AIBU to ask which is the most neutral term dinner, supper or tea?

[ConfusedWife1234]

AIBU to ask which the most neutral term for dinner/supper/tea is? I am not a native speaker and I have been told that your usage of the word says a lot about ethnic ancestry, social class, if your are from the UK, US or another English speaking country, part of the country and so on. Which is the most neutral term and when do I use which one?

A patio heater?

Your Heizpilz is what we call a patio heater, OP.

Now, patio vs terrace vs verandah - that's a whole new can of worms.

Here's one I'll throw in: the evening meal is often called "tea" in prison.

I think I do understand the difference between terrace and veranda we have similiar words. A terrace is on the back of the hose while the veranda is I never front of the house, right? I also think that the veranda is always made from wood, isn‘t it?
But what is a patio, is this like the Innenhof but only a Innenhof of a house in the city? How is the Innenhof of the house in the country called? (Last question only for those who speak German)

Courtyard would probably be the best English translation. Patio is the Spanish word for the same thing, but is usually used in English to denote a paved seating area (often at the back of a house) forming part of the garden.

We have a paved terrace across the front of our house and next door. It's raised above the level of the garden - that's what makes it a terrace. A veranda is usually part of the structure of a house ime - but it has a roof. A veranda at the front of a house in the US is called a porch. A porch in the UK is a structure providing extra protection to a front door - it can be open or have another set of doors on it.

AIBU to ask how this would be called in English? digit.wdr.de/entries/110814

I’m from south east and used to call it supper, but now I call it dinner.

That photo looks like steps up to a porch but because the focal point is the child sitting on the steps, it's difficult to see exactly what it is.

That's a porch in the British English sense! Looks like an open porch.

And you'd say "what is this called in English?" or "what would this be called in English?".

Sorry - me again, the literal translation of Vortreppe is "front steps".

I just love the infinite variety of the English language.

We have so many words that mean almost exactly the same thing as other words (but not quite).

We also have so many words that mean more than one thing.

They can be interchangeable with other words depending on circumstances, and we all know exactly what we mean when we use them. Yet the same word will have a different meaning to other people... but we all still know what we are talking about.

No wonder non-native speakers get confused.

I speak two other languages fairly fluently and two others a little - my experience of learning languages is that exceptions and oddities are relatively easy: you just have to commit them to memory. Idioms and colloquialisms are trickier, especially if they are close to something else. It takes years to develop your vocabulary in a foreign language, which is one of the reasons it is advocated that you should start learning another language at an early age.

I always understood pudding to be hot and dessert to be cold. So hot apple pie would be pudding but banoffee pie would be dessert.

As for OP's standard of English I find that fluent speakers of second languages often have almost perfect grammar etc because they have learnt the language textbook style without picking up slang etc.

My ex MIL used to invite us round for dinner supper. She could be quite pretentious sometimes.

If you want to find the poshest name for anything, then find the one that’s least French. So napkin, pudding, lanatory. Not serviette, dessert, toilet.

Works practically all the time. What, looking glass, jam. Not pardon, mirror, conserve.

If you want to find the poshest name for anything, then find the one that’s least French. So napkin, pudding, lanatory. Not serviette, dessert, toilet.

What about "bog"?

Yep, bog's posh too. As unFrench and as untwee as you can get. Them's the rules.

What‘s the posh terms for réchaud, raclette and fondue then?

Rechaud is "warmed up" The others don't have English equivalents.

Lavatory always sounded affected to me for some reason (obviously there are people who use it natively but whenever my family used it we were putting it on). We always used napkin, pudding and toilet (or crapper). My mum came from upper middle and moved down (her dad's mum had a title and her parents were both BBC journalists) and my dad came from lower middle or maybe working (his dad was a chef in a hotel then "retired" to run a fish and chip shop but him and all his brothers went to a bluecoat school via the direct grant grammar thing) and moved up. So we were very common "middle middle" class :P

I wish people would stop saying that "supper" for the evening meal is pretentious. It is just how I was brought up. I don't judge others who use a different word because that's how they grew up, so please don't judge me.

Bertrand, you forgot Loo.

I ment that réchaud thingy you use to keep food or tea warm, heater sounds so unposh to me. Is there a posh term for that?

@exintspecies I for my part am not judging you. I just think linguistic differences are fun.

How do English nobility say noblesse oblige in posher less French words?