British society is considered to be divided into three main groups of classes -- the upper class, the middle class, and the lower or working class.  This is known as the class system and it is important to know something about it if you want to understand British people and society.  Most British people grow up with a deep knowledge and understanding of the class system even if they are not very conscious of it.  Most people know which class they belong to and are able to tell which class another person comes from by the way they speak, their clothes, their interests or even the type of food they eat.

Social class is not only about behaviour and attitudes.  For example, although many upper class people are rich and may own a lot of land, having a lot of money does not make a person upper class.  It is also important to come from a particular kind of family, have friends who are considered suitable, have been to a certain type of private school and speak with the right kind of accent.  There are people who are poor but who do not think of themselves as working class because their family background, education, political opinions, etc. are different to those of most working-class people.  Many people do not like the class system but it is impossible to pretend that these differences do not exist or that British people do not sometimes form opinions in this way.

Many kinds of foods, activities, and aspects of lifestyle are associated with one particular class.  These are often referred to, e.g. in jokes and stories, in order to convey information about a person’s social class.  For example, if a man is described as enjoying a few beers and a game of darts in the pub on a Saturday night, British speakers would guess that the man is working class.