 What's the difference between lunch, supper, and dinner? Hmm, well, of course, these are all used with meals, but doesn't matter what time of day you eat these meals, and what about the size of the meal? Does that matter? Well, you're going to find out exactly when to use lunch, dinner, and supper in this video. Of course, I'm Jennifer from jforestenglish.com and we have some meal times to figure out. So let's get started. This is actually a really interesting video to make because it's not black and white. So when I say black and white, it means there's a yes and a no and there's a right and a wrong. And really, there isn't with these expressions. It depends. It depends on where you live in North America. It can be very regional. And also it depends on your family background because these expressions have their roots in agricultural times, but have evolved over time to our current situation. Now, when I was growing up as a kid, I always used supper and I didn't use dinner. But then as an adult now, I always use dinner and I never use supper, which is really interesting. And I've talked to people from other parts of Canada and from other parts of the U.S. where they use different expressions to describe a meal at a particular time. So overall, there is not a general consensus. There is some flexibility. However, to make this simple, I'm going to tell you the most common use of these right now. Okay, in this time frame, not in the past where other expressions might have been more common, but right now. So right now, what's the meal that you eat at the very beginning of the day? Write it out in the comments below. Write it out. I'm sure you know it. I find that this is one that students never have problems with, right? It's breakfast. Breakfast is the first meal you eat in the day. Okay? And breakfast is always the first meal you eat. There's no alternative. It's breakfast all the time. So breakfast is black and white. There's a right and a wrong. And breakfast is the right one. There's no alternative. Now, what's the meal that you eat at midday? At midday. So let's say between, you know, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Kind of around that time, midday. What's the meal you eat? Write it out in the comments. Okay. So now in North America, the most common way to describe that meal, the midday meal is lunch. Lunch. Lunch is the meal you take at midday. And this is really quite obvious because if you work in North America, you get a lunch break. That's what they call it. You get a 30-minute break, paid or unpaid. It depends on your employer. But you get a lunch break. That's the name of the break because lunch is the standard name for the midday meal. Now, what's the name of the last meal you eat in the day? So maybe between 5 o'clock p.m. and 8 o'clock p.m. Around that time. What's the last meal of the day? Write it down in the comments. Hmm. Well, remember, I'm teaching you the most common, the most widely used name in North America. And that name is dinner. Dinner. That's what we refer to as dinner. The last meal in the day, okay? Now, what about supper? I didn't even mention supper. So you can use supper as a synonym to dinner, which means they're the exact same name. They mean the same thing. It's for your final meal of the day. Supper, okay? So when I was growing up as a kid, I would always say, Dad, when are we eating supper? I'm hungry. When's supper? What are we having for supper? That's always what I said. But now, I don't say supper. I call it dinner. And I'm really not sure why, to be honest. I can't tell you that I just sat down and I thought about it. And I said, you know what? I'm not going to call it supper anymore. Like that didn't happen. I think just over time, supper has become less popular and dinner has become more popular. So I just hear dinner a lot more on TV, movies, my friends, other people, you know, talking to my coworkers. Oh, what did you have for dinner last night? Just dinner is the common one. Maybe if I'm talking to 10 people, maybe one person will say supper. Like it's not very common now in North America. So to repeat, your meals are breakfast, first meal of the day, lunch, your midday meal around 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. And dinner, the last meal of the day, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. If someone calls it supper, just recognize it's a less commonly used alternative to dinner and it means the last meal of the day. Now remember I told you that historically, the terms were used a little bit differently and it also varies by region. Well, this is because of our roots in agriculture and farming. So back in the day, when we had a more agricultural society, the main meals were generally referred to as breakfast, dinner, and supper. And they used dinner to mean the largest meal of the day. So dinner didn't necessarily have a specific time they ate it. It was the largest meal of the day. That's what they called dinner. And supper referred to the lighter meal, okay? So back in farming culture, that was the difference between dinner and supper was the size of the meal. Dinner was the largest meal and supper was a smaller meal. Now, because of the time in being a farmer, you needed your energy during the day, right? Because you had a very labor intensive job. So because of that, you ate your largest meal of the day around midday, you know, maybe 11 a.m. or noon, 12 p.m. So they ate dinner, their largest meal of the day at midday, okay? And then as farmers, they would have a small meal at the end of the day because at the end of the day, you don't need as much energy, right? So they're just going to bed. So they just had a small meal, generally soup, at the end of the day, which is what they called supper, okay? But that was historically. Now, there are some parts of North America that are more agricultural based today, like Southern U.S. and Western Canada. Now, because of that, if you go to these regions, you may hear these terms, generally because their grandparents were farmers, their parents were farmers, and maybe they are farmers as well. So it could be why they're still using this terminology, okay? So that's just an interesting historical perspective. However, like I said, across North America, the most commonly used terms are breakfast, lunch, and dinner, okay? And remember that even in the farming culture, they still used supper to mean the final meal of the day, right? Because that's when they ate their smallest meal. So that's why I told you now, you might hear some people call supper and dinner to mean the final meal of the day, all right? But unlike farming culture, we don't eat, in North America, we don't eat our largest meal of the day at lunch. We eat our largest meal of the day at the end of the day. The last meal in the day is our largest meal. All right, so there's a really interesting perspective on the words lunch, dinner, and supper, and where they come from historically and how that's influenced our use of the words today. Now, let me know in the comments, what is your main meal of the day? The largest meal you eat. Do you eat it at midday, you know, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., or is it the last meal of your day around 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.? So let me know, because I think this is really interesting, and one with my travels, I've noticed around the world that a lot of people eat their main meal at midday, and I actually prefer that. And a lot of ways, I don't really get why we eat our largest meal at the end of the day when we don't really need the energy anymore. That's just my little personal opinion there. So let me know when you eat your largest meal of the day. If you found this video helpful, please hit the like button, share it with your friends, and, of course, subscribe. Thanks so much for watching, and until next time, happy studying. All right, are you interested in learning some more American culture? Well then, check out this video. And don't forget about this video, and make sure you subscribe. Thanks so much for being here. You're so awesome. Bye!