Am I the only one that doesn't use the word 'tea'?!

[BlondieLoxie]

Yesterday I was corrected for using the word dinner instead of tea!

Tea to me is the hot stuff in a cup which I love 😁 Dinner is dinner. Supper..what is that? Am I in the minority here that I simply say breakfast, lunch, dinner and possibly dessert.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, we have our main meal in the evening. When I was young though we often had dinner at lunchtime and tea which was something like bread and dripping in the evening, so breakfast, dinner, tea.

Breakfast, dinner, tea when I was a kid, and supper was a drink and a biscuit etc before bed. DJ says lunch and dinner but he's a southerner.

I grew up in the South East but now live South West

On a normal week day it would be:
Breakfast,
Lunch (soup/sandwiches/salad etc),
Dinner (Main meal of the day).

On a Sunday it might be:
Breakfast
Dinner or Lunch depending on mood (big Roast meal)
Tea (Light meal - teacakes, muffins, cheese and biscuits etc)

DS gets very confused and wants to call the last meal of the day dinner, what ever it consists of, but I can't call a snack-type meal donner.

MiL (who is quite posh) refers to the last/main meal of the day as Supper but I can't bring myself to use that term as I grew up thinking it was a quick, late evening snack.

South Coast
Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Tea is a drink.

Forgot to mention, we didn't have sweet, dessert or pudding, we had afters.

We refer to our DC having tea (as in nursery tea with the nanny) at 5pm. I see afternoon tea and high tea as entirely different. We tend to have supper in the evening but will also refer to dinner.

Breakfast
Lunch
Tea
Supper - late evening snack

Dinner is more formal evening meal as in a restaurant.

Northumberland

Breakfast, lunch and tea. Always has been. I am From the south, but in the north.

Dh and I eat breakfast lunch and (evening meal) dinner

Kids eat breakfast lunch and (afternoon meal) tea.

Tea if it's in the afternoon, dinner if it's in the evening

None of us has supper, tho we do have some posher friends who invite us for "sups"

Stay at home mum, if your parents were going out to dine with friends, what did they / you call it ? On the assumption it was a formal do? And which euphemisms did you use for loo?

I would have had nursery tea myself, and did, but don't offer it to friends as most of them don't get it. Banana sandwiches, or hundreds and thousands sandwiches, possibly a boiled egg with soldiers.

Supper!

People calling lunch dinner makes me cringe.

It's a lot to do with Region/ formality and upbringing. For me this is white middle class rural south east .

Breakfast.
Lunch - mid day light meal, usually uncooked or light meal. Salad/Soup etc.
Dinner - mid day cooked meal at school only.

Tea - around 4pm - sandwiches, cake, cup of tea.

(Nursery) Tea. - cooked food served between 5-6 for younger children. friends invited
round 'for tea' after school would expect a cooked meal. Pasta/Fish fingers/ etc.

Dinner - formal adult evening meal. Either in the dining room or in a restaurant. Usually around 7 onwards . Food a bit more 'fancy' and more effort in the prep.

Supper - informal mid evening meal . Round the kitchen table, on laps in front of tv. Easy meal, spag bol.
Sausage/mash etc.

Late Supper - After a night out. Light snack before bed. Sandwich/ something to soak up alcohol .

Breakfast/lunch/dinner for me (southern). OH is northern and says breakfast, dinner and tea. It's a regional thing. A cup of tea for him is a brew.

So confused.
Lunch money or dinner money
dinner or tea
English breakfast or English breakfast tea

Once one of my Italian friend ordered "English breakfast" from the menu
and only she got was tea in a cup.
So she thought that the tea was included and the other stuffs(Egg, toast, beans etc.) will be served soon.
But that was what she ordered. English breakfast tea.

To us - continental parents, southern, slightly posh - it was breakfast, lunch, supper. Supper was a proper meal eaten around 8pm En famille, something like shepherd's pie or chops. Very informal, sometimes eaten on laps in front of the tv. No pudding, but a cheese board instead.

If feeding others then it was dinner. Formal, at least a starter and main followed by cheese. Sometimes pudding before cheese, and cheese followed by fruit.

One went out to dinner, even if it was just to the chippy.

macromolecule
Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Unless the main meal is in the middle of the day, like a Sunday, then that's dinner and you have tea later.

Tea is sandwiches and cakes, like an afternoon tea.

Exactly this! And I'm in the East Midlands.

breakfast, dinner, tea. I'm a Northern girl

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, south coast. However, I'm northern and back there it's breakfast, dinner and tea. I do have tea here though, if I've had my main meal at lunch, so then it's breakfast, lunch and tea. Adopted this from DH family as nobody here understood me saying things the northern way!

Breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner if you are posh. Tea is light meal at approx 4pm to put one on for dinner after 7pm. Supper is a late night snack usually after a ball. Breakfast dinner and tea for kids as they will be in bed at adult dinner time and the main meal is at lunchtime hence 'dinner' or 'school dinner'. However I usually stick to breakfast lunch and tea as we have kids unless we have date night and the grownups get dinner.

breakfast-lunch-tea (north west)

I do use supper but probably according to my own specific definition, which is if we've been out and mealtimes have got a bit out of kilter - we've had a big meal at say 3:30 - I'll give the kids a 'supper' instead of tea. Just cereal/toast/crumpets, something exceedingly simple, to fill the gap between the meal and bedtime.
So, far from posh!

If we're going to a nice restaurant no kids though, we go out for dinner.
If we're taking the kids were just having our 'tea out'
Don't know what conclusion to draw from that. Presumably that dinner is posher?

non native speaker. I learned English at school and learned: breakfast - lunch - dinner. still use it even though nobody round me does. everybody else has breakfast dinner tea

Vair posh friend says supper for evening meal. I say tea. How we laugh!!!!!

Dinner is the main meal of the day so if we eat it midday it's breakfast, dinner, tea. If it's in the evening it's breakfast, lunch, dinner. With variations of course, brunch, supper etc.