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One
dictionary writes that dinner is
eaten in the middle of the day the other writes : �it�s the meal you eat
in the evening.� The third one writes: �the main meal of the day,
whether eaten at midday or in the evening.
What about lunch? � Lunch is the meal you eat in
the middle of the day.� writes the dictionary too.
I think the
English eat some snack for lunch. They eat more courses for dinner at about 5-6
p.m.
In Hungary we eat 3
courses at 12-1 p.m. What should I call it?
And what do you say for the meal eaten at 4 in the afternoon?
I �m not a native, but I worked in the States for some time and can say what they have there. As far as I had a job in a restaurant, we served lunch (12-3 p.m.) and dinner (6-9 p.m.). This is how it goes in America :)
Hi Krista, Yes, this is always a confusing topic. Lunch can only be eaten at midday and you can clarify it with the adjective "light" (lunch) pointing towards the fact that the main meal, "dinner", would be eaten later. The fact that the meals at lunchtime at school are called "school dinners" (taken at dinner time) doesn �t help much. Dinner seems to be acceptable for meals both at lunchtime and in the evening whereas lunch would only be used for a midday meal. A meal at 4:00 in the afternoon would be called tea or tea-time and if it �s more substantial: high tea. I hope that helps Mandy
When I lived in England, dinner was the lunch meal. It �s just a different term. There are many words that are the same but have different meanings. "Pants" in America means your outer clothing for the legs but in England it is your underwear. In England the pants are called trousers. "Jelly" in America is "jam" in England and "jelly" in England is "Jell-o" in America. I think dinner/supper in America depends upon the area you are from. As far as the dictionaries go, it depends upon the country of origin of the writer. The afternoon meal is often called "tea" here in Hong Kong which is confusing because they have things other than tea. LOL However, my mates in England called the evening meal "tea" also. It �s whole other language sometimes. :)
Hi all, well when I was growing up in a small town in Ireland we had dinner at midday and tea in the evening. Then when I was working in Dublin I had lunch, something light, at midday, mostly because of time limit, and dinner in the evening. Supper was always considered something very light if you felt peckish later at night. To recap, and what I tell my students, dinner is the main meal of the day and can be eaten at midday or in the evening, depending on where you live, in my small town nobody ever used the term lunch!
It is very confusing. My partner always says: What �s for tea? He then refers to the big 3 course meal we are having. Apparently that is normal in the Midlands which is where he comes from.
The only additional comment I would make to Amanda �s post is that it would be unusual to eat a meal at 4pm! Afternoon tea could be taken - something like scones or cake and a cuppa - but it �s a bit early for tea tea (if you know what I mean). Afternoon tea would be just a little snack before tea (which could be dinner!). Dinner is the substantial meal, though, whether eaten at lunch time, tea time or dinner time. Clear as mud?
I �m from Texas and �dinner �usually referred to the BIG meal of the day. Most of the time , people eat 3 main meals a day - it is breakfast-lunch-dinner- and eaten in this order.
BUT ..... If you �re eating a big family get together at 1:00 in the afternoon -it �s usually called dinner (ie-Sunday Dinner).
Don �t forget about SUPPER. Supper is always referred to as the last of 3 main meals of the day.
In Canada , it is as Susiebelle has stated, as well. �Dinner � is the big meal of the day. We usually have breakfast, lunch and dinner. Supper / dinner is the last meal of the day.
