speaking

One night, my luittle sister came into my room. She saw a tag on mu dresser. it had been torn off of a set of pajamas, and read something along the lines of "this garment is not fire-retardent"

My sister asked me what a "garment was, and I told her that it was the trident-shaped peice on a bike-helmet buckle.

She belived me.

Anon

I was frightened to say the word peanut thinking that I might be misunderstood for saying penis. Also for hearting penis when people would say peanut. Can you imagine the tension all this misunderstanding caused!

Gregory

When I was a precocious 3 year old, I was certain that all adults spoke Martian among themselves.
I "proved" it to myself by slowly sneaking up on conversations between my mother & our neighbors.
Sure enough, as soon as they psychically detected my presence, the wa-wa underwater-sounds of Martian would smoothly segue into English.

Anon

Until I was around 15 I thought minestrone (soup) was pronounce MINE-strown.

My sister used to pronounce Jai'Alai (sport) like this: JAY-a-lay.

Guess it runs in the family...

Cathryn NY USA

I never had health class or "the talk" from my parents; so I always thought that vagina was pronounced like Regina. (va-jeen-a)

Anon

I thought that "Doube Bubble Toil and Trouble" was "Doube Bubble, Toilet Trouble"

Anon

You know that little toy that you ask a quesstion and then shake it and it lands on yes or no? I had one when I was little, and a few years ago, I was talking about it, and wondering why it was called an ape ball. I found out when everybody laughed at me that it's called 8 ball. To this day, whenever I try to say it, it comes out ape ball.

keyboardplayer

When I was in my seventh grade science class, I kept pronouncing the word organism as orgasm. I wondered why every time my teacher would correct me he would laugh at the same time. It wasn't until I got to high school that I realized what I was saying. LOL

Anonymous

It took me FOREVER to realize that "Vewers like you" meamt veiwers, like me. I thougt it was giibeish

Veiwers like you

At 2nd grade, I changed schools, and in the new school, they called the toilet the "lavatory". I had never heard the word before, and I thought they were saying "laboratory". So on my first day at the new school, when kids said, "May I go to the lavatory?", I wondered where they were going.

I reasoned that if everyone wanted to go there, it must be some kind of room with toys.
After about a week, I finally figured it out. Boy, I was disappointed!

tabi

I used to think that green was purple and purple was green... and now I still have to think about it before saying purple or green.

Cassie

In first grade during a history class, I could not pronounce Virgina and West Virgina correctly. Instead I pronounced the female body part that begins with a V.

Most of us were ignorant of the word, but there were two kids in the class who actually knew what it meant, and couldn't resist giggling. My teacher corrected me, but a minute later I would mispronounce it again.

I went home and told my older that kids laughed at me when I was reading outloud during our history lessons. After some deciphering, my cousin told me what it meant. That moment of awareness was the most humiliating moment of my life.

Sal Mendez

I used to think the word "rouse" meant a single grain of rice. Since "mice" is the plural of "mouse", and "lice" is the plural of "louse", it seemed to make sense that "rice" would be the plural of "rouse".

Heather

When I was in preschool, my favorite movie was Disney's "Hercules". Unfortunately, I was cursed with the inability to pronounce it right.

Amazingly enough, I would always pronounce it "fuckules". Meaning, it sounded like, "fuck-you-lees". I would go around saying it so casually, wondering why adults would stare at me so weird. Nobody told me I was pronouncing it wrong, because only my family ever heard it much, and they were too amused with my mispronunciation to tell me.

Anyway, one day, I came home from preschool and happily told Mom, "Hey, Mom! My teacher taught me something today!" Curious, Mom asked me what. I then shouted, "HA.. HA.. HERCULES!"

The look on Mom's face was priceless. She KNEW what I had said at school..

I still remember that absolutely HORRIFIED expression on her face.

Maya

When I was about 8 years old I was briefly interested in astrology. I was born in September so I'm a virgo. Virgo is the Latin word for virgin. I assumed they were interchangeable words, I liked 'virgin' better, so I used to tell people "I'm a virgin!" Nobody ever corrected my mistake, I just stopped saying it when I decided I didnt believe in astrology anymore.

Soap

When I was around 12, instead of saying "condos," I'd say "condoms." It took months for my parents to correct me. They thought it was hilarious.

Sean

That is was a "standing obation" not "ovation"

Robin