My American confusion on this was added to by watching period piece British shows. In the period pieces "tea time" seemed to be a large snack with tea. They would bring out an assortment of cakes, etc., with tea. It's always confused me because it would be at 4 or 5 in the afternoon and I wondered how they would eat a regular dinner after that! It seemed like the desserts should have come after the meal. Then I saw one with sandwiches and I was more confused. An older lady that I know from Northern Ireland said that years ago everyone usually had a big meal midday, so tea time was more like lunch here with something smaller like sandwiches. In this video Karl says that they are eating a full meal. So has the meaning changed a bit over time or is it different based on how wealthy you are? Obviously, I'm confused right along with Spencer and Daniel. Don't even get me started on the whole biscuit verses cookie thing...biscuits are hard cookies according to what I saw on Bake Off! Lol
Generally in the UK, people from the North refer to lunch as dinner and tea as dinner. I am from from the North and it was only posh people or Southerners thatsay lunch and dinner. I live in the South now and I still have to re.ind myself every time when they say dinner. Of course tea is a drink also, so the Southern version makes more sense. Southerners also have afternoon tea, which is sandwiches, cakes and the tea drink. There is also supper too, which is a light snack before bed. I don't know many people that actually have this these days.
@@Simon-fr4ts That's interesting. Here in a Ameica, at least in my family, we always used dinner and supper as synonyms. Dinner/super was the main meal of the day. In our house we always ate at 6. I would say that most people traditionally would eat dinner between 5 and 7, at least on a weekday. On holidays we would have our big meal in the early afternoon in my family. Then we would eat something light, like a sandwich later if we were still hungry.
@@marywood8794 Sunday dinner is usually eaten at what you would call lunch time. At school, we'd refer to the people who serve "lunch" as dinner ladies. What you're referring to in period pieces (the cakes and tea) is "afternoon tea" - it's a classy thing that you might have on a Sunday at a restaurant or something. People don't usually have that in their house nowadays (unless they live in a palace, or still think its the 18th century).
I'm from the UK. Growing up, I knew lunch as "dinner" and dinner as "tea". We had "dinner ladies" at primary school - they served our lunches and watched us at lunchtime playtime.
yeah but school dinner isnt the same as dinner at home. its definitely an english thing, very confusing. im from derry and my kids dad used to drive me mad calling dinner TEA especially with how much tea we drink. tea is a drink! lol
To me, dinner always meant having a hot meal at lunchtime... While lunch would be something cold, like a packed lunch. Then you have your tea when you get home.
@@LOVEchristHEwasVEGAN That's probably where I got it from... In my primary school you had to say if you were "on dinners" or on "packed lunch" when they took the register in the morning, so they knew how many kids to cook for.
Where Americans would say breakfast, lunch and dinner, some people in the UK say breakfast, dinner, tea. Although some Brits will use lunch and dinner instead. It's just a substitution of words for meal times.
you can tell the cartoon was made for an american audience because in britain we use electric kettles. its very rare to have the old fashioned kind used for camping. takes 5 minutes whereas the electric is one minute. we drink a lot of tea while on the go and doing things at home so it really is a time saver
Dinner, Lunch, Tea etc are not consistent because they vary by region eg where I grew up it was breakfast, lunch, dinner as your 3 daily meals but where I live now they say breakfast, dinner, tea as their 3 daily meals. If you're referring to making the drink it would normally be "make a cup of tea" or called a "tea break".
Where i live in the UK, Tea time is eating food time around 4pm - 6pm ish 😂😂 the way we have food throughout the day is breakfast, Dinner, Tea & maybe supper ❤
Don't wanna speak for everyone or most. But these days, it's a brunch, then dinner, and then TV, in which case lots of snacks, tea, beer until you passout, and of course whatever one chooses to smoke. And being on the net on the phone the entire time. And always thinking about going to the gym, or rejoining. There's not been regimented meal times in a while cos people's working routines are very varied.
ey Spence you've not half lost some chub mate well done! up north we call lunch dinner and dinner 'tea' - it goes like 'Breakfast, Dinner (Lunch), Tea (Dinner)' there's some consistency for you.
Another great video! As regards tea time it depends where you live in the north its mainly called tea but in the south its mainly called dinner about 6pm usually. Spencer youre looking a lot better today!
Tea is a geographical term, in Northern England they call it Breakfast, Dinner, Tea but down in Southern England it's Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, that is for regular people but for Middle Class, Upper Middle Class or Upper-Class people Tea time is an entirely different thing but it would be referred to as Afternoon Tea which is basically like brunch but between lunch and dinner instead of brunch being between breakfast and lunch.
I think this confusion over tea/teatime comes from the class system in the UK... In the past the upper classes would have their "afternoon tea" between about 5 and 6pm, which would be actual tea and biscuits/cakes. About the same sort of time most working people would be sitting down to their main evening meal after getting in from work. At some point the two have become conflated, and now mean different things to different segments of society. If you're working class, especially from up north... Tea is your main evening meal, whether you drink tea or not. I don't drink tea at all personally, but still call my main evening meal "tea".
