Why is this usage of tea so confusing for everybody? We re-use words all the time in English. It’s a very simple concept. Imagine if a musician asked about the key of a song and everybody was like “KEY? LIKE A CAR KEY? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? SONGS DONT HAVE KEYS! IVE NEVER BEEN SO CONFUSED IN MY LIFE”
Up north we say “tea” for evening meal. That’s it. Explanation sorted.
Ok it was a deliberately silly example for emphasis. Here’s a real example. I went to Australia once and in the airport somebody referred to my Mentos as “lolly”. To me, lollies are on a stick. Apparently not to aussies. It threw me off for half a second, but that’s it. Confused is an overstatement.
Yeah but the context clues are a hell of a lot easier there. You’re holding an object, and if someone called it a chupa-chupa or a sucker most people would be able to put that together pretty easily
Now imagine you’re going through stretches and someone walks in and is like “oh, playing football are you”. You could be preparing to go outside and play football… But you’re just stretching
I think most people would be confused by that unexpected second meaning of a familiar word
In Brazil, “café da manhã” (morning coffee) is the term for breakfast, but it’s often shortened to just “café.”
There was a mobile blood donation set up during Covid and I asked the group chat if it was okay to have coffee before donating, and the response was, “Yes, you should definitely be well-fed before donating blood.”
Might work in Portuguese. In my original example it wouldn’t work in German. “Zusammen einen Kaffee trinking gehen” (to go drink a coffee together) still doesn’t imply that you actually drink coffee, it more implies that you just get a small thing together.
Yeah, it’s actually more based around industrialisation than a north/south thing. I think the Cornish miners also came home for noon dinner as the main meal of the day and then had tea in the evening.
Why is this usage of tea so confusing for everybody? We re-use words all the time in English. It’s a very simple concept. Imagine if a musician asked about the key of a song and everybody was like “KEY? LIKE A CAR KEY? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? SONGS DONT HAVE KEYS! IVE NEVER BEEN SO CONFUSED IN MY LIFE”
Up north we say “tea” for evening meal. That’s it. Explanation sorted.
Terrible example and it’s just demonstrating that you can’t put yourself in someone else’s shoes for even a moment.
You understand that usage of tea because you used it your entire life, someone who hasn’t would rightfully be confused.
Ok it was a deliberately silly example for emphasis. Here’s a real example. I went to Australia once and in the airport somebody referred to my Mentos as “lolly”. To me, lollies are on a stick. Apparently not to aussies. It threw me off for half a second, but that’s it. Confused is an overstatement.
Yeah but the context clues are a hell of a lot easier there. You’re holding an object, and if someone called it a chupa-chupa or a sucker most people would be able to put that together pretty easily
Now imagine you’re going through stretches and someone walks in and is like “oh, playing football are you”. You could be preparing to go outside and play football… But you’re just stretching
I think most people would be confused by that unexpected second meaning of a familiar word
Imagine you are cooking a chicken. Your flatmate walks in, sees what you’re doing, and says, oh, are you making coffee?
You wouldn’t be just a little bit confused at first?
Not OP, but out of interest, if you are from the UK, what did you call the (primarily) women who served food in school at around noon?
But when my Irish friend wants to smoke a cigarette, everybody loses their fucking mind.
It still confuses me that I can have a cup of coffee with somebody without actually drinking coffee. (In English and my mother tongue as well.)
As a coffee drinker, if I was invited for some coffee and did not in fact get any coffee I’d be both a little confused and a little annoyed.
In Brazil, “café da manhã” (morning coffee) is the term for breakfast, but it’s often shortened to just “café.”
There was a mobile blood donation set up during Covid and I asked the group chat if it was okay to have coffee before donating, and the response was, “Yes, you should definitely be well-fed before donating blood.”
That’s pretty good!
Is the context where if you had said can i drink coffee before, it would have been less ambiguous?
Might work in Portuguese. In my original example it wouldn’t work in German. “Zusammen einen Kaffee trinking gehen” (to go drink a coffee together) still doesn’t imply that you actually drink coffee, it more implies that you just get a small thing together.
bruh because it’s confusing that a meal is named after a beverage, it’s not the double naming that’s confusing
Yeah, but as someone who grew up down south and has lived in the north for the majority of my life:
Very clear, no fucker doesn’t know what you’re talking about
What the fuck are you playing at, skipping lunch and having a drink to compensate?
Get in the sea
Tea is important enough in this country to not use the word again, especially not for the second most important thing: dinner
Dinner is at midday, what are you playing at having 2 meals at midday and no evening meal? Get back to France
I am also someone who grew up down south and we always had breakfast, lunch and tea \o/
Yeah, it’s actually more based around industrialisation than a north/south thing. I think the Cornish miners also came home for noon dinner as the main meal of the day and then had tea in the evening.
That tracks as I’m in the south west
It’s ok how much you like tea. I’m sorry they hurt you about it. Tea is super neat and fun and good. You are super neat and fun and good.
Isn’t “key” for a lock like, as old as modern English?
Because we already have a word that exists for evening meal. It’s dinner. Or supper. Why call it a beverage?
Dinner comes from the French word for breakfast, literally the first meal of the day, and supper means soup. Why are they so much better?
Okay fine then I declare everything I eat at any hour of the day is now called water. But I’ll only talk that way to England folks.
Wait till they find out what „Gohan“ means in Japan, or „Abendbrot“ in Germany. They’re going to have a nervous breakdown.