Confused by the British having “dinner” in the afternoon” and “tea” in the evening

In the UK, dinner would normally refer to the main meal of the day, irrespective of the time of day at which it is eaten. It could, for example, be eaten around midday ("lunch time"!), early evening or later evening. The discussion at "Lunch" vs. "dinner" vs. "supper" — times and meanings? already adequately covers that subject.

Tea on the other hand can mean several difference things:

1. It may simply refer to the drink.
2. It may refer to Afternoon tea, which is a particular style of light meal, traditionally eaten at Tea time.
3. It may refer to a main meal, traditionally known as High tea and eaten in the early evening.

If, for example, you were asked Would you like some tea?, it would most likely mean Would you like a drink of tea? but could - depending on the time of day and the situtation - refer to Afternoon tea.

Certainly, one would expect a Tea Shop in the UK (as distinct from a Coffee Shop) to serve traditional Afternoon teas, as well as just serving tea to drink.

Traditionally, Afternoon tea would have been observed by middle and upper classes - and especially by the ladies of those classes. It would consist of tea (to drink) served from a china teapot and drunk from delicate china cups, accompanied by delicate savoury or sweet sandwiches (stereotypically, cucumber sandwiches and jam sandwiches), or scones with jam & cream, and followed by cakes (often homemade).

Some people and families continue to have their main Sunday meal at midday - when it is commonly referred to as Sunday lunch despite being the main meal of the day - and may then have Sunday Afternoon tea as described above. Many may do this more during the winter and/or when having visitors, rather than regularly.

High tea is so-called to distinguish it from Afternoon tea. Traditionally, it was a meal eaten in the early evening, and consisting of a hot dish, followed by cakes and bread, butter and jam. It has tended to be associated more with Northern England and the working class, although sometimes the meal would have been eaten by children of the middle & upper classes, whose parents would have eaten a more formal dinner later in the evening.

There is more information at the Wikipedia entry for Tea (meal), from where some of the above information has been taken.

I live and work in the North of England, growing up and interacting with mostly local people of similar upbringing, I tended to use "dinner" for noon-time and "tea" for an evening meal.

Having lived abroad, and since moving back, becoming friends with people from all over the country/world, I tend to use "lunch" and "dinner" for midday and evening respectively.

I think context can be important, however. If somebody was to invite me out for "dinner", I would never think they meant midday, yet at work we have the "dinner list", which we use to order food for "lunchtime"!

Speaking of which.. It's my lunchtime, so I'm off to have some dinner!

See the link for a full discussion. Briefly, dinner often describes a midday meal, and tea an evening one in northern England. The words are also used in the same way among certain classes in southern England.

This is also true in the US South (or at least where I grew up), where "dinner" is the big meal of the day, whether at noon or in the evening. "Lunch" and "supper" refer to light meals. "Sunday dinner" is almost invariably a mid-day meal. Mark Twain explains this in "Tom Sawyer."