So, what do you call things?

On the subject of the passageway between two houses - we always call them back passages!! As in , 'oh, leave your bike in the back passage.' Slightly reminiscent of a Billy Connolly joke for years ago!

Living room. "lounge" sounds posh to me.
Settee. As does "sofa" No offence meant there at all.
Serviettes when guests come. (Or a couple of sheets of kitchen roll to wipe the spills off my jumper!)
Toilet
Toilet paper, not tissue. Sometimes Bog roll.
Breakfast
Dinner
Tea.
Cloakroom for the downstairs toilet (but no room for coats.)

Most of our parents were brought up in time when class was regarded as a lot more important. Things have changed greatly since the 1960s. How often do you hear really plummy accents these days? There were a lot about in the 1950s early 60s.
An awful lot of pupils at the comp I went to in Bristol were sent to elocution classes to lose their Bristol accents. I was thought posh because I didn't have one. I spoke with a combination of a Leicester and Northamptonshire accent. Not exactly posh.

I bet some local dialect experts could make a pretty good go of guessing what sort of background our parents had by our use of language.

I get quite unnecessarily irritated when Americans call the lavatory or loo, "the bathroom".
This bathroom thingy has crept into an English tv commercial, which claims that the company can fit a, " bathroom" underneath the stairs.
The product they are selling is a loo that works by maceration.

Serviettes are paper, fabric ones are napkins.... no reason, just my personal logic. Mostly it's kitchen roll, though, unless we have guests.

Tea is the early evening meal if it's sandwiches. If cooked, it's Dinner or if late, Supper.

Other meals are Lunch and Breakfast, like everyone else, by the looks of it. Lunch may be cooked or not.... (see also Tea above)

Settee, loos, living room.

As others have remarked, it's just interesting what we call these things. Maybe someone somewhere has done a thesis on it.

At my convent boarding school in the 50s and early 60s, lessons finished at 3.50 to allow us to go to the "lavatory " before "tea", which was bread (made by the nuns) and butter and jam (except in Lent). We had to supply "napkins" and a ring. "Supper", which was a cooked meal was later in the evening. In between, we went to the "sitting room", which I think Enid Blyton would have called the common room in her stories. I do have some good memories but I It all seems rather charming and out of date. When I listen to my DDs and DS and their OHs and my GSs and how they refer to "things", I think how much, if at all, did it matter? I'm just grateful they all have a roof over their heads and can afford to put food on the table, never mind what they actually call things!

We have a living room.
A toilet.
A sofa.
Napkins.
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner.
However my late mil called the evening meal, tea. She's was from North east. I never understood it being called that.

Now on day 2 of retirement - and how liberating is that! - I can actually participate in these forums.....

What goes on here:
Sitting room where we have two sofas and an armchair
Dining room in the conservatory where we use napkins for messy meals.. which could be breakfast, lunch or supper. Dinner occasionally when it's more formal with chums round.
And we have loos but sometimes I ask DH to activate the compost heap!
Now for a cup of tea...

This has really made me laugh out loud-thank you!
We have:-
a lounge
a sofa
loo amongst friends or toilet
Only use serviettes when we have visitors
We have our cooked meal/tea at 6pm

I grew up in slums in the Potteries (grim ) yet funnily enough we had a parlour! That was the front room which was mostly not used while we all squashed into the kitchen. Across the yard was the back kitchen which had the only (cold) tap. Toilet down the yard- full of mould and spiders. I never closed the door and spent as little time in there as I could-little wonder I'm terrified of spiders and have had life long constipation. No bathroom of course. When I think back I honestly don't know how my dear Mum managed.

On Desert Island Discs they are allowed a luxury, mine would be running hot water. Even now, after all these years, I still think it's wonderful.

I quite agree Star. I wish I'd never mentioned the "tea" thing. Annoyed a lot of people. I was just being silly.

It doesn't matter what you call it.Tea High Tea (which I used to go out for) Or dinner.As long as we all have food on our table that is what matters.

Day6 ha ha! I will introduce my GC to the banjo sandwich this weekend, love it.

Mumsyface we have ginnels in Lancashire, not sure how to spell it.

Anne we have our tea about 7pm but my parents generation ate earlier 5 -6pm. Some people in Lancashire say dinner but maybe it's a class thing, most of us say tea. I think there was a culture of Dad wanting his tea ready when he got home from work. Not my Dad though, my parents always cooked tea together when they both got home from work, I had to help too. Then the children would all play out until supper and bed.

living room
sofa
toilet/loo/barfroom
kitchen roll (finest)
breakfast, dinner (don't have lunch) Is that u or non?

ginnel where I grew up.

A storm in a "tea cup"

Incidentally, I grew up in an area of north Kent/south east London where some off the houses had an alley down the side. DH tells me it's not an alley, but a gunnel. Have also heard this referred to as a jitty or twitten. What do all call it?

When my daughter was at school she was told never to say serviette, always napkin! As for the rest, we have a family room, a toilet, a sofa, and breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Can I ask what time you eat tea? I always think of tea as an afternoon meal with sandwiches, cake, etc. We eat between 7 & 7.30 p.m., which is either supper or dinner (in the kitchen without napkins, I'm afraid!)

narrowboatnan I really envy your way of life. Even though I'm dead scared of water. Have you got a nice little stove for warming the boat? The closest I've come is a caravan, years ago. I lived with a little black cat.

Nana3 "Any food spilled on your top is called a medal."

Oh I love that idea Nana3!

At home when eating I have to tuck a tea-towel into the neckline of whatever I am wearing, because without fail, something will drop from my fork of spoon onto my clothes. It's a minor miracle if I finish a meal without spilling food onto my chest!

I tell of the 'Banjo Sandwich' sometimes. If you pile a lot of food into a batch (Midlands expression for bread roll) and it slips out and down onto clothes when eating it, the first reaction is to hold the sandwich up at shoulder height and 'strum' at the mess landed on your stomach/chest.

Lounge, living room, settee, napkins, toilet. Breakfast lunch sometimes call evening meal dinner sometimes tea.

I have a living room.
I have a sofa.
I have a lavatory or loo. Oh, let's be honest, I go to the bog.
I use napkins.
I eat breakfast, lunch, and supper (unless I'm having friends in for something special, then it's dinner).

Sitting room, sofa,loo, napkins when we have people for dinner. Don't eat breakfast, but do eat lunch,dinner/supper.

We don't have any serviettes. We use kitchen roll.

Sitting room
Sofa
Loo
Breakfast, lunch and dinner. (NEVER 'supper' for dinner. I dislike that middle-class affectation. Supper is a snack taken before bedtime as far as I'm concerned.)
Napkins

Oh, we now have a 'terrace' (recently acquired with house move) rather than a patio...apparently. . A (new) neighbour explained the distinction...(It's a terrace because it runs along the back of the house and is elevated from the garden by a flight of steps.)

My Mum used to work in service at grand houses and when we were small, my baby sister slept in the 'nursery' of our council house. We'd call it the small bedroom, or even box room today, but for her, old habits died hard. It was always a lavatory too, when we were young.

I have sofas in the living room - which is actually a through lounge incorporating dining room. We have breakfast, lunch and dinner (with pudding if I can be bothered). The loo is downstairs and the bathroom upstairs. I have, and use, real napkins when entertaining and paper ones, or kitchen roll when not.