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?!

My husband is from Wales and we now live in Wales, he has always called it tea until he met me and I call it dinner so that’s what he calls it. To me tea is something you drink. You have breakfast, lunch and dinner with snacks in between.
Plus growing up we didn’t have dinner ladies they were lunch time supervisors

Of course I do! (Obviously not in person at the moment). But no one I know has ever called the evening meal "Tea".

I don't understand the Mumsnet hate for 'supper'. It's how I have always described my main evening meal, as my mother did. 'Dinner' sounds very grand to me, implying at least three courses - the sort of thing you would eat at a dinner party or if you went out for a meal. 'Supper', in contrast is normal informal evening food such as pasta, shepherd's pie.

I tend not to invite people round in the evenings, but if I did, I would hope that calling it supper would be helpful in managing their expectations!

I'm from the south west and I know there are regional differences. As children, when we used to visit our (northern) paternal grandparents we would be offered supper before bed - which usually consisted of a glass of milk and a piece of parkin.

My (young adult) children seem to use dinner to describe their evening meal, partly I think because their childminder used to call it that and most of their friends do. They will ask when we're having dinner and I say supper will be ready at such a such a time. Fortunately we all know what we mean.

We never talk about 'tea', except when we are on holiday and decide to go out for a cream tea.

@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?!

Have you never met anyone from a different part of the country then? Because it is pretty normal to call the evening meal dinner in swathe sif the country.

It's tea. Love from Nottingham.

Dinner ladies now are often called lunchtime supervisors ,
Dinner i think refers to hot meal and thats what kids got years ago
I called it dinner born in london dh from midlands calls is tea
Its very regional , my kids use both

Tea is a drink. I don’t know anyone who says ‘tea’ instead of ‘dinner’ .

You go out for Dinner wearing a Dinner jacket.
Tea and afternoon of cake.

Dinner in this house
Tea is at 4pm or is described as children's food

Any thing in the evening is called dinner

[quote HurricaneBitch]@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. 😀[/quote]
Ooops. Sorry!

Bloody confusing English language.

I'm a southener - in fact I've never lived more than a mile from the sea. My parents are southerners and its always been tea for evening meal.

Dinner is your evening meal (not you’re evening meal)

Your, not you’re
Dinner, not tea

@PicsInRed

That title has everything.

This must be a wind up? 🤣

Not everything. It doesn't say that it's 'defiantly' called tea and it's not 'discrete' about it.

I have breakfast, lunch and supper.

I would use tea to refer to a children's meal served earlier than an adult meal or afternoon tea (tea, sandwiches and cake) served in hotels.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner

At school it’s ‘packed lunch’ but ‘school dinners’ which really bothers my son!

Tea is the afternoon version of elevenses in my world, usually only had when we have people over (when such things were allowed, obviously)

If it’s relevant, my family are working class but 2-3 generations ago were upper middle class so we’ve inherited their mannerisms (but sadly none of the money)

Op even if they ask if you want to see menu they have a lunch and dinner menu.
No restaurant anywhere has a tea menu unless afternoon tea

Dinner is only at lunchtime (see what I did there) if it is going to be the main meal of the day.

Was brought up on having my dinner at lunch time then my tea at dinner time.

It's definitely a regional and class thing. I'm Scottish but now live in south of England where it's always referred to as lunch then dinner.

Breakfast, lunch and then dinner. Tea is Afternoon Tea at a nice restaurant. Supper is a snack if you are starving in the dinner. We don’t have dinner until 7-7.30 so supper is rare.

We use tea and dinner interchangeably both referring to our evening meal. Lunch is at lunchtime. Supper is a late snack after dinner/tea.

For those who call their evening meal ‘supper’ what would you call a later snack/meal before bedtime? Just interested, it doesn’t bother me one jot what people call their meals.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner. We drink tea - we don’t eat it ☕️

We have breakfast, lunch and supper. Dinner is more of an event - like when you have a dinner party. I come from the West Country.

I don't think it matters what you call your main meal. Tea - supper - dinner - whatever you like. It's daft getting worked up over it.

I use both, but never use the L word & want to kill those that do 😡

We generally say dinner but occasionally I say tea.

Always been dinner for us. I moved to UK from another English speaking country, it was dinner there too. “Dinner” is the word used for everyone I know here too.