speaking

Up until I was like 10, I thought anything you bought that said "pre-" meant it was done half way and you had to finish the other half (like a pre-sharpened pencil was only sharpened half way).

littleone

I have a little cousin who for the longest time was convinced that a "pervert" meant a dead fish... it sure was funny to hear her call her younger brother a pervert whenever he did something stupid... "Gabe, you're about as smart as a pervert!" ... I guess the statement is still a viable insult, though

Maeve

Just recently my mom told me about some of the odd things I used to say when I was younger, one of them was this: when my first nephew was born, I was about three and didn't know what that meant. She told me I had a nephew and I replied 'neph-me?' because I thought she said neph you I guess...

K-ell

When i was about 6 or 7 my brother (older) told me that VD stood for verbal Diarrhea, meaning that any one who spoke al lot and spoke fast ad Verbal diarrhea.
Once,during my aunt's funeral ( She was quite talkative and also spoke very fast) i over heard some of my relatives discussing her death. Eager to but in i remeber vividly saying "Yeah, i think she had VD. don't you ?" my mom was sipping a drink and nearly the entire contents came out through her nose.

hmmmm

I used to believe that priceless and worthless ment the same thing. So whenever we went to someone's house and they would describe the artifact as "priceless", i used to wonder why are they so proud of it?

Anon

when I was about 9 I started hearing other kids say "My bad..." for the first time. But I heard it for the first time at the end of recess, when some kid had left his lunchbag and a teacher was going around asking who forgot theirs. So the kid went up and seeing him taking his lunchbag, I thought he said "My bag...." and the next day at shop class I pushed someone's eraser off the table by mistake and said "My bag..." One of my classmates said that it's supposed to be "My bad..." They all laughed.

Art

My percocious cousin developed a capacity for language early on. Earlier, that is, than he developed the needed vocabulary. So he was speaking in coherent complete sentences, which were about half english and half words he completely fabricated. Only some were ever decoded, and the only one I can remember right now (danged memory block!) is his word for fire-engine: Synanoonie. He also had some notable ones for various zoo animals which slip my mind at the moment

Pinkl

We used to watch a lot of public television in my family. I remember watching a NOVA special on black holes with my dad. They interviewed Stephen Hawking, who can't talk properly due to a degenerative illness. When I asked my dad why the man was talking so strangely, he told me his voice was sucked out by a black hole. I completely believed him, and today he won't admit to having ever said it.

Dina

We have Mormons come around to all the houses in our village to preach but when I was little I used to say that the Mormons were Normans.

Anon

I remember talking about metaphors as a child at school. The kids were giving examples such as 'as blind as a bat'. I piped up with 'cold as a penguin's chuff'. It wasn't until years later I realised that a) the teacher really did look that horrified; and b) a penguin's chuff is NOT the feathers on it's tummy, regardless of what Dad had said.

Catherine

When I lived in Nairobi, Kenya as a high school kid, we went out to dinner one night with another family that had a little 5 year old kid. He was extremely excited in the car ride to the restaurant, which nobody understood, until we got there and he was instantly bewildered, then crushed. "What? This isn't a CARNIVAL!" he whined. The name of the restaurant was The Carnivore.

Poor kid; he had it wrong all along!

Mzungu mama

I had a teacher in primary school called Mr. Hampson, but I thought he was called Mr. Hamster - I even wrote it on the front of my books!

Ruth

There was a kid at nursery called Ashley and he must have hated me because I kept telling him he was saying it wrong, and that he was called "Actually!"

Ruth

When I was at nursery, there was a nun called Sister Tereseta and she was my favourite. I remember calling this sweet old lady "Sarah Tweeter!"

Ruth

When my sister was very young she asked "Is good Friday next Thursday?" and my daughter, when she was a toddler, told us "I aways clean my teeth, sometimes, never."

StevieC

when i was 10 ,i used to think that " uranus " is a planet. but actually it's not anymore. it means your anus .

Steven - Thailand