speaking

I thought for years that the name of john travolta was johntra volta

adi

when I was very little and I did something I thought was particularly clever my brother used to say very quickly; 'What do you want a medal or a chest to put it on' I thought he was saying 'chester pudding' and eventually asked my mother what one of these was.

Kerray

i used to think that everyone talked like americans, that no one really had an accent - they were just talking funny to be amusing. i guess this all started when i heard the beatles sing on the radio, and then heard them talking to the interviewer or whatever - they sounded "american" when they sang, but not when they were just talking. yah, i was weird...

karen, nyc

I used to get really mixed up between the words 'soldiers' and 'shoulders' to the extent that I had a fixation with the eppilettes on the shoulders of all of my Dad's friends. (My Dad was in the forces - so that didn't help really!)

Scott

There was a news reporter ( still is )
whose name was Joyce Kulhawik. By the way it was pronounced, and never seeing it in print, I always thought her name
was JOYCEKUL HAWIK

Jill

I used to believe (until 2 years ago, I'm 25) that the word excavator was pronounced "ex-cav-a-gat-or". I have other words I could never pronounce right either. My family still makes fun of me...

Patty, NY

When my third child was about 2 years old, she was having a fit in the car because she was hungry. I told her to wait, that when we got home I would give her somthing to "Tide her over", meaning to stave off her hunger til dinner-time. Silence. A moment later, she let out a wail of such grief and fear, and she began to sob hysterically. "What's the matter, honey?" I asked, quite concerned. Between sobs, I discovered she was afraid I was going to tie her up, and so she pleaded with me...."Please, mommy, don't tie me over, please don't tie me over!"

Jewel Atkins

As a child I did a great impersonation of Mae West saying "come up and see me sometime!" with the hip wiggle and all. My parents told me I should bat my eyes when I did it too. I got into charecter, wiggled my hips, said the phrase, removed my glasses and began hitting myself in the eyes.

Susan

I used to think that when my parents said "we're having a lie in" was actually "we're having a lion" So used to think there was a pet lion I knew nothing about!

Anon

I was working on a science book report in third grade and decided that liquid and liquor must mean the same thing since they looked similar so I used them interchangeably much to the pleasure of my teacher.

Shaman Rikki

When I saw the word "idiot" in print, I mentally heard "I-did-i-ot". Makes absolutly no sense why, just did.

BobT

I use to think elevators were alligators & cantalope was antelopes.

Anon

When I was a kid, I just couldn't understand why we were human beans. We weren't long and green and stringy and we didn't look terribly edible...it was an enormous mystery to me...

Anon

I was always in trouble in one form or another, and hated having to apoligize. One day I decided that I'd get all my "I'm sorrys" out of the way and skipped around our neighborhood singing 'I'm sorry' over and over again so I wouldn't have to say it what I was angry. Too bad that one didn't work.

Jenni Winfrey

I used to think the phrase "throwing caution to the wind" was "throwing cosh into the wind." Whatever cosh was. I think i thought it was some kind of grain.. a type of couscous maybe.

Cooter

Until the age of 16 I thought velcro was called crow-felt.

T Smith

For a while I thought that volcano was ballcano - which seemed feasible seeing as they chucked out great balls of fire.

Ju Ju

When I was very little, I couldn't understand what the grown-ups were always talking about. I hadn't learned to speak properly yet.
I remember thinking back then: "Oh no, do I have to learn that awfull dificult language one day?", or something of that kind.
Looking back on it, it was kinda funny, since I work with languages now.
:-)

Wolfgrrrl

I used to believe there were only three directions: north, south, eastnwest. I would argue with my mother when she tried to tell me that east and west were two separate directions,"But my teacher SAID!"

Miranda