So, dear Brits: When do you have your tea? Is it 4pm or 5pm or neither? Are our schoolbooks right or wrong?

Also ich kenne von hier den 4pm tea.

Ich habe mal gehört, daß der Fünf-Uhr-Tee so heißt, weil er um 5 beendet sein sollte. - Ob das jetzt aber nur der billige Versuch eines Lehrers war, schlechte Bücher zu retten, ...

Also, wenn ich meine ha'peth reinschmeissen darf, es geht um folgendes:
Tea, bzw teatime, könnte zwischen ca. 16:00 Uhr und 18:30 Uhr stattfinden. "High tea" findet eher früher statt, wobei das Angebot an Speisen aus Kuchen, Sandwiches usw. besteht. Die Benehmung, aber, am High Tea fordert Übung und wird hauptsachlich von Südengland ansassige Damen mit komische Hütte, praktiziert.
Als logisches Gegenteil gibt es "Low tea", wobei das Essensangebot besteht mehr aus "Fish and Chips", Indian take-aways, Kebabs usw., und ist eine Nordenglische gewohnheit. In Deutschland sagt man "Feierabend", in England "I'm going home for my tea".

To address some of the points made by BritishLion:

The term 'tea' is used to describe different things; in the context given by BritishLion, where people say they go home to have their tea, it describes the evening meal.

On the other hand, if one has tea, it can also mean the afternoon cup of tea, frequently accompanied by biscuits, cake and/or sandwiches. 'Teatime' generally refers to the latter.

'High Tea' or 'Cream Tea' quite definitely refer to a lavish afternoon event, when tea is served alongside scones with butter, jam & clotted cream, cake (Victoria sandwich, for example), sandwiches, biscuits, etc. and can be taken in the garden.

Clearly, in an age where most people actually have to work in the afternoons, and moreover in an age where obesity is something people worry about, it is a sad fact that proper adherence to teatime is no longer as prevalent as it once was.


As far as the timing is concerned, however, I agree that there isn't a fixed time for it- we normally have tea some time between 4 and 6, depending on what time we get home- but it is at some point between lunch and dinner.

Thanks Richard, but it does beggar the question when do we have dinner, then. In London we had dinnertime - Mittagsessen - which gives rise to the famous "dinner ladies", never "lunch ladies". Dinnertime was usually enjoyed at home, while lunchtime meant going to the pub for a pie and a pint. Tea was in the sense of a break, either in the workplace or home.
"Where's 'Arry?" - "I dunno, I fink 'e's 'avin 'is tea", could mean morning or afternoon.
Teatime was in the sense of a longer break and High tea often used by those "Ladies who Lunch".
In short have what you want when you want it! (:-))

@BritishLion

Britain being a classless society, it is, of course, a class thing-

There is the anecdote of the boss who told his secretary "I'm going out for lunch now, so you can go and have your dinner".

I suppose one might argue that those who have their dinner at lunchtime, have their tea in the evening, while those who have lunch then tend to have tea before they have dinner.

But I must say, that I have never heard 'dinnertime' for the lunchbreak

> 'High Tea' or 'Cream Tea' quite definitely refer to a lavish afternoon event, when tea is served alongside scones with butter, jam & clotted cream, cake (Victoria sandwich, for example), sandwiches, biscuits, etc. and can be taken in the garden.

@ Richard, "high tea" and "cream tea" are not the same thing at all! - Are you too young to have read the "Famous Five" books? (not sure whether they are politically correct or not at the moment)

"Traditionally eaten early evening, High tea was a substantial meal that combined delicious sweet foods, such as scones, cakes, buns or tea breads, with tempting savouries, such as cheese on toast, toasted crumpets, cold meats and pickles or poached eggs on toast. This meal is now often replaced with a supper due to people eating their main meal in the evenings rather than at midday."
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/custo...

a "cream tea" is a delicious (and fattening) form of "afternoon tea"

Marianne,

I stand (partly) corrected- I sort of lumped the two together, rather than specifying the differences between them. The fact is, though, that although High Tea also includes various savouries, there is a substantial sweet component, and tea- which is rather different to the meals that are nowadays commonly referred to as tea.

