# 朝ごはん in the afternoon



## Juuuergen

Is it possible to use 朝ごはん or 朝食　for the first meal of the day, even if that meal takes place after noon? The reason I ask is because lately I have been waking up around 1 o' clock in the afternoon and I'm not sure if the first meal I have would be considered 朝ごはん　or 昼ごはん.


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## sneeka2

It's the same as in other languages. You can say "I woke up late and had breakfast at 1pm" in English, and you can do the same in Japanese: 遅く起きて朝ご飯１時に食べた。


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## akimura

The most generic way of describing it would be: I woke up around one o'clock so I ended up skipping breakfast （朝ごはん） and had lunch (昼ごはん) as my first meal of the day.

By definition, 朝ごはん, 昼ごはん, 夕ごはん, etc. are called so because the meal is taken in the morning, around noon, and in the evening respectively.  They have nothing to do with whether the meal is your first, second, third, etc. of the day.

However, if you would like to have some humorous effect, you might just want to say: I woke up late and had breakfast (朝ごはん) around one o'clock in the afternoon.


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## Aoyama

But then, Japanese also uses the word "brunch" (ブランチ buranchi) ...
You may also use, to induce this : _asanebou suru_ ...
Then you can also have _osoi asagohan_/_choshoku_ (if it's 1:00).
You could also have _hayai hirugohan_, depending on your relation with time ... 
(Sorry, no Japanese script here).


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## Wishfull

Juuuergen said:


> Is it possible to use 朝ごはん or 朝食　for the first meal of the day, even if that meal takes place after noon? The reason I ask is because lately I have been waking up around 1 o' clock in the afternoon and I'm not sure if the first meal I have would be considered 朝ごはん　or 昼ごはん.


Hi.
In this case, I say;
(昼過ぎまで寝過したので、)朝食はとらずに昼食を食べました。

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_朝食をとらない日本人が増えている。_
If the first meal of the day were called "朝ごはん or 朝食”, this sentence would not make sense.　Not a few Japanese people would be fasting for the day.


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## mikun

Hi,
I will use 朝ごはん up to around 11 O'clock, after that　time I use ブランチ.
It will be related if I take a lunch or not.
Many Japanese style fast food restaurants, 吉野家、松屋、すきや seem to be the same feeling.
朝定食、特朝定食 and some other special 朝 menues are served till 11 O'cock, and never served after that.


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## Juuuergen

akimura said:


> However, if you would like to have some humorous effect, you might just want to say: I woke up late and had breakfast (朝ごはん) around one o'clock in the afternoon.



Haha I probably would say something like that! 

Thanks to everyone for helping me!


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## rukiak

sneeka2 said:


> It's the same as in other languages. You can say "I woke up late and had breakfast at 1pm" in English,



Then, does this mean saying I had lunch always implies that I had breakfirst before lunch, in English? 

And how about other language?


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## sneeka2

rukiak said:


> Then, does this mean saying I had lunch always implies that I had breakfirst before lunch, in English?
> 
> And how about other language?



Unless you explicitly said that you skipped it, I would assume you had breakfast before lunch. Saying that you had breakfast at 1pm may sound slightly unusual (and let's face it, it is ), but is perfectly understandable. To avoid that, you could clarify that you had a _late_ breakfast.

In Japanese the meals are named after the time of day, but on the other hand, you don't really say you had a 真夜中ご飯 when you had a really late 夕ご飯, so I don't think you need to be too strict about the time. 

In German it's almost the same, Frühstück ("early meal"), Mittagessen ("midday meal"), Abendessen ("evening meal"). I wouldn't have a problem with saying I had Frühstück at 1pm and my "midday meal" sometime in the late afternoon.


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## kuuzoku

rukiak said:


> Then, does this mean saying I had lunch always implies that I had breakfirst before lunch, in English?
> 
> And how about other language?



This is a very interesting topic. I've heard plenty of arguments debating whether your first meal is breakfast despite the time. However, Akimura-san brings up a good point when he says their meanings are ingrained into the words themselves.(朝ごはん, 昼ごはん, 夕ごはん). 

It is not so obvious in English. Because their origins come from concepts rather than time.[Breakfast(comes from the idea of a halt in fasting), lunch(_from Lunchentach=in between meals)_ and dinner(main meal of the day)] So I guess this is where some confusion seems to originate. 

So Rukiak-san's question seems to be an open ended one. But if I woke up in the afternoon and started eating, I would still say I was eating "lunch." (I  would just tell people I skipped breakfast (in my sleep no less).) If I were to call it breakfast, it would throw off how I eat for the rest of the day. But on the other hand, you could call it "breakfast" and just skip "lunch" just as easily.  

I agree , it does have a humorous effect if you said "Time to eat breakfast.etc" and it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon. 

Edit: Didn't see sneeka2's post. So most of this is redundant.


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## sneeka2

kuuzoku said:


> But if I woke up in the afternoon and started eating, I would still say I was eating "lunch."



What is your last meal of the day then? Assuming you're still eating three meals a day, just at a later time than everybody else.


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## kuuzoku

sneeka2 said:


> What is your last meal of the day then? Assuming you're still eating three meals a day, just at a later time than everybody else.



It still would be dinner. I would just be eating only two meals, unless I wanted to eat another meal at midnight. But like I said,this is very debatable and I've seen it vary from person to person.


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