Spencer you gotta let the comments go man. Every video recently you're whining I bet they'll say something bad. It annoys me when I usually like your videos a lot. The solution is the typical royal family response of carrying on without mentioning it. I'm saying this to try and be helpful like I would tell a friend if he was doing this.
Hicktu Sockface on the Spencer Joyce show, wow we're blessed this week! Brilliant as always guys, cheers! You're so bad at great cooking and so great at bad cooking lol :D tea time is for eating tea cakes and tea cakes can be chocolate sweet type or flour kind at tea time not lunch time, but sometimes we just have a cuppa tea at any old time and call it tea time, like a coffee break, we aren't confusing at all, got to go, my evening breakfast is almost ready with the crumpets and snickers almost boiled rofl
to be fair, "Tea time" was more of a northern thing... years ago, i was confused when i first heard it. But it basically means eating around late afternoon or evening time, and can involve tea😅 i still dont know...
Teatime = dinner. Basically it goes Breakfast, dinner/lunch, tea, supper. It can vary across the UK though. I'm in London and that's how it's always been for me and my family going back to the dinosaurs.
In redards to tea time. I've always known the "eating times" as Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Tea and Supper. Now, no-one usually eats at all those times, but those are usually the most common names for the times to eat.
I would have framed that as Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner/Tea/Supper - as in there are three meals in a day, the first two are always Breakfast and Lunch; the third one has various names which different people prefer.
@@phueal I was always told it was based on the time of day. Breakfast is obvious, lunch would be around mid-day, Dinner was usually around the time people finish work or school (usually between 3PM and 5PM), tea was in the early evening and supper was anything in the night time.
Which meal you refer to as "tea" depends on where you live in the UK but I lived in the south (Essex) for 32 years and Tea was always the evening meal. I've now lived up north for 8 years (East Yorkshire) and Tea, to most, is still considered the evening meal. For me it was always Breakfast, Dinner and Tea (in that order). Or Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Tea if you wish to include lunch.
I think”tea” comes from High Tea, which was tea with cake and sandwiches at around 4pm consumed by middle/upper class people. They would then eat dinner at around 8pm. The meal that the lower classes eat is known as “tea”, which is the main meal of the day. Supper is a light snack before going to bed.
Just to let you know, make sure you have the next two episodes that are uploaded by Comrade Dobler and not Tianshu Li. Tianshu's uploads of "The English" starts a couple seconds late, and "Law & Order" has a large chunk of the beginning missing.
Tea Time's a Northern English thing. Down South is generally Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner, up North is Breakfast/Dinner/Tea with the Midlands being a mish mash of both.
There actually IS consensus on teatime. Everybody in the comments is literally telling you the same thing. It's just that it's worded differently each time. The confusion stems from people unnecessarily telling you that some parts of the UK say this and some parts don't bla bla bla. Guys - THEY DON'T NEED TO KNOW THAT. YOU'RE MAKING IT TOO CONFUSING. Everybody is going into too much detail. It's really simple. Tea = dinner. Evening meal. It's that simple. Yes some people don't say it but we're talking about Karl saying it. "Make the tea", "put the tea on", "it's tea time" ALL refer to having dinner in the evening. It's THAT simple.
Hi guys, teatime is more how people talk,, so in a day three meals to one person would be called, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, someone else may say Breakfast, Dinner and Teatime, or shorten it to Breakfast dinner and Tea,,, the latter being more used in the north of England. I hope that clears it up for you.
For 4 weeks my neighbours converting home to 4 bedroom student home. I'm a 2 bedroom home similar. Drilling, banging bought ear protectors. They had 3 skips, renovating my bathroom thought payback and guess what, silent, clean and still upset I didn't deserve a skip. 👵 🇬🇧❤
Jumping in here. Tea/tea time is usually spoken by northerners (myself included) what's for tea? What are you having for tea?, which is "dinner" 6pm ish. A tea, singular is a cup of tea. Which you can have anytime of the day, like a coffee. A cup of tea is not the Downton Abbey/Jane Eyre where were sat in the garden drinking tea in china cups and having sandwiches. A cuppa is a cup of tea you drink.
"Have you seen them tablets *what* are food". Does anyone mind to explain why some English substitute "that" for "what" sometimes? I've noticed this for a while now and never understood why. I also recall hearing Russell Brand do this. Thanks.
Hey Guys, just recently came across your RU-vid channel and I like seeing your reactions to British and Irish comedy, I'm that bit older and have great memories of Father Ted, Fools and Horses, Catherine Tate etc. I am Irish and I don't think you have seen Irish Comedian, Brendan Grace. Some of his early shows are very funny and I have seen him live, many years ago. But the main reason I mention him is that, a young Brendan Grace and Spencer could be Brothers, I would love to see what you think, especially Daniel as he can be totally non biased about it. I hope you check it out, and keep up the good work. Love your Show , Mike in Ireland 😅
When you say "what's for tea" that means what's for evening meal. Afternoon tea is totally different, it consists of tea, sandwiches, cakes, scones and other goodies. Posh people don't say what's for tea, they say "what's for dinner"
The ‘tea thing’- it’s mostly a northern thing I think in the south they usually say the standard breakfast lunch and dinner. And up north I mostly here breakfast dinner tea. Some may say breakfast lunch tea. Or just the standard..less common and I think maybe a southern or like older people thing (don’t quote me on that) might call dinner supper
What you call meals in the UK can depend on your social class. So for someone who is working class like Karl, what Americans would call lunch time would be dinner time, and tea is the evening meal.
