language

I used to believe…

Before entering kindergarten, I had learned the alphabet slightly wrong. I understood it to be NOQPRS, thinking that the Q was similiar to the O with a tail and the R was similiar to the P, with the same tail. When I learned the proper way, I thought they had some national meeting to permanently change it from OQPR to OPQR and thought it was so cool that it happened in my life time.

i learned to read at a pretty young age, but wasn't great at speed reading when i was little. when we drove past the signs that say "adopt a highway litter control," i always read "adopt a highway little girl," and spent hours wondering where these girls came from and why there were no boys.

it made me happy to see a sponsor on there :)

I thought I invented the word yesterday

I used to think that stupid was a curse, and when my dad took me to the hard rock cafe there was a song on called 'stupid girl' or something (it was a long time ago) where the girl sais stupid about 17 times in a row. I was in shock. my dad was like 'what?'

i also used to think that cursing was saying a bad word, and that the word 'swearing' was a bad word. And for a while, that they both meant casting a mean spell on someone...

I used to believe…

When I was a kid my father had a file holder on his desk that was like a hybrid between a letter rack and a lazy susan. His secretaries would put things in there he needed to deal with immediately.

The first time I ever heard someone say "I'll put that in my circular file" I formed an immediate association with the filing tool on my father's desk and the phrase. Obviously very important things went in the circular file!

Well into my adult life I'd use that phrase in conversation, not realizing I was implying that I would immediately throw the item I had just been given into the trash.

Boss: Ok, this project is critically important.
Me: I'll put it in my circular file right away!
Boss: .... Uhh ....

I used to believe…

My family name is pronounced "Wah" and I thought when my parents were talking about a large number of something they were talking about the "'Wah' Zoo," meaning our family or our house. So it was a large amount of something that we had. I was VERY confused when I heard a friend using the term "up the wazoo" in regards to her family . . . I told her she should use the term "Jones's zoo" since that was her last name.

I had a large group of girlfriends with whom I walked to and from elementary school. We always walked in the street because on the sidewalk we had to walk in a line (and it was a small town so traffic was minimal). One day I went home and announced to my mom that we were the "street walkers". She cracked up and then suggested that we come up with a different term to describe ourselves. It was many years before I understood why.

I used to believe…

When I was little, I had a foreign nanny that would always tell me something that sounded like "com kweet". I never learned what it meant, but I somehow came up with the idea that you had to say it after every sentence when you read aloud.

So, when I'd read a book for my mom and grandma, it sounded something like this: "The dog climbed up the hill, com kweet. It made him very tired, com kweet..."

I used to believe…

When I was little, my brother would always say to me "You're sttttt....upendous!!" I would get so upset because I thought stupendous meant stupid, so I would always tell on him, and my mum would just go "So?"

I used to believe (thanks to my brother...) that whenever anybody said 'They', they were talking about my other brother's class. "They're going to build a huge bridge across the river." "Who's they?" "Greg's class!"

I used to believe that the "S" word was really ship soo i went home thinking that it was ok to swear i was only like 5 and i went home and started saying holy ship because i had older friends and they always said holy s*** in front of me until i figured out it was really s*** and not ship

I used to think the expression "to be in a quandry" was "to be in a quarry" It seemed logical to me because if you were stuck in a quarry this would definitely be a big problem!

I used to believe…

When i was a little girl i had a tea set that i always kept in it's box on my bookshelves. The box was all written in another language but i didn't understand this and so i always got incredibly frustrated when i couldn't read it. It got to the point that my dad had to put the box at the top of my wardrobe because i couldn't sleep.

I used to think the Pulitzer Prize was the "pull it, surprise!" and I always wondered what happened that it was so surprising when you pulled this thing, and why people wanted it.

I used to believe that the saying "I was a pawn in that situation" was actually I was a prawn which made sense because that meant I was a little shrimp and people could boss me around.

I used to believe…

when I was little I thought that to speak a foreign language all you had to do was say an english word backwards. (i.e. soft was tfos)I thought there was only one foreign language and that was how they were doing it. It sounded weird enough when I tried it so it made sense to me!