the best of speaking
I thought when someone was described as being "mild-mannered" it meant they didn't have very good manners
language: speaking
1,224 beliefs
When listening to CasyKasem on America's Top 40 while growing up, I thought he always talked about such-and-such band's 'day view' album. It wasn't until my 9th grade English class that I learned d-e-b-u-t was not pronounce dee-BUTT, but in fact day-BEW, and that it wasn't a 'day view album' but a 'debut album.'
Ugh.
pick of the bunch
I used to believe that a "punch line" meant a line of people waiting to dip punch from a punch bowl.
pick of the bunch
I once heard my dad say, "She doesn't waste words." and believed you could run out. I did not talk much after that.
pick of the bunch
I used to belive that the word sexy (depending on your sex)
ment you were very girly/boyish.
I used to think the word "procrastinate" meant to put off going to the toilet. I couldn't work out why we needed a word to describe that - why didn't people just go to the toilet when the needed to go?
I used to believe that if my favorite words were used by other people, the words would get all "used up" and I wouldn't be able to say them any more. My dog was named "Daisy" and I wouldn't let anyone else say her name.
When I was small I would watch adults talk, and they would often use their hands to make gestures while they were talking. I thought those gestures were like a second language that adults used simultaneously while speaking. I kept wondering when they were going to teach us that language in school.
I used to think "President" and "present" were the same thing, so every year I would be disappointed I never got any presents on "Presidents Day".
Accordingly, I always got to open the presidents during Christmas.
when i was 5 my i spilled water all over my cousin she said,"You'll pay for this.'' I wasn't so smart the so i said, ''But i don't have any money.'' she still makes fun of me for it!
pick of the bunch
I used to believe that when you had a "crush" on someone, they had to lie down on the ground in front of you, and you would step on their arm.
I used to think "bacteria" was pronounced "vacteria" and "taste buds" was pronounced "taste fuds". Nobody ever corrected me :/
I used to think that macabre was a fabric identical to mesh. I believed this until my first week of my senior year of high school.
When I was younger I used to refer to cars as lawnmowers. Despite my parents constantly saying "c....a....r" I referred to the motor vehicle as the difficult, 3 syllabled word until I started school.
There was a cartoon sketch on Sesame Street where a comical guy wearing a barrel talked in rhyme about where all his clothes went. "These are the flies that made off with my ties... these are the moths that ate up my cloth... this is the glutton who ate my last button!" That last had a visual of a squirrel-type critter picking up a button and swallowing it. I thought for a while after that that a glutton was some kind of rodent.
One time in kindergarten, my class had to do this sheet that said, "I have ____ letters in my name." You had to fill in the number of letters in your name. But I didn't know that the space where you fill in missing words is called a "blank," so I misunderstood my teacher when she read the question aloud as "I have blank letters in my name." I thought you had to write the word "blank" in the blank! I also asked how to spell it!
When I heard the name Jose, I thought it was actually spelled "Hoasai". I had seen the name Jose in print, and may have known its pronunciation, but never connected it to "hoasai".
I used to believe…
that the word "horny" was a joke. I played scrabble on the computer when I was about seven years old, when the computer used that word. When I asked my mom what it meant, she told me it was a joke by the creators of the game. I believed that for five years.
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!
I used to believe that 'hospital' was pronounced hos-pill-til, because that's where you got medicines and pills to make you better!
I also remember seeing the word 'Mom' written in a book, and thinking that it was a mis-spelling (in the UK we say 'Mum'), not realising that Mom is American.
Up until my twenties (yeah, I know) I was seriously confused about the saying "you can't have your cake and eat it too." I thought that if you were eating your cake, weren't you HAVING it? For some reason, the light dawned one day and it was like a spiritual awakening.