So, what do you call things?

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!)

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.

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?

A storm in a "tea cup"

ginnel where I grew up.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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...

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

Front room, back room (both are for sitting in, one has a TV the other doesn't)
We don't have a separate dining room, it's one end of the front room
Settee
Serviettes (paper) when we have company
Breakfast
lunch
dinner (the main meal of the day - my Dad often had his in the middle of the day or even at 6.30am depending on what shift he was working that week.) Could be anything from 6-9pm.
Toilet or loo with toilet/loo rolls
Tea about 4pm when we go out for the day and stop off somewhere for a hot drink and a bun/cake.
Lounge sounds posh. The lavatory (or "lav") was at the bottom of the garden when I was a child. Sitting room was my aunt's place where you couldn't drop a crumb without it instantly being swept up. Interesting how different backgrounds affect our current thinking.

Kittylester It was always an "entry" to get to the back door of the terraced houses when I lived in Leicester. We used to play hide and seek up and down the entry's.

It's interesting to hear peoples' different names for the same thing.
I have a couch and an armchair in my living room. I have breakfast, lunch and dinner although not always all of them every day. If I remember to get them out of the drawer I use paper napkins otherwise kitchen roll except on high days and holidays when I may just dig out the old linen napkins.
What else? Oh yes I go to the loo but DH may call out to ask if I'm in the toilet which sets my teeth on edge .

Lanes between buildings are known as vennels.

I was brought up in the Welsh valleys. When I was 10 we moved to Hertfordshire. I well remember my Mum going into a butcher's shop and asking for faggots.
" Madam " said the butcher " we have savoury ducks" My Mum was mortified. Now of course most people call them faggots . Times change

my mum used to call neck of lamb (which she made into a very tasty, if fatty, casserole) nuts and bolts!

Lounge
Sofas
Loos
( DH calls the loo near the back door the downstairs loo ...... We live in a bungalow!)
Napkins, and always use them. Maybe we are messier than most.
Breakfast lunch and dinner.
Conservatory ( what else can you call it?Only Blenheim Palace and similar have an orangery.)
In Lancashire it's a ginnel, in Yorkshire a snicket.

Pathway at side of house was side return but now extension sits over it. Apart from lounge and dining room I also have a music room, don't think there is an alternative name for that.

In Lancashire where I grew up we had "entries" never heard it called a "ginnel" ( only on "Corrie" and "Savoury Ducks" not faggots. Does anyone remember a jellied meat called Haslet? Never see it now.