speaking

I used to think that clinical depression was called "cynical" depression.

Anon

I believed that the word optimistic was something to do with opticians and being happy with your eyesight.

Anon

I thought for a long time that the word "awry" was pronounced like "aw-ree" (rhymes with sorry) , instead of "uh-rye". The weird part? I had heard people say it lots of times, but it took ages before I realized it was the same word

dumby

At 31 I moved from Italy to London, UK. I used to believe that the phrase "out of spit" was a particularly graphic and rather dramatic way of expressing one's animosity and vengeful intententions. Only 8 years later, after moving back to Italy, I eventually realized that one is supposed to say "out of spite".

Fed

When grown-ups said "this morning", I thought they were saying "tiss morning"
When grown-ups said "newspaper", I thought it was two words: "new" and "spaper"
But really, my hearing is okay.

Vicki J.

My mother used to complain she "couldn't get a word in edgewise". I thought "that's ok, none of us speak Edge-a-wise."

diane

My Teacher asked if I could Name types of beans so I stood up in class and said Baked Beans, Runner Beans and Human Beans!

Nadia Whyte

I opened the car window a crack and my mother told me to shut it because I'd "catch a draft," which I interpreted as "catch a giraffe." I didn't question the sense of it, and just assumed it meant "to get a chill." I think I must have been learning about idioms at the time ("have a cow", etc.), because it seemed perfectly natural to have an expression that made no sense literally.

jamby

For years I believed that "giblets" was a made-up word my parents used to describe me and my siblings. My maiden name was Gibbs, so "giblets" obviously meant "little Gibbses". It makes perfect sense. I was in my teens before I figured it out.

Ex-Gibbs

I once saw a sign that used to the word 'Prohibited" and I asked my dad what he meant. He said it meant it was forbidden.
So for the next few years I believed the word "prohibited" was pronounced "forbidden". It wasn't until I was reading a sign aloud that a friend of mine asked why I said "forbidden" instead of "prohibited" and I realised that they were actually separate words.

Julianne

For the longest time I thought the phrase "Dog eat dog world" was actually "Doggy dog world" and this made me happy because I liked dogs.

Xornia

when i was young i used to believe that the 'carry-over champion' on game shows was in fact a 'karaoke' champion. It wasnt until i was 17 and asked my boyfriend what on earth a 'karaoke' champion was, that i learnt the truth.

Sarah. F.

When I was about ten or eleven, I somehow mixed up the words "lesbian" and "leprosy." I used to be afraid of catching "lesbian" after that. One day I overheard my mom on the phone; she was talking about some woman she knew who was a lesbian, and I freaked out and started screaming at her to get away from me because I thought she'd picked up "lesbian" and I didn't want to catch the disease too!

Needless to say, I felt very silly when my mom explained my mistake.

Manda

When I was about 6 I knew a mute girl at primary school. I used to believe that people had a limited number of words that they could pronounce in a lifetime and once you'd used them all up, then you became mute. From then on, I paid special attention not to waste words.

Anon

I used to believe there was some secret reason about why "clothes" wasn't pronounced "cloth-es" and "shoppe" wasn't pronounced "shop-e." I thought that when I grew up, my parents would sit down and explain these secrets (and others) to me.

Jen

When I was young, I heard the word "castrated" somewhere, which means to cut off one's penis. At the time, for some reason or another, I thought it meant to abandon something, like "abandon ship!" So, my younger brother and I were sledding one snowy winter evening, and we were headed for a tree... would you like to guess what I shouted?

eagles forever!

i used to think that only men could get bachelors degrees. i thought women got bachelorettes degrees.

Anon

I used to believe that anyone speaking a foreign language translated it into english in their head

galen

I was in high school and heard the word euthanasia.
Everytime I heard it, I wondered why they were talking about "Youth in Asia."

dmeanybean

I always used to believe the word was "acoma". People always talked about someone being in acoma, and if they could come out of acoma, and what would they remember. Not until one time I was talking and said "the acoma" did I really learn the truth. :(

Anon