speaking

In elementary school, my neighbor told me that "several" meant seven. So if she said she had several Barbies, it meant she had seven of them.

She was also the one who told me that only women whose husbands have died could use the title Ms. instead of Mrs. or Miss. This is how people knew if you were widowed or not.

I believed her until I mentioned it to one of my teachers.

Jennifer

My freshman year at Georgia Tech there was a celebrity basketball
game between the Playboy Bunnies and the school's coaches.
After the game the bunnies were chatting with the huge crowd of
young men; some sitting on other's shoulders to see better. One
such fellow, being overwhelmed by thier sexyness, I presume,
bellowed out "I think I'm going to have an organism".

sideways

I pronounced "adolescent" as uh-DOLE-sent once and my mother cracked up after figuring out what I was saying.

Also around this same time in my life, I pronounced "adirondack" as uh-DEAR-on-dack. Mom again got a good laugh. However, while at my condo complex's pool this summer, I heard a woman in her 30s pronounce the word the same way. I felt superior, as I had learned the proper pronunciation years ago.

Leslie D. P.

In fifth grade, I asked my teacher what the word "ambition" means. I must have pronounced it incorrectly, or she was trying to lead me into figuring it out myself, because she asked me where I had heard it. Quoting the Dolly Parton song, "9 to 5", I replied, "like 'cup of ambition'" ("pour myself a cup of ambition"). She looked perplexed and didn't define the word for me. I don't think she listened to country music.

Leslie D. P.

You already have an entry about the word "misled" being misunderstood as a verb - to misle. I am so glad I am not the only one - for years I saw, read and pronounced the word misled as though it rhymed with 'rise'. It made perfect sense to me as a word that was something like 'weaseled'. Noone ever corrected me, but somehow I finally figured it out on my own - several years after graduating from college with both Bachelor's and Master's degrees (and one of those with a minor in English)!

Catte Nappe

When I was about 4, I had "male" and "female" reversed in my head. Somehow it made sense to me that boys would have a little something extra attached ;).

XiuZan

As a young elementary-school student I thought you pronounced POLAND (the nation) as Pah-land (short O sound). To this day my father still ribs me about this.

Ellen Levitt

I used to babysit for a little girl, Katherine, and when she was about 2 1/2 she would say that "this is mys" - it made perfect sense to her: if something that belonged to you is "yours" then if it belonged to her, it must be "mys".

nrs

I though that there were a certain amount of words, say a million, that I had available to use before I died. I was a quiet kid

Jude

I was shockingly old - in my twenties, even - when I finally understood the joke "What's black and white and read all over?" "A newspaper"

Of course, written down, it's not so tough to work out...

Z

I used to belive that handicapped meant you were especially smart and talented.

I used to tell my parents friends that I was handicapped!

cr

I used to think the word "stag" meant naked. I was shocked to hear my Baptist preacher father announce from the pulpit that the men's prayer breakfast would be held in our home, and that the men needed to "come stag".

Sarah

I used to associate words with mental images...I had many, but the only one I can remember to this day was the word "Friday" conjured up an image of the king of spades.

Kendra