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?!

In our house the first meal of the day is breakfast, middle meal is lunch and the evening meal is dinner. Tea is a drink

It's called dinner. We don't have "dinner" ladies at my DS son. It's midday supervisors

Breakfast, dinner and tea.

It’s breakfast, lunch and supper in our house.
Dinner is supper out or a fancy supper- as in “having friends over for”.
My use of supper comes from DGM who went to boarding school in the Himalayas in the 1920/30’s. She had a very RP accent and was a frightful snob.
MIL and my DM call the evening meal tea.

Breakfast, lunch and supper here.

For me, tea is an event - i.e does Little Johnnie want to come to tea on Friday. A cup of tea is what you drink.

Dinner is also an event rather than a meal - i.e. going out for dinner on a Saturday evening or having a dinner party.

evening meal is tea/dinner interchangeable when its at home, but if out or adults coming, its dinner. Midday meal is lunch. TBH Dinner at lunchtime faintly irritates me - you wouldn't invite someone for dinner then expect them at 12!

As others have said, Tea is a beverage made with tips of dried leaves grown in tropical climates, then infused in hot water. You cannot eat Tea. Well you can, not sure it would taste very nice though

Breakfast, brunch lunch, dinner here. Tea is something we drink unless it is afternoon tea. The only time we use the word supper is when or local chipper/chip shop does an offer of a chicken/fish supper which normally consists of a piece of chicken/fish a portion of chips and peas or coleslaw and a soft drink for a set price.

It’s lunch here, dinner in the evening but if we eat out it could then be called supper! We haven’t had dinner ladies for a good 20 years, they are meal time assistants. We are in the south west, I’m not saying it’s right I’m just saying that’s how it is.

In my world dinner is eaten at 12-1 and tea
Is eaten around 5-6pm. I live in the North, my family use the same reference too. My husband used to be a chef and uses lunch (dinner) and dinner (tea) causes endless yawns from me when he tries to correct me!

About to have Scampi for us tea.

Call it whatever you like I couldn't give a flying fuck and pretty sure noone else does either its u say tomato I say tomato different pronunciation utterly irrelevant pointless topic of conversation fgs there's far worse/better things to discuss and yes if I'm not interested I don't have to read n comment so I won't anymore

I'm from essex and call it breakfast, dinner and tea but we do have our actual dinner at lunchtime and tea (a lighter, smaller meal e.g toast, cereals, cake, crumpets, fruit salad, pancakes whatever!!) at teatime, like 6/7ish o'clock and cuppa tea is the actual drink!!

Yes and others have also said tea=an evening meal.so yes you eat your tea
As in eat up,eat yer tea, yer at yer aunties😀
You cannot simply explain away a lived experience and linguistically understood experience by literally and concretely saying but You can’t eat tea...

Yes, it's tea. 👌 (North east England)

I love the hot savoury for high tea.
Sounds nostalgic and wonderful.

North West here. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner. Apart from when the kids ate at 4pm when they were very little and theirs was tea.

Supper, however is a piece of toast at bedtime or a pretentious term for dinner here!

And yes, school dinners & dinner ladies 🤷🏻‍♀️

North Easterner born and bred here- Mid day meal is lunch, unless it’s a cooked affair with starters and maybe a pudding. That’s dinner.
Tea is a light sandwich / pie / flan sort of meal with cake eaten 4.00pm up to 5.30ish.
Dinner proper is the full cooked job, sometimes with desert or soup type starter, eaten after 6.00pm often with wine 😁.
You have midday dinner followed by tea, or midday lunch followed by dinner.
Supper is a hot drink and biscuit or snack before bed, usually eaten by children, adults may also eat it if they have had tea rather than evening dinner.

@HeelsHandbagPerfumeCoffee the memory of it has reminded me what a great meal it is , I am resolved to bring it back .

I wholeheartedly agree, I have missed out and I must address this immediately @Peaseblossom22

It depends when you eat it! Tea for me is a meal at some point between 15:30 and 18:00. It might consist of sandwiches, cake, scones, or something savoury where tea is drunk. Dinner is something I grew up seeing as your main meal of the day so either lunchtime or evening meal. I would use dinner to refer to any substantial meal after 18:30, but usually after 19:30. A light meal or a very informal one would be supper. So if you had a big tea, you would have cheese and crackers for supper. We also eat what we call Country Hours Dinner which is when you eat a big meal about 16:00 or 17:00, having had nothing since breakfast and probably won't have more than a light supper at 20:00.

I am serious before people are rude. This is the lifestyle both myself and DH were brought up in.

Depends on my mood and for me it's interchangeable.

If I text dp- what do you want for tea?

When it's cooked - dinners ready!

Yes it really depends on what you call it- no right or wrong imo as long as you know its evening meal ey.

Breakfast, dinner, tea, supper. If you're in the north.

As a child in the North East, my mums family were all farming stock. Saturday dinner at home was served around 12.30 to us kids and was hot but not too substantial. Think beans on toast or mince and mashed potatoes (this was the mid seventies) .

With my mum being a single parent we would rotate around various relatives farm houses on Saturdays for the afternoon. The meal was sit down high tea served around half five (right in the middle of the Dukes of Hazard or Robin Hood) and at the big table. Staples were Gala pie, various quiche type things, cold meats - lots of tongue, cottage cheese for me being a fussy eater, eggs, lettuce etc. Then loads of baked stuff, fruit pies and battenburg and ginger cake

We kids could play out then till dark then we'd congregate with the grown ups to play cards and watch All creatures great and small and its a knockout in wreathes of fag smoke until Parkinson when the hostess trolley was wheeled out with cheese and biscuits. Everyone left around 11 with us little ones asleep and carried to the cars