Sunderland's evening meal is officially teatime as hundreds vote in our poll

It’s always time for tea in Sunderland – or at least, it’s always teatime.
Tea or dinner?Tea or dinner?
Tea or dinner?

We decided to answer the age-old question once and for all and asked you: “An evening meal has different meanings across the UK, with half of people calling it 'dinner', and almost as many describing it as 'tea', according to a new study. What's it called in your house?”

More than 870 people voted and the answer was a landslide, with a whopping 86 per cent (quite rightly) saying the answer was ‘Tea.’

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Comments on our Facebook page left little doubt where most loyalties lay, though Megan Hepworth said: “Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Been up north 30 years.. still my dinner!” while Bryony Jade Fucile outlined the challenges of a mixed marriage: “Hubby says tea, I say dinner (coz I'm originally from London). Our son is probably the most confused little five-year-old at mealtimes....”

Lynne Isaac complicated matters further by suggesting a controversial third option: “In the North East of Scotland it's supper, so although we live in the Borders we still call it that,” she said, while Michael Coates offered a virtual essay on the subject: “Dinner is the main meal of the day as per your parents’ upbringing. So if for them the main meal was midday then that’s their dinner and what they would teach their kids even if by then the main meal was in the evening.

“That’s also why in other cultures, where the main meal is at about 2pm, it translates as dinner and not lunch.”