speaking

My best friend's mum is called Anne, and when I was small I used to call her Antique Anne. I didn't know what antique meant - but she wasn't very happy because she thought I was that she was very old!

lu

I used to think that "facade" was pronounced "fuckade" (I accidentally said it that way while giving a presentation in 4th grade - oops!) and I also thought "pisces" was pronounced "pisses".

Kitten

In grade 7, we were having a science test on organisms. When we were finished, we were talking about the answers that we put for some of the questions. And since it was a big group of people, I was talking rather loud when I said "for number 38, I put living orgasms!"

And why is it that there's a 90% chance that a teacher would be near to hear that?

Very embarrassing.

my name!

Till I was 13, I used to think that "lust" meant hatred. Think about it...love and lust. They should mean the opposite, otherwise it's too confusing!

I'm Stupid, I know

My mother always has a habit of speaking too quickly, and running words together. Until I reached high school I was convinced that the phrase 'I might add' was actually, 'on my dad', and was puzzled why anyone would say such a thing.

Steve

My mother used to tell me that were only bale to say a million words in our lives. From the age of six, till i was around eight or so i kept a ver strict check on exactly how many words i had used, to the point where i even had a diary with ticks in for each word i had used....

Darren

When I was a child, I used to believe that at the end of game shows, they were giving the losing guest "partying gifts." I recently made a comment on this to my husband, and he informed me that the losers did not get "partying gifts", but rather parting gifts

angie

When I was two or three, I heard the term "human beings" and was convinced we were all "human beans". I didn't really understand how humans could be associated with beans, because green beans and lima beans don't look anything like humans.

lillie

My mother always used to talk about "making ends meet" as a child. I always though she was referring to hamburgers and meatloaf.

Shauna

Nephew aged 6 was crazy about westerns but always called cavalry, "cattle-ry". Well, I suppose the other blokes on horses were called "Cowboys" - so, logical? He was so persistent that the whole family now says the same, thirty years later!

Swanny

Since the words of the English language obviously needed to have been created at some point in time, I believed that the responsibility of coming up with all of the words rested upon the shoulders of one man. He thought up all of the words after sundown, with a group of his friends helping him along. They sat in his backyard while he played the banjo, and pointed at objects and then decided what to name them.

Amy

When my best friend's brother was around 7 or 8, he drove their whole family crazy with his endless chitter chater about anything and everything, so they him that he only had a certain amount of words he could use in his lifetime and if he went over that limit he'd never be able to speak again. Just imagine the stillness that ensued after this episode.

Oops!

That is was a "standing obation" not "ovation"

Robin

I used to believe that as a Canadian, I spoke English without an accent; that Canadians and most Americans simply did not have an accent and that British, Australians and everyone else had an accent.

Along with this I also believed this lack of an accent made it so that only Canadians and Americans could pretend to have an accent.

Sarah

I used to believe that an oncologist was an "on-call-ogist"

Anon

When my sister was about 9 or 10 she used to pronounce "chaos" like "chows"

Anon

At the age of about 4-6, I thought a supermodel was someone who made clothes.

Walker

I had a large group of girlfriends with whom I walked to and from elementary school. We always walked in the street because on the sidewalk we had to walk in a line (and it was a small town so traffic was minimal). One day I went home and announced to my mom that we were the "street walkers". She cracked up and then suggested that we come up with a different term to describe ourselves. It was many years before I understood why.

Anon

i used to think that the term 'necking' referred to boyfriends and girlfriends who rubbed their necks together

Anon

When I was young, I'd try to make my mother laugh by telling her jokes. She'd usually roll her eyes and remark dryly, "That's hilarious." So for many years, I believed that "hilarious" meant "not very funny."

Debralea