speaking

My Best friend was horrified the other day to learn that chimney isn't actually pronounced 'chimley'. She is 22.

Emma

When I was younger, I read in this spanish book that two 'l's (as in, como se llama) were pronounced as 'y'. I promptly forgot that this only applied to Spanish, and so for a very long time (up until 3 years ago) I thought that anything with two l's would have to be pronounced y. for example, I was read this book called 'is your mama a llama' by my mom a lot, and I remember saying, "Mom, it's not lama, it's yama!" I also remembering encountering the name Lloyd for the first time. I announced proudly that the person was named Yoyd, (pronounced like yoid) not Loyd.

Is YOUR mama a yama?

When people said "Human Being" I used to think they were actually saying, "Human Bean" I believed this until I was about 7 or 8 years old.

Anon

I used to believe that "shame" is a kind of table because when children were send to stand in the corner (near that particular table) everybody had to say "shame".

Sabon

When I was 6 (or maybe 7), and on a country walk with my family, I referred to "that shoop".

Well, several geese, but only one goose, therefore several sheep, but only one shoop.

It was perfectly logical to me at the time, and, come to think about it, I might start a campaign to make my version the correct one...

Bandy

I used to believe there was some secret reason about why "clothes" wasn't pronounced "cloth-es" and "shoppe" wasn't pronounced "shop-e." I thought that when I grew up, my parents would sit down and explain these secrets (and others) to me.

Jen

Sometimes when my parents were trying to get me out of bed or to get me to do something when I'd just been sitting around, they would say, "Up an' at 'em." For many years I heard this as "Up an' Adam." Adam was my older brother's name, so I thought my parents had made that expression up to tell me I should be more energetic like my brother. I didn't figure out what they were really saying till I was a teenager.

Mandi

Up until I was in 7th grade I thought you said blesh you when someone sneezed instead of bless you. I still say blesh instead of bless and I doubt I'll ever stop.

Anon

I used to think that when people said 'God Bless You' after someone sneezed, that they were really saying "Gosh! Bleshoe!" thinking that Bleshoe was the word for a sneeze and that people were pointing out the painfully obvious.

Anon

I used to believe when my Mom would tell me that Christmas was "just around the corner" that the people on the next block were having Christmas and we had to wait our turn.

Bonnie

My parents told me that my great-grandmother was in the 'historical society'. I thought that they meant 'hysterical society' - and that they sat around all day laughing like maniacs.

Amy

Around age 10 I heard my mother in a verbal fight with my grandmother. She said something about being "aloof and cold", and I thought for years that she had said "a hoof and colt".

Amy

If you're from the Northeast USA, you may remember the chain-store Caldor (also called Caldors). Well, until I was about 6, I thought that the name was Cow-Doors. I was always looking for those cows.

My friend, whose last name is Hanlon, thought that her name was Hamlon until she learned to read and write. You know...like ham.

Amy

Not really a belief , but a mispronuciation. When I was a freshman in High School I was asked to define an organism in my Biology class. I knew what it was but I called it an orgasm. Repeatedly. I couldn't understand why everyone was sniggering at my "correct" answer.

Anon

I used to say it was "Pit dark" or Pit black instead of pitch when I was explaining how dark it was outside. I always thought it refered to how dark it was at the bottom of a bottomless pit.

Scott McElvany

I once asked a teenage friend's dad on the way to a play what a "thespian" was, since it was being put on by a Thespian club. He told me, straight faced, that it was when the doctor came in and said to the parents, "Well, he's healthy, but he'll never be quite right." I thought I was going to see a play put on by the disabled.

Coach1977

I used to believe the saying "It's a dog eat dog world" was really "It's a doggie dog world".

GrantJ

I had always thought 'laminacs' were crazy lambs. I was a special kid.

Matthew Cabral

When I was in kindergarten, my father ran his own construction company. When he came home one day complaining to my Mom about how he was going to have to fire a guy, I thought he meant that he was going to burn the guy at the stake, on top of a big bonfire of leftover construction materials.

ah to be young...