Tea can be: a cup of tea (served any time of day and often, but not always, with a biscuit), tea served in the afternoon with light refreshments such as sandwiches, cakes, scones (also known as afternoon tea and usually reserved for special occasions), or an evening meal which may be served with or without a cup of tea. Context is key to understanding which one someone is referring to. If referring to just a cup of tea you say you've put the kettle on, afternoon tea is referred to as afternoon tea, while if you say you're putting the tea on (and also, but not necessarily, mention cooking) then it refers to making the evening meal. In this conversation the clues are that Karl mentions Susanne returning from work (presumably at the end of the day so in the evening), putting the tea on (indicating that it's an evening meal) and he also says that she's the one who does the cooking (also evening meal). Karl says that just before Susanne gets home he puts the kettle on: this means that as soon as she walks through the door they have a cup of tea (which is a way of winding down and relaxing). They do this before Susanne heads to the kitchen to cook their tea (evening meal).
That’s so weird with the split screen!! In the north Tea is the evening meal, dinner is lunch :) but to be fair I’m sure I asked ‘what’s for dinner’ plenty and that was always the evening meal, maybe we just use both but we’re the only ones who say tea for the evening meal
Tea time is dinner/supper mostly in the north of England. High tea is when you have a cup of tea if you're landed gentry or trying to be something you're not. This is the distinction I guess.
Tea is dinner. Not to be confused with a cup of tea, or afternoon tea. You have to be British to understand these things lol. Just to confuse things even more, sometimes lunch is called dinner, depending on where you come from and class. Once again, you have to be British to understand this
To resolve the tea issue lol…basically it depends where in the country you are or you’re from… up north people tend to call their evening or early evening meal their tea… nobody says tea time referring to a cup of tea… they just say put the kettle on or let’s have a brew, or time for a cuppa- teatime can be used in a conversation as a point of reference to the time of day - “what time are you coming round?” Teatime! Now the issue with this is that nobody knows what time teatime actually is- it’s a vague estimate meaning a bit after lunch and before evening lol
Traditionally dinner time was say 1oclock and teatime was about 5 it probably very what part of the country you lived, today has changed a bit dinner time can be at tea time and they called dinner time tea time stupid and confusing.
Tea time is a northern thing because working class wouldn’t get a cuppa until early evening when home eating their “dinner” so it was tea time for them as most miners didn’t have tea breaks because of safety reasons
Its confusing for Brits as well. Tea is more used by Northerners but when ask me I'm often confused if they offering me a drink of tea or dinner. I totally get Americans getting confused 😂
Tea means tea. Tea also means dinner. If I say let's have some tea, that means tea time. If I say let's have tea, that means it's time for tea. Tea time is not time for tea. You can have tea with your tea but you can't have tea with your tea. I hope that clears up any confusion
TEA TIME IN NORTH OF UK IS ABOUT 5 O CLOCK WHEN YOU GET HOME FROM WORK, SOME CALL IT DINNER BUT IN NORTH DINNER IS AT 12 APPROX , BREAKFAST DINNER TEA AND LATER IS SUPPER
It's usually a northern UK thing to call your lunch "dinner" and your dinner "tea". That's what I grew up with. You can "put the tea on" meaning to start cooking dinner, or you can "put the kettle on", "make a brew" or ask "fancy a cuppa/brew?" There were Dinner ladies at my school instead of lunch ladies, and I only started using the word lunch when I went to University lol
Tea is what people who are from the north of England generally tend to call dinner, I'm not completely clued up on the origins of it, but that's what I've heard anyway. There are a multitude of different rules, depending on what part of the country you find yourself in. But where I'm from in the UK, we just tend to say; breakfast, lunch and dinner. xD
To put dinner time and tea time into perspective, generally working class people will call their evening meal ‘tea’ and middle class people call their evening meal ‘dinner’ so working class state their meals in this order, breakfast, dinner at mid day, and tea in the evening. It’s a class thing.
Teatime doesn't mean literally drinking tea. Mainly in Britain, teatime usually takes place between 3-5 pm. It's the meal between dinner- at noon time - and super - around 8. Especially in northern British regions. Northerners were known to eat 4 meals a day. Breakfast, Dinner, Tea, and Super. Teatime always involves eating a semi light snack. About the same snack equivalent as a 12 noon lunch, which is what most people are used to. Most people eat 3 meals a day. Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Anyway, Teatime does involve eating.... Another thing, in northern regions, It was known to be healthier to eat a hot meal at noon and a lighter meal later in the day. However, the big supper kind of compromised that argument! 😅
I call tea a smaller snack than dinner. The meaning varies by family and region and maybe country ( I’m Irish ) I eat 4 times per day , breakfast lunch dinner supper, if I skip or miss lunch then the snack I substitute it for will be my tea. Then a late dinner and skip supper 😂.
