As C/Man said the word can't really translate to fit in with British customs. Best not to get bogged down by translating literally and just understand the gist of it. We call evening meal dinner because we eat lateish but there is a trend now to invite people for what is called supper which is a bit more informal so in that case it would fit. Cena would never be used for those who eat between 5.30 to 7pm which seems to be the time for a lot of older Brits. A lot of Americans eat early too, around 6 to 6.30pm. When we went to Argentina it was about the same as Madrid. 10pm was early..ish

Quite a few things are wrong on that blog

People dont go for tapas mid-morning, well, very rarely. The mid-morning snack is usually for a pincho, pitufo or a coffee and pastry. Kids may have a bocata, but this isnt called almuerzo either

Almuerzo is just another name for La Comida. The main meal of the day at lunchtime

And its bollos, not bolos

almuerzo does often get translated as lunch - but it's the 'elevenses' break that my kids have at school

there are 5 'meals' a day

desayuno is a drink & maybe a biscuit/magdalena/bowl of cereal before you leave home

almuerzo is a boccy/tostada/sandwich - mid to late morning

comida is the main big lunch - 2pm-ish

merienda - similar to desayuno - late afternoon/early evening

cena - late evening 10pm-ish - a light meal of maybe pasta or salad

Do you mean older Brits in the UK? Here most "older" Brits don´t eat until 8pm mas or menos. I do think they should have a choice of answers because if you get it wrong too many times they send you back to the beginning.

that is a problem for us with websites written by Americans for South American Spanish - so much of the vocab is different that it's easy to get discouraged

I haven't yet found one written in English English for Spanish Spanish

I've never heard the elevenses snack called almuerzo either in Asturias or Andalucia

Actually, the dictionary says this use is regional, so maybe its something specific to Valencia

maybe - but the blackboard in the school canteen for sure says 'almuerzo' - & come to think of it my original Spanish teacher described the 5 meals just as I have - she was sevillana, but I guess she might have picked up our local habits......

so what do you call the 'meal' between desayuno & comida then?

I agree it's definitely not called tapas!

and where do I get to hear them then


ISTR taking French at school and Miss Smith told us at the beginning she would be teaching us French as used in the Parisian region, if we went to France at any time (I got to Singapore before France) then there may be a few regional differences.

yes of course there are regional differences - but it's more complicated, as we have seen, when the English is American & the Spanish is South American - they often might as well be completely different languages!

Amazingly it doesnt have a name!

but what about Glaswegian, Geordie etc etc

probably find out that Glaswegian Spanish is better than my Home Counties Spanish.

entirely possible


but I know you get my point

In Murcia the meals are as lynnxa describes, both at school and used in the homes of our neighbours and family. Before we left England the only Spanish teacher I could find for my children was south american, the one I had at college also south american and this did lead to a lot of pronunciation problems when we arrived. My Beritz language course on the computer also leans towards the south american way which is why I wondered whether Rosetta Stone was better because they have spanish for spain and spanish for south america.

maybe you should give it one then - might I suggest .............almuerzo

I put a comment on another thread re Rosetta Stone although quite a good program (depending on your view of course) it is Castillian but it the speech recognition is very pedantic. For me it spoils the program as you can set it to easy but it still will not let you move on untill it is spot on. The main problem is when it splits words down i.e. MUJER there is only so many ways of saying MU and after about a thousand attempts you risk having to buy a new computer having thrown it at the wall in frustration. After all that the final putting it together MUJER perfect!!!****!!!!
As for different names times etc for meals I'm sure there are a few that could be used depending on where who you are speaking with. I thought though that the discussion had continued following criticism of this site that the OP suggested as the translation was incorrect, when in fact it was correct?