To think that you’re evening meal is called ‘tea’ not ‘dinner’?!

[Biscoffaddict]

I see so many posters on here referring to their evening mea, as ‘dinner’, but in real life I’ve never met anyone who does this and it’s always ‘tea’. It always has been tea. My parents call it tea, my grandparents called it tea, my friends call it tea, my work colleagues call it tea etc. ‘Dinner’ is the meal you have in the middle of the day and that’s why school dinner ladies, are called dinner ladies!

I don’t know but I find it quite irrationally annoying! Surely I’m not alone?!

To me dinner is a hot/main meal. So you could have breakfast dinner tea. Or breakfast lunch dinner. Supper is a bowl of cereal or some toast before bed and was virtually compulsory during my childhood. Is that regional too? My southern ex had never heard of supper in this context.

Of course l have.

It’s not always called lunch.

Light meals
Lighter options
Daytime menu and evening menu are the usuals.

Lunch is just pretentious in the north

I have never in my life called it "tea" or known anyone who does so. "Tea" is a hot drink not a name of a meal!

You have a ‘main’

And a “starter” first thing in the morning? What time is “nibbles” then?

I see lunch exists, though.

[quote HurricaneBitch]@WagnerTheWehrWolf so did you understand the difference between "shit" and "the shit" or do I appear extremely rude to you?

Shit - rubbish
The shit - brilliant[/quote]
You were sniping at me because you thought I was mocking foreigners. I wasn't, as I am one. I saw the 'eating my tea whilst drinking my tea' comment as the sort of thing that would pop up in a Bill Bryson book as an example of English speak that could well be confounding to anyone not from the UK.

Breakfast, dinner, tea.

I wonder if its not only regional, but age related?
When i was at school in the '70s, dinner ladies were around at dinnertime, and playing outside was always accompanied with shrieks of 'make sure you're home for tea' as we rushed out the door.

A cup of tea, is different

East Coast of Scotland here, and I'm just about to have my tea - it's lasagne

I’d never heard lunch until l went to university ( a long time ago)

It separated the wheat from the chaff though!

Dinner in my house but I am not British so just asked DD and she says most of her friends say tea. We’re in Wales like the OP, so obviously regional.

Regional

Tea is never evening meal here, just the drink

Lunch in the middle of the day. Dinner in the evening. Tea in a cup.

@BlackLambAndGreyFalcoln

I have never in my life called it "tea" or known anyone who does so. "Tea" is a hot drink not a name of a meal!

Do you not get out much or mix with the "others?"

@pilates

Breakfast Lunch Dinner South

Ditto

Plus we had ‘supper’ at school which was late snack before bed

@WagnerTheWehrWolf I wasn't sniping, I was agreeing with you that the English language is so hard to understand for foreigners, as people use it so differently across the country and the world. I honestly wasn't sniping, but our confusion with each other is a pretext example of what we were both trying to say. 😀

You plank. Have you never heard of regional differences?

I’m in the South East. Grandparents were variously from Lancashire, Ireland (then Northumberland from teens), East Anglia, and SE London.

They all referred to lunch and dinner but Irish/Geordie grandmother would serve “supper” of bread and butter or bread and dripping with a mug of hot milk before bed.

** perfect example

In our house it's breakfast, dinner and dinner. Unless DH is in charge and then dinner becomes luncheon, which makes me want to kill him. Lunch I could tolerate, but luncheon ... !

It’s not age related. I’ve taught in the north for years.

A hot topic of secondary school pupil conversation is ‘what did you have for tea/having for tea today? No one ever ever says dinner.

And l worked in a very naice area. It was still tea. Dd now 14 was always invited for tea after school, never dinner.

Nope. It's breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I grew up in the North West of England and knew it as breakfast, dinner and tea.

Went to university in Scotland and everyone said breakfast, lunch and dinner (my posher friends called dinner supper). I now live in the South and its breakfast, lunch, dinner round here (still supper for my posh friends 😀)

Weekdays: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Sat: breakfast, lunch, tea
Sun: breakfast, Sunday dinner, tea

So, for me, I think it goes along with which meal is the main meal of the day. Oh, and I'm a northerner.

Hmmm, so.im in the south east.

Dinner is the main meal of the day, which most people have in the evening, except on a sunday when its during the day and then you might have tea later in the evening.

When we would go to friends after school was definitely tea

Has the OP just crawled out from under a rock?

I live in Yorkshire and it's dinner time and tea time here. I do however have full understanding and awareness that other people and those in other areas use other names for their meals. I also use lunch for midday meal. At school we have lunch time supervisors but they also are unofficially known as the dinner ladies. School also has a 'tea-time' club for after school care- also officially called After School Club. Everyone is bright enough here to use different terms interchangeably.

''Kitchen sups"😃🤪
I'm Edinburgh, but not from a Scottish family. It's breakfast, lunch and dinner for me. Isn't it tea in Aberdeen? The 'you'll have had your tea' said to visitors, the trope about mean Aberdonians.