea, and also had "afters". Working class.

Afters - working class
sweet - working class trying to be posh
dessert - still working class, most commonly used
pudding - middle class

Sadly, sweet is not posh!
Rather like serviette or toilet - neither are posh!
The landed gentry use pudding to describe all 'afters!'

Totally class based, sorry.

It's a class thing. Afters is working class. In my family we've always called it pudding, whatever it is, from fruit to a steamed pudding( unless it's cheese which is called that). I remember in school some people called it afters.
Dessert and sweet are used by aspirational working class or by people trying to hide their working class origins, the Hyacinth Bouquet types. In Nancy Mitford parlance they're very non-u.

Lancs- I say afters ( Irish mum scouse dad)

I always understood it to be a class thing - like saying "dinner" when you mean "lunch."

It was used when I was growing up (although I'm vague as to the context as we never routinely had afters).I don't think I use it any more but it just isn't a thing in our house either people just have a yogurt or some fruit later if they want anything so there is nothing to discuss.

Almost agree, except I think dessert is middle class.

my grandmother was born WC but said sweet probably in a subconscious effort to sound MC (which her circumstances very definitely were in later life).

We said pudding growing up, school it was often afters.

i say dessert now or pudding when talking to DC (or about actual sponge puddings).

South wales here as are parents, was always afters

I grew up in the East Midlands but have lived all over the country and don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call it ‘afters’! It’s dessert or pudding for us.

I grew up in the East Mids and it was afters or pudding.

Pudding. South/south west. Afters is very working class, and dessert would be lower middle class.

I use afters and dessert interchangeably. Extremely middle class upbringing in Scotland. I don’t think ‘pudding’ is that common here regardless of ‘class’ (unless you’re talking about black pudding or white pudding at the chipper!) It sounds quite English to me. My DH is English and uses it. Perhaps just a regional thing though!

That would explain why I was confused. It was definitely my dad’s saying and he wasn’t prone to many WCisms. His parents had a mixed-class marriage, though and so did mine, so there’s potential for anything to creep in from either side, really. Our house was a real mash up.

Not sure about dessert being a WC aspirational locution, though. “Sweet” definitely has Abigail’s Party connotations (and is falling out of use).

I do have a soft spot for butterscotch angel delight.

“Sweet” sets my teeth on edge!
We have teenagers and Afters in this house would be referring to the good party after the official event…fascinating how language changes!

We said it in East Anglia - Norfolk/Suffolk. I think it was mostly us working classes though. It was afters or dessert.

I had never heard anyone call it pudding until I moved to London, and found it so funny to hear some people say suppa.

I love regional nuances.

No it’s unlikely that dessert is used here unless at a restaurant. Much more likely to say pudding regardless as to what it is.