speaking

I recall as a child hearing grown-ups speak of someone who was going to get a pinchin'. They seemed pleased about this. I silently wondered how anyone could be happy about receiving anything as painful as a 'pinchin'! Only later did I learn they spoke of a pension!

Wanda F.

I used to believe that when my Mum said "Heaven Only Knows", that she was actually on about some guy called "Hevveroni". I always wanted to meet him....

Leah

My brother thought that if men were perverts, women must be pervettes. My sister and I were accused of this often.

Sara

When I was in primary school, I always wondered why we had to give the teacher a "round of the floors" after assembly. I mean, why on earth would a teacher want a circle of linolum?
It wasn't until many years later I dicovered the word "applause"....

Rachel Worrall

My Dad would always say 'well cut my sock'if I or any other family members told him anything interesting or remarkable. I was 25 when I realised his favourite expression was actually a spoonerism for 'suck my cock'. Oh the long lost innocence of youth.

Geoff

When I was about 5 I heard my mom say B.S. I asked what it meant and she told me brown sugar. I believed this until I was about 12

Chris C.

When I was a child there was a campaign called "keep Britain Tidy" . I was firmly convinced for many years that what I had heard was keep brit and tidy - like spick and span . At about age 11 it finally dawned that there was no such word as brit!

J.B.

I used to think Wong Ming Chuen (a Hong Kong celebrity) is called Orange because of there pronounciations are similar

Jerry

When I was young i mixed the two norwegian words for curious ("nysgjerrig") and shy ("Sjenert"). Come to think of it, I really was both... I guess people said I was both, and both words a "ch"-sound in it..

Aikeel (Norway)

My third grade student, protesting a story one of his classmates
was telling, said "That's a bald-headed lie."

Anon

When I was 4/5 I switched the meanings of hump (the verb) and
noogie (rubbing someone's head with knucles). I told my dad that
the dog was giving him a noogie by rubbing his leg up and down
and would yell at my brothers to stop humping my head.

klah

When i was at nursery school i was driving a toy car and drove into someone. The teacher then asked me if i had done it deliberately, i didn't know what this meant, i took a guess at yes and was immediatley smacked.

Nick

When I was younger, my and my (female) cousin used to role play at my nans. Anyway, one day, I decided I should play a criminal. So, I suggested she walk down the hall, and I'll jump out and rape her, and steal her purse!!

I ment I'd 'mug' her, but at the time didn't know the difference between the 2 words...!! oops!

As you can imagine, the our parents and my nan just went silent... :o/

Hmmm...

For a worryingly long time (until I was 15) I used to think specific was pronounced Pacific much to everyone’s amusement.

Amy

When people used to say 'Search Me' when they didn't know the answer, I got terribly confused because surely that meant they did have the answer somewhere about their person?

One day I asked my dad if you searched a person who said 'Search Me' you'd find a small piece of paper with the answer written on it. I still have visions of this whenever people say 'Search Me'. I am 30.

Anon

that terraced houses were actually terrorist houses. and if there were terrorist houses, why didn't they just arrest all the terrorists since they knew where they lived. I'm from ireland so this was a really big deal.

Anon

Cause as a child, ur still developing those speech skills, I used to be absolutely convinced it was Amemeca (America). And oh yeah, all colours were purple.

sos