speaking

One of my best friends up to this day, still can't say turqoise. She says tork-horse instead, but she's convinced it's the right way.

stevie

I am an older sister and took great pleasure teasing my younger sister. I told her you had to be 16 before you could be sarcastic (a bit like buying alcohol). She reached 16 and asked if she was old enough yet. I said she had to wait until she was 18 and she very nearly did - Sorry sis.

Sarah

Ok, I'm from Germany. Here in Germany, a nun is called Nonne and a prostitue is called Nutte. So when I was small I always thought that was the same.

RiotGirl

When I was little, I used to believe that people REALLY DID need a pinch to grow an inch.

Marjorie McNaughton

When I was around six or so, I got the words hamper and hamster mixed up. My parents would get very confused when I told them the hamster was full, because we didn't own one.

Raine

I used to think English was a forgein language. I would ask my parents over and over how to say words in English and get so frustrated when they would say the same word back to me.

Heather

When I first heard the word "plebiscite", I guess because of its resemblance to parasite, I thought it must mean some kind of nasty little critter. To this day, I never hear the word without thinking of some small but rather fearsome animal.

Rhonda

I thought that the word "firearms" meant fire extinguishers. They arm you to fight a fire. I couldn't understand why they were illegal.

Vicki J.

For some reason I thought that the word "tardy" meant dirty. One time in 3rd grade I was late to school, so my dad was writing a letter to my teacher and I was reading over his shoulder, and when I saw what he wrote, I exclaimed "Why would you say I'm tardy?!" and started checking my sweater for dirt and smoothing down my hair. He told me that it just meant late, but I still insisted that he change the word to "late" not tardy, because I was not dirty!

Molly

When i was really little, every time my mom came home with a bag of something, I was always ask what was in it. Every time i got the same responce: "Hooks to catch suckers, and you're the first to bite." Well, I never really listened to the second part. All i knew is that i wanted to get into that bag and get some of the 'special' hooks to catch me some suckers! (what little kid doesn't like candy?) It wasn't until i was about 17 that i realized the meaning behind that saying. Thankx so much mom.

Samantha

I have never heard the term outside South Australia, but it was common for decades to answer a child asking an awkward question about something to say, "Oh, it's just a wigwam for a goose's bridle". Curiously, this always seemed to satisfy the child but, covering so many things, it must have caused confusion in many tiny minds.

Swanny

I used to be confused no end by the use of the phrase "You never can tell". It seemed to imply that the outcome of an event being spoken of would remain a mystery forever, no one EVER knowing the result. But generally the phrase was applied to matters whose outcome would actually soon be obvious. I eventually figured out that the intended meaning is that you can never tell IN ADVANCE about such outcomes, but only after a whole lot of confusion in thinking that "never" always meant never, forever.

Tiffany

when i was little, my mom, my little sister (6 yrs) and me were watching, "fiddler on the roof" in the part where it shows the army on horses, my little sister said, " mommy, are those the gay people?" i started laughing so hard, but my mom LIGHTLY slapped my leg, trying to hide her laughter. obviously, she didn't want to explain being gay to a 6 yr old, so she just said, " no" and went back to watching the moviee. :)

Anon

I used to believe bris was pronounced brisk.
So when it was Passover and my mother said, "I'm making brisk for Passover. . . . " YOu can imagine what happened.

Anon

For the longest time I could never keep the paparazzi and Pavarotti straight...
By longest time, I mean my friends were making fun of me in Jr. High.
So I finally got it right, and declaired that the paparazzi was the bastard child of Pavarotti and Liberace.

Commissar Em-cha

my sisters friend is form finland and having only heard the word infantry thought it was an infant tree, liek a tree full of infants.

numa numa

when people would say "no offence" i thought it meant don t build a fence between us if you don t like what i m about to say.

Anon

When I was about 8, my dad and I watched an old movie he'd seen as a kid. He mentioned having a crush on the young actress in the movie when he was younger, and said he would have "given his right arm" to go on a date with her. For the life of me, I couldn't understand why she'd want his right arm anyway.

Jamie

When I heard someone say, "mother-in-law", or "brother-in-law", etc. I thought they were talking about more than one person in general. I thought they were saying, "mother and all", or "brother and all", etc.

Anon

When I was small I used to watch a lot of PBS shows, and at the end they always say, "This program was brought to you by..." and then list funders. They would always say that part really fast, so I thought that "broughtoyouby" was a single word. Never could figure out what it meant.

Anon