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Original poster

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

999 replies

Biscoffaddict · 04/02/2021 16:33

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?!

OP posts:
ladygindiva · 04/02/2021 23:10

Either can be correct but it's never right to use an apostrophe in the way you have in your OP.

blueleonburger · 04/02/2021 23:10

How is food ‘tea’?? I just don’t understand this! 😂

PandemicAtTheDisco · 04/02/2021 23:11

Wedding Breakfasts are different than breakfasts.

CeefBurry · 04/02/2021 23:11

Southerner here... born n bred London

It's breakfast, lunch and dinner here and as the other 27 pages of posters say...

It's regional

YABU

p2312 · 04/02/2021 23:13

@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?!

I find it quite irrationally annoying that you have spelt 'your' as 'you're'.
PandemicAtTheDisco · 04/02/2021 23:15

Afternoon Tea = low tea
High Tea = Tea (after work meal after 5)

VerbenaGirl · 04/02/2021 23:15

Always dinner here. Tea is a drink. Or ‘Afternoon Tea’ on Grandma’s birthday - but everyone still expects dinner later Grin

PandemicAtTheDisco · 04/02/2021 23:18

Cream Teas - I'm giving up now.

YewandOak · 04/02/2021 23:19

South West here.
Breakfast, dinner and tea for us (my family,anyway)

Cooroo · 04/02/2021 23:22

I grew up middle class in Kent in sixties. Lunch and supper. Dinner was a posh version with wine I guess. Never knew supper was twattish, it was just what we said.

Moved to Yorkshire at 18 and never looked back. My working class Yorkshire partner says dinner and tea, and now I mostly do to.

It's great we still have variation in our homogenised, sanitised world. Neither is wrong.

OlmostOlwyn · 04/02/2021 23:32

@PandemicAtTheDisco

The biggest meal of the day is dinner.

If you eat it in the middle of the day then it is dinner.

Lunch is only eaten in the middle of the day.

Brunch is a late breakfast/early lunch.

Elevenses is eaten around 11; it is tea/coffee with a few biscuits/slice of cake or teacake or scone.

Afternoon Tea is similar to elevenses but will include sandwiches.

Tea is either a drink, a children's after school meal at around 5 or a working person's meal taken after he/she's finished work - they will have had dinner at lunchtime.

Dinner is the largest meal of the day eaten at lunchtime/teatime or a later meal eaten slightly later at around 8.

If I'm invited for tea then I would expect a light meal.

Supper happens later and is a light meal or snack with a drink.

Midnight feasts happen later.

Many Northerners have Dinner in the evening.

Nope. Tea here, eaten as the largest meal of the day at around 8. Lunch is at lunchtime.

If we're going out for tea then it's something basic/no-frills. If we're going out for dinner, it's fancy/an occasion.

watchingabike · 04/02/2021 23:46

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Luckyelephant1 · 04/02/2021 23:49

I'm in the South East and its breakfast, lunch, dinner. We'd have 'teatime' after school which was literally a cup of milky tea/hot chocolate for the kids and a snack while my mum had her cup of strong tea and biscuits. Dinner would be much later in the eve.

I did get very confused the first time I went to my friends house at primary school and they asked what I wanted for tea. I think I said milk and sugar and they laughed at me and said no we mean chicken nuggets or fish fingers (or something beige) and I was still confused and thought I'd be getting a cup of tea with nuggets as a snack or something 😐

FiveFootTwoEyesOfBlue · 04/02/2021 23:55

Even a pretty ordinary - not posh - restaurant has a 'lunch menu' and 'dinner menu' - I've never seen it called a 'tea menu' - even at Wetherspoons!

CovidHalloween · 05/02/2021 00:14

It’s a British thing.
No one abroad calls their dinner tea.
Regional accents, slangs, traditions are part of what make us all different, special and culturally rich at the same time. 🥰

JanuaryJonez · 05/02/2021 00:39

Jeez, I've never heard it called "tea"!

I really think that must be a northern thing. I'm in the south east and have grown up with breakfast (8am), lunch (1pm) and dinner (7.30pm).

What is "tea"?

FelicityMingington · 05/02/2021 00:41

Knickers to the lot of you.

FelicityMingington · 05/02/2021 00:43

Especially you.

Shinyletsbebadguys · 05/02/2021 00:45

I'm struggling to follow the logic. My Parents are both south wales. My DP is north wales. I was brought up in a mixture of wales, America and the south east of England. All of us call it dinner. I've lived in areas they call it tea fair enough but surely not only is it a regional thing but that doesn't mean that all of a single region uses the same phrase ?

It's just an area thing surely ? The only person I know who calls it tea is southern Irish but I have no idea if its just her or her family and area.

JanuaryJonez · 05/02/2021 00:46

Was there wine involved?

ItsJustARide · 05/02/2021 00:57

Grammar, the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you’re shit.

PandemicAtTheDisco · 05/02/2021 01:00

@ItsJustARide

Grammar, the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you’re shit.
Grin Grin Grin
Pipandmum · 05/02/2021 01:02

Most people i know call it dinner, and I grew up calling it supper.

Staffy1 · 05/02/2021 01:27

I don't know anyone who calls the evening meal tea. It's breakfast, lunch and dinner to anyone I know. I'm not sure the term "dinner lady" for canteen staff is universally used either.

marshmallowfluffy · 05/02/2021 01:41

What's the word for brunch up North?
Elevenses is just a cuppa with maybe a biscuit isn't it?