speaking

I use to think the Taj Mahal in India was actually the Tajma Hall, a place to have meetings. I though this until I was probably 15.

anne

As a young boy, I became possessed of the belief that every person had a hard limit of 3,000 or so on how many times he could use each word. There was a time when I found my communicative faculties greatly diminished by an unwillingness to waste unnecessary uses of "yes" or "no" on what I considered to be trivial matters.

Andrew

When I was little I couldn't pronounce phonogragph. It always came out pornogragh

Chester

Until I was about 10 years old, I believed that if you were called "ingenious" it meant that you were smart--like an "injun"...

Nancy

I don't recall believing anything that I've since outgrown. However, I couldn't believe that pronunciations could differ. It was a great concern of mine when I was nine and we were to move from Tennessee to Illinois. I remember repeating "bean" over and over and never believing that it could be pronounced other than the way I's always heard it. Big surprise!

Claudia

I always thought a Voo Doo doll was a Doo Doo Doll. Thanks to a very embarrasing moment of voicing this idea, I learned otherwise.

Trish

I thought when I was small that a few people sat and decided what things were going to be called, like when u name a baby, and i didn't agree with some of the names! I used to really confuse my parents! I still don't agree with some of them!!

Who had the right to name a table table anyway?!

Rae x

i used to think "learning" meant stirring in empty pots and pans with other metallic objects; no idea why. i guess that's what the word "lernen" sounded like to me.

tia

I used to see the signs for Antiques and thought it was pronounced ANTikews.I don't know at what age I finally made the connection between anTEEKes and Antiques. No wonder I went on to major in English in college! :-)

Sairey

When I was little I used to call blue jeans "boondeenies".

Amy, WI

I used to think light sabers were called life savers.

alison

I had never heard the name pronounced, so I always said Zsa Zsa Gabor, "Zeesa-Zeesa Gay-bor."

blnkfrnk

I used to believe it was "hand cups" and "bolly ball".

Jeff

I remember the loudest thing ever on TV. It was on Friday night, at probably 9:15 or so, just as the latest episode of Mannix was really getting underway. The camera would cut to a shot of a big, black, heavy telephone (so common then), and it would ring like all the church bells in the world going off at the same time. This happened at least once every episode.

I'd be sound asleep on the floor in my jammies by then, after having gorged myself on popcorn and my own 16-oz. bottle of Coke (in the original curvy glass bottle). I'd practically leap up to the ceiling in fright.

We kids thought Mannix was the last word in extreme TV, because there was something in one of the constant commercials for the show (it was quite the hit back then) about how he "had the guts to get the job done."

The worst phrase any of us had ever used was, "I hate your guts!" and we all knew how much trouble we'd get into for saying it. So it seemed that "guts" was the key word, because you could say, "I hate broccoli!" without the Four Horseman (with my mother at their head) riding down on you. So we were awed that we could hear this awful word spoken, right out in front of everything, and nobody got yelled at.

On another note, my younger brother referred to Clarence on The Mod Squad as the "The Chocolate Man." At age 4 or so, nothing could convince him that poor Clarence wasn't like one of those solid chocolate Easter bunnies.

Dan

Two things. My brother thought "gaining" and "gagging" were interchangeable, but he'd use the wrong. For instance, running ahead of me down the stairs he would shout back, "I'm gagging on you."

Up until just a few years ago, I'm 29, I thought cartwheel was named after a gymnast rather that it being named after how it looks when you do it comparing to an actual cartwheel. In my defense there are a lot of gymnastic and skating moves named after the first people who did them, but that doesn't stop friends and family from chuckling, "Oh, like Bob Cartwheel?"

Ben

When I was a kid my teacher said, "Children, if you feel the need to vomit, just go immediately to the bathroom -- you do not have to ask me for permission first." I always thought that she said "bomb-it" for vomit. It made perfect sense to me because that's exactly what happens when you throw up. It wasn't until third grade that I actually learned the true spelling of the word.

nettie

On a road trip through California countryside, I pointed out a beautiful hillside of orange Poppies..."Where, Where?" my 2 year old frantically demanded, "I can't see the orange puppies!!" It reminded me of the time when I was a kid on a trip with my family. My dad pointed out a Baskin Robbins, and my MOTHER said "I don't see any basking robins!" And she was serious, too!

Annabelle Beanbag

When I was 8 or 9, I thought my mom went to choir practice every week. I thought that was strange, since she couldn't sing, and we didn't even belong to a church. It wasn't until years later that I figured out that she was going to the chiropractor.

Ann

When I was little I thought that everyone said spaghetti wrong. I said pasghetti instead; my family humored me and said pasghetti as well. This went on until I was about 7 or 8. I was a weird kid...

Sarah