To not understand

[TeamSpirit]

Why do english people call dinner for tea? What do you call tea then?
Not trying to be funny - just want the story behind..

@JacquesHammer Supper! Okay that makes sense. Same with me but I'd call it "tea" and call the meal in the middle of the day "dinner".

I annoy my English DP when I have tea with my tea. Welsh and proud

Breakfast dinner and tea. Supper is something you have later on in the evening if you are feeling peckish

It's simple - dinner is the main meal. If it's in the middle of the day you have dinner then tea. If it's at the end of the day you have lunch then dinner.

At long last I'm not the only one on one of these threads that understands the correct meaning of dinner. (And it's not regional, it's what the dictionary says: the main meal of the day.)

When I was growing up dinner could be at lunch-time or in the evening, depending on whether I was at boarding school or at home, and if at home it also depended on the day of the week. (Sunday roast was at lunch-time, so that was dinner, on other days of the week dinner was in the evening.)

@Firesuit 100% agreed.

Actually, it is regional. Same as many things are. I wonder why people always insist that they are definitely right about things like this, when they aren't. They're both right.

Grew up in home counties but born in the north and now live abroad... breakfast, lunch and dinner here (though I sometimes have breakfast so late that late lunch is renamed an afternoon snack). Tea is a drink or sandwiches and cake, which is what we ate when we used to go to my grandmother's for 'tea' on Sundays. Bizarrely though in primary school (1970s) I had school dinners served by dinner ladies, for which my mum gave me dinner money!

Dinner looks funny when you type it a lot of times 

When I was young we had dinner ladies look after us at dinner time. This was in school at around 12 o'clock - not 6-8pm.

Breakfast - first meal of the day.
Elevenses - mid-morning snack
Lunch - mid-day meal of any size
Tea - light meal mid afternoon
Dinner - early evening main meal of the day
Supper - late evening meal which could be delayed dinner - eg after a show or late evening snack.

If you want to REALLY confuse the OP discuss the name given to a workman's packed lunch:

Bait
Snap

add your regional variant here......

Breakfast, dinner(about 12.30), tea here (NI) and tea is also a hot drink which solves most problems (except for me I don't like it much to everyone's amazement!)

For me it’s;

• Breakfast is breakfast.
• Lunch is lunch.
• Tea is an early evening meal, usually for children or a hot drink or afternoon tea. Tea time is only between 3 and 6pm though.
• Dinner is evening meal. After 6pm.
• Supper is a small meal eaten just before bed.