In my (BE) family we have our 'teatime' - Abendessen - at approx 5:30pm. None of us drink tea. Our 'tea' will almost always be an evening meal. My mother and sister then eat their supper at about 10pm (usually cereal) before they go to bed.

My grandfather, on the other hand, who was brought up on cooked breakfasts every day, main meals at lunchtime and what Marianne describes as 'high tea' at 5pm, still has a huge plate of cake and scones and the odd sandwich every evening. And he definitely drinks tea with that.

Quote: But I must say, that I have never heard 'dinnertime' for the lunchbreak

It is common in Northern England to say dinner in school or at home when Southerners would say lunch. But I remember in the canteen it was then lunch. Strange, now you mention it. Northerners then eat supper at night when the Southerners are having dinner.
I gather this is a class thing. The rich used to get up and eat much later than the workers, so the workers really were having supper when the rich folk were having dinner.

Athena,

I have heard dinner for lunch, so I am familiar with that usage. That said, in post 6, BritishLion stated that in London they had 'dinnertime'. That is something I had never come across before.

According to the old Jack Buchanan song (covered for my generation by Long John Baldry) *when the clock strikes four/everything stops for tea* (although I seem to recall a radio jingle using *the clock strikes three*)
We always had a cuppa and a biccie when we got in from school, which would have been round about 4 o'clock

When I first came to England I was quite confused about all the different terms referring to meals. This is what people explained to me back then:

1) It has got something to do with the time of the day.
"Lunch" refers to a meal in the middle of the day.
"Tea" can refer to a meal in the afternoon or in the (more or less) early evening.
"Afternoon" tea is eaten in the afternoon.
"High tea" is in the early evening (even though many people say "high tea" to afternoon tea now, historically, it is in the early evening).
"Five-o`clock tea" takes place around 5pm and can start as early as 4pm but always ends at 7pm at the latest.
"Supper" refers to a meal in the (late) evening.

2) It has got something to do with whether the meal is cold or hot.
"Dinner" is a hot (cooked) meal. Dinner can be eaten at lunchtime or at teatime. Or, in other words, you can have "dinner" at lunchtime or at teatime as long as it is cooked. You can also have two dinners per day (if you eat a hot meal for lunch and for tea). You can refer to a hot meal at lunchtime as "lunch" but you cannot refer to cold meal at lunchtime as "dinner". Analogously, you can refer to a hot meal in the evening as "tea" but you cannot refer to a cold evening meal as "dinner". However, if you have your evening meal very late, you would refer to it as "supper", regardless of whether it is hot or cold.

3) It has got something to do with what is served.
E.g., "Cream tea" (taken in the early to mid-afternoon) typically consists of tea, scones, clotted cream and jam.
E.g., "High tea" (taken in the early evening) consists of tea, scones, cakes, sweets but also sandwiches and other savory dishes. It is relatively heavy, and there is quite a bit of variety of dishes.

4) It depends at what sort of table you sit when you consume the meal.
"High tea" is taken at a dinner table (i.e. a "high" table).
"Low tea" is taken in a more casual environment, e.g. at a coffee table (i.e. a "low" table).
Lunch can be taken at any table (even the desk!!)
Supper, usually consisting of milk and biscuits or some other light snack, can be eaten in the living room or in bed -- again, there is no table required. An exception is a "warm supper" if there was no time or opportunity to eat dinner earlier on.

"Five o`clock tea" is normally viewed as an afternoon tea and includes both sweet and savory dishes, e.g. scones, cakes, sandwiches. It was traditionally introduced during Victorian times when the main two meals in England were breakfast and dinner and lunch was very frugal. It is said that Queen Victoria had difficulty managing till dinner time after eating very little for lunch so one of her Ladies-in-Waiting came up with the idea to have her eat something in the afternoon.

On va five-o-clocker à quatre heures


unless it's a high tea. That would be at six.