Meals :)

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ESL forum > Ask for help > Meals :)

Meals :)

*Maria*

Meals :)

Dear friends! I have quite a silly question but...

When I was at school, our teacher told us that people in the US and the UK have breakfast, then - dinner (in the afternoon) and in the evening they have supper. That �s the way my son is taught now at his school. But I work with such textbooks as Total English, Touchstone, Complete IELTS and others. There the meals are breakfast, lunch and dinner. What about supper? Is the word still used? I mean everyday life, of course :)

7 May 2014

yanogator

It is very different in the UK and the US, so I can only answer for the US.

Dinner is the largest meal of the day, regardless of whether it is at midday or in the evening. Generally, especially on workdays, we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, or breakfast, lunch and supper. Many of us use "dinner" and "supper" interchangeably. Others call it dinner if it is a large meal, and supper if it is lighter or later in the evening.

If the midday meal is a large one, it is often called dinner, especially on Sundays and holidays. Thanksgiving Dinner, generally the largest meal we eat all year, can be served at any time from 11 AM to about 7 PM. Many families have a tradition of a large meal at midday on Sundays, and this is called Sunday dinner.

A picnic is almost never called dinner - either a picnic lunch or a picnic supper.

For the evening meal, some people call it dinner if it is fancy, and supper if it is plain and simple.

Now, let �s get a Brit to add to the confusion.

Bruce

7 May 2014

ueslteacher

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/22446/lunch-vs-dinner-vs-supper-times-and-meanings

7 May 2014

cunliffe

@Bruce - I will try to oblige! Usually it is breakfast, lunch and dinner and if you are a bit peckish at about 9 or 10 0 �clock, you can have a bit of supper.

It is different in the North, where the evening meal is called �tea �. �Tea � used to refer to sandwiches and cake at tea-time (4 or 5 o �clock), but it �s rare to have this kind of tea now, unless you are going out for a cream tea, which is scones with cream and jam.

Having said that, it �s quite common to refer to the midday meal as dinner, so you have breakfast, dinner and tea and then supper a bit later.

Oh well, I hope that �s cleared that up!

I MUST log off; we have a full-scale Ofsted inspection tomorrow. What a cunctator I am!

7 May 2014

Tere-arg

This may help

7 May 2014

*Maria*

Thank you very much :)!

7 May 2014

natie2051

Tere-arg, thanks a lot!!! The resource you posted here is extremely useful. I knew about the difference but I could only dream to get deeper into history about the origin of the words such as "supper" and "dinner". It explained a lot.

8 May 2014

Peter Hardy

Although Tere-arg �s link says it all, as do the other answers, in addition a peculiarity: My wife �s from England and her family are great fans of supper. As if they didn �t eat enough at ..... tea! Indeed, dinner is often called tea here, down-under. So when people ask "Is tea ready?" they mean dinner. Apart from all that, in this obese (western) world, it �s wise to eat breakfast as a king, lunch as a prince and dinner as a pauper. Meaning we should have a big breakfast, small lunch and a very small dinner, simply because it �s healthier. And sorry for those late-night-snackers, but supper is thus out of the question. Cheers, Peter.