speaking

Until about a year ago, when I saw it written, I thought 'To kill a mocking bird' was 'Tequila mocking bird'

Layla

Until about a minute ago I thought the phrase, "It's a dog eat dog world." Was actually, "It's a doggy dog world." I feel so ashamed. I usually never misunderstand idioms.

14 year old girl

When I first heard the word "plebiscite", I guess because of its resemblance to parasite, I thought it must mean some kind of nasty little critter. To this day, I never hear the word without thinking of some small but rather fearsome animal.

Rhonda

I was a kid who loved to use big words. At 7 or 8, adults would be really impressed with the way I talked. However, most of my lingo came from just listening to people speak; my parents talking to one another, television, adults in public places conversing.
Well, I heard the word "thoroughly", but hadn't heard the word "thorough", so, for like, five years I thought the word was "thurral".
One Easter when I was about 13, after hours of searching for my prize egg, I had this conversation with my sister:
"But I've been really, really thurral!"
"You've been what?"
"You know, I've searched very thoroughly."
"Oh, you mean you've been thorough?"
"NO, I was thurral!"

She never let me live that one down.

Ari

I used to think the word "sane" was slang for "insane" so if one of my friends was bouncing off the walls, I'd tell them, "You're going 'sane!"

Anon to the nymous

i didn't know the difference between the words "deaf" and "death", so i used them interchangably.

Harold

When I was in grdae 2, we were learning geograohy and I was asked by the teacher to read 'Niger' I had never heard of this country and thought it was pronounced with a hard G. It came out as "Nigger." A black kid in the class got so mad and accuse of being racist. Even the teacher could hardly believ I didn't know I was saying something wrong!!! I was totally hurt.

Soo

i used to think that when british people spoke english with accents they knew that they talked with accents. when i found out that from their point of view Americans have accents it blew my frickin mind'... and i was in 6th grade when that happened.

Anon

When I was a child, I was very picky about the fabric and fit of my socks, and until I was about 8 or 9, I had somehow gotten the idea that "edible" meant "accpetable" I still have a vivid memory of my parents laughing hysterically at my announcement that I didn't have "any edible socks!"

Lisa

when i was little around 6-7 years old, i used to read alot. but 2 words i distinctly remember messing up were Foreign( i used to think it was pronounced Foureean) and Hoax(which i thought was pronounced Ho-Axe)

Anon

When I Was a little kid, 3 or 4, I thought whenever I asked my mom somethinglike, "do you mind if I have ice cream?" a she said, "Yes I do mind", it meant Yes, you can have some ice cream. That's why I was surprised when she took the bowl of ice cream away from me!

Tory

My mother always used to talk about "making ends meet" as a child. I always though she was referring to hamburgers and meatloaf.

Shauna

When I was two or three, I heard the term "human beings" and was convinced we were all "human beans". I didn't really understand how humans could be associated with beans, because green beans and lima beans don't look anything like humans.

lillie

When I was about 5 or 6, I would always wear bike shorts when I wore skirts, because I get paranoid about things pretty easily. Well, I also liked to use big words (to which I rarely knew the definition of) to make me sound smart. I'd recently heard the word 'obsessed,' but didn't know what it meant. One night, my babysitter came over. She noted the biker shorts I had on, to which I replied "Well, I'm obsessed with people seeing my underwear." She just sat there and stared...

Emma

I used to believe that fire drills were real drills and there were also drills for grapes or monkeys and even mutant mole people.Boy was I dumb!

Lady Confunded

In 2nd grade i thought that "She's smrter than she looks" was a compliment. I learned I was wrong when I said that to my teacher.

Anon

I had heard the phrase "the thrill of the hunt" for quite sometime, thinking each time I was hearing "Attila the Hun". People were saying for example, what someone did for "the thrill of the hunt". I wondered why someone was doing the thing in question for Attila the Hun. In time I finally figured out the phrase "the thrill of the hunt".

Ron

My mother used to say we could buy a new house or car when her ship came in.
I believed that it was out at sea crossing the ocean. I am still waiting.

Anon

As I child, I somehow got the idea that "bellow" meant manure. I began to find out otherwise when one time I baffled some people by saying, "Oops, I stepped in some cow bellow!"

Julie