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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:
PercyAndPenny · 04/02/2021 16:47

This just depends where you're from

I'm from North Yorkshire but live in the south and have done for years. To me, it's breakfast, dinner, tea and supper. Supper isn't a 'pretentious' word when you're northern!

I always say ' what do you want for your tea?' Normal to me

Notimeforaname · 04/02/2021 16:47

In my household it is breakfast, second breakfast, morning tea, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, snack, bedtime cookies.
🤣🤣
Has to be a joke unless you're all eating a smidgen of food for each sitting...or you're all the size of a house.

NoWordForFluffy · 04/02/2021 16:47

Same as me there, @PollyannaWhittier!

Duckberg · 04/02/2021 16:47

Breakfast lunch and dinner here.

I think tea is northern/western?

And restaurants here all have a lunch menu or a dinner menu.

You sound like a bit of an inverted snob.

LST · 04/02/2021 16:47

Just to add, a cup of tea is a brew. No confusion then at all 😉

lazylinguist · 04/02/2021 16:47

Breakfast, lunch, tea. Haven’t called the midday meal dinner since about 1984

What changed in 1984?

JaninaDuszejko · 04/02/2021 16:47

I have breakfast, lunch and tea. All of my meals are hot. What does that make me?

cliffdiver · 04/02/2021 16:48

@2pinkginsplease

We are in glasgow.

Its breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Tea is something you drink.

I'm in England, South Coast. Snap.
DoubleHelix79 · 04/02/2021 16:48

DH sometimes calls it 'tea'. He's from Kent, upper working class / lower middle class type background. I'm not Englisch, so invariably get confused over whether he's offering me a hot drink or an evening meal :-D He now mostly uses 'dinner' to avoid having to explain.

KindnessCrusader · 04/02/2021 16:48

Until I met my Husband's parents I'd never heard anyone in real life call it tea!

Doyoumindifislytherin · 04/02/2021 16:48

It's simple really. Dinner is the main meal of the day. If you take this meal.at midday then that's your dinner if you have something light its lunch. So Sunday dinner can be eaten at whatever time its served. Same as going out for dinner, if that's in the afternoon fine, evening, also fine.

WagnerTheWehrWolf · 04/02/2021 16:48

'kitchen suppers' are when Tories get the housekeeper to whip up a simple pheasant pie and steamed pud for them to eat in the kitchen of their Notting Hill home with their chums. They sort the coke out for themselves.

Dogonahottinroof · 04/02/2021 16:48

Afternoon Tea
High Tea
Dinner
Supper

All different meals at different times. Most people in the UK have high tea-a basic single course meal eaten before 7pm.

Steamfan · 04/02/2021 16:48

I'm more worried about the use of you're - I'm not an evening meal.

NoWordForFluffy · 04/02/2021 16:48

A weeding breakfast is the first meal after your wedding, so your break your [post-wedding] fast. Simple as that!

HowQuicklyTwoAndTwenty890 · 04/02/2021 16:48

@LaurieFairyCake

I am not upper class but meals to me are:

Breakfast
Lunch
Afternoon Tea
High Tea (I'm from a country where High Tea is a big deal if you have children as it's their 'dinner')

Dinner
Supper
)yes, supper is a small meal like cheese on toast/hot chocolate and a biscuit - as it's been so long since the children's dinner)

Can I ask what you would normally have as a High Tea? I love the idea and imagine cakes and sardines on toast. [I read alot of Enid Blyton growing up]
garstongirl · 04/02/2021 16:48

I use both...and lunch for the middle of the day

Owlish · 04/02/2021 16:48

'Dinner' is what, not when. Traditionally, working class people would have their main meal at lunchtime, so that was their 'dinner'. Middle classes tended to have their main meal in the evening. This was their dinner. This may be more a northern thing, though I have a WW2 home front recipe book which calls the main, midday meal dinner.

I'm northern and I'd likely blow some minds here saying I have lunch and tea Grin

Notimeforaname · 04/02/2021 16:49

10 points in the day to stop for meals of snacks.. insane.
Obviously not including anyone with a metabolic issue or special feeding schedule.

Ileflottante · 04/02/2021 16:49

Imagine not being able to imagine someone doing something different to you.

Gubanc · 04/02/2021 16:49

This comes up yearly on here. And it's your not you are.

Alienchannell21 · 04/02/2021 16:50

@Notimeforaname

Also..can I ask..why do some people from the uk say 'wedding breakfast ' if it's the meal after the wedding...usually in the evening? Or have I got that totally wrong?!

I believe it is because it's the first meal after the wedding.

freezingmytoesoff · 04/02/2021 16:50

It's dinner to me.
Lunch is the midday meal and we had lunch ladies at school, not dinner ladies.

Tea is a drink, or afternoon tea.

Teddy1970 · 04/02/2021 16:50

I'm from down South and it's called dinner here, it's well known that there are regional variations of tea/dinner (usually North/South) so I don't know why you're making an issue of it really.

Longdistance · 04/02/2021 16:50

Tea = drink
Dinner = a meal eaten around 5pm or after.
HTH?!