Here in the U.S., depending where you live, dinner and supper can happen at different times in the day. Where I live, "supper" and "dinner" are interchangeable; they both happen at the end of the day. Which word you use depends on your preference, or what your family calls it. My in-laws say supper (they both grew up in small rural towns). I say dinner (I grew up in the suburbs of a big city). A friend from Tennessee recently told me "lunch" and "dinner" are interchangeable in Tennessee. You could eat dinner at noon. Only supper happens at the end of the day. (What?!) I've also heard supper can be a meal in between lunch and dinner, therefore making four smaller meals a day for some families.

So now I'm wondering about the Irish words lón, suipéar, dinnéar. Do the Irish have four meals a day (including bricfeasta), or are two of those words interchangeable?

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I'm very much a beginner learner. Don't hesitate to correct me, as long as you explain why. This is how I learn best!

We had breakfast, dinner and tea. Dinner was the big meal of the day and tea was like lunch would be here.

I think in Ireland it's either: breakfast, lunch and dinner or breakfast, dinner and tea. (Dinner is the big meal) Supper is an optional extra that most people don't name, but might involve a cup of tea and something very small to eat before going to bed.

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Cad é an t-am a íostar na béilí sin uilig?

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Yep same for me dinner was about 3 o clock and tea at 6 o clock.

Agus dheamhan a dhath eadar a 6 agus am luidhe? nach mbidheann ocras oraibh?

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

I was born and raised in Yorkshire, England in the 1960s.
Our meals there included:

Breakfast - As soon as you got up - porridge, cold cereal or, on weekends, a full
English breakfast.
Elevens' - Between 9am and 11am - usually a cup of tea and a piece of cake or
biscuits (cookies)
Dinner - 12 noon til 1pm - Large hot main meal of the day depending on
location and who was cooking.
Tea - 5pm - 6pm - Could also be a large hot main meal depending on location
and cook.
Some people would have afternoon tea at about 4pm with tea and cakes
and little sandwiches but we were never that posh.
Supper - Any time from about 8pm on - this could be a snack of leftovers from the
days meals or fish and chips from the chippy on the corner.


Looking at the list it appears that we were either Hobbits (meals large and often) or we should have been grossly overweight but the portions were much smaller than here in the U.S. and as kids we were constantly on the go playing outside.
Even most of the adults I knew walked most everywhere. We never owned a car and I only knew a few people who did.
I lived in an industrial mill town by Bradford but everyone walked to work or school or wherever.
You only took the bus if you had to go shopping in town.
Things have certainly changed now and it seems everyone has a car and jumps in it to just go down the street to the corner shop.


Seosamh

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Please feel free to correct any and all mistakes in spelling, grammar etc.
I am very much a beginner and need all the help I can get.

I remember trying to create a time line in Irish (in the other place) that included such typically French moments of the day as - apéritif, pousse-café, sieste coquine, un petit creux, un petit verre avant de se coucher - only to be told very sternly that the soft Irish climate doesn't allow for such things, not to mention the opinion of the parish priest.

I never did any of these (except sieste coquine sometimes ), except apéritif and pousse-café , only when I am in the house of someone else.

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Ag am bricfeasta, am lóin, am dinnéara dar ndóighe... Caidé eile a mbeifeá ag dréim leis?