speaking

I often did not do reading homework when it was assigned. One day in religion class in high school the topic of discussion was "euthanasia". Since i had not done the reading and had never heard the word before, I thought we were discussing kids in China......

Tracyca

Up until I was 16 I thoroughly believed that the weed-eater was a "Wee-deeter".

Jen @ 20

Until the age of 11 or 12, I thought the term used in boxing for a punch that was delivered to the chin in an upwards motion was an upper-cunt. It was my pastor who corrected me at a Christmas party at the church; and told me what I meant to say was an upper-cut...

Naivety

This happened to my brother. He used to call everyone "maggot" as a rude term to get a rise out of people. It was many years later he found out that when he thought he was calling people a racist term, he was really calling them a form of larvae.

Lee Scott

When my husband was very little and heard the phrase "Throw caution to the wind", he thought the person was saying "Throw cush into the wind". He told me that for years, he didn't know what "cush" was, and was too embarassed to ask anyone!

Kierstin

My father always used to say "save your breath" if we talked too much, and as a result I grew up thinking we had a limited amount of breath and that once used up it was curtains !

Anon

I got my definitons mixed up. When I was in high school I thought fornicator was another word for liar. So when my friends and I would joke and they'd lie about something I would yell out FORNICATOR, YOU FORNICATOR! Everyone would look ofcourse to see who'd fornicate in public.

I suppose the word I was looking for was fabricator.

Anon

up until fourth grade, i thought that "compliment" was another word for insult.
so whenever i would make a joke about someone, you could see them chasing me around with me screaming "it's not a compliment! it's not a compliment!"

Anon

My two best friends were shopping and we passed a stand called 'The piercing pagoda' and one of my friends proclaimed "It's the Piercing Padoga!" She honestly thought it was called this. It wasn't just that she read it or said it wrong- She actually beleived the word Pagoda was pronounced Padoga.

Blu

One particular babysitter of mine was comforting me after I became hysterical and was crying over something or other. She started cooing "Calm down, it's okay." Having never heard anyone use the phrase "calm down", I thought she was saying "come down" (as in "come down out of the tree", or off of something high off). I looked up at her and said "Come down from where? I'm not on anything, i'm right here."

Amy

When I was little I thought that "involved" was a dirty word, and would get really embarassed when I heard my parents say it. Since it was my mom I usually heard it from, I thought it was a female private part. I think this is weird, because I was only about 3 or 4 at the time, but now realize that "involved" sounds a lot like "vulva." Coincidence?

Steph

"I scream!" that is something I like to eat. I was about 10 before I put ice and cream together and figured the word out as it was, "I WANT SOME I SCREAM!"

opinionata

I always thought the saying was 'for crying allowed' instead of 'for crying out loud'.

Anon

until today, while reading a psych book, i found out ive been saying "disconserting" with an N making it "disconcerning" my whole life....im 20.

Anon

when i was 4 i used to believe that the only thing people ever said was their name!

Duffdog

I was watching the news with my father one day, and the newscaster announced "Ravaging Guerrilas are invading the middle East." I thought he meant gorrilas and kept wondering "wow where did they all come from, how will they get them back in the zoo?

little Jen

Around age 10 I heard my mother in a verbal fight with my grandmother. She said something about being "aloof and cold", and I thought for years that she had said "a hoof and colt".

Amy

i belived that when my mom said "i dont doubt it" that she ment "i dont belive you" and got very sad, and could even start to cry.

håkon

When I was in preschool, my favorite movie was Disney's "Hercules". Unfortunately, I was cursed with the inability to pronounce it right.

Amazingly enough, I would always pronounce it "fuckules". Meaning, it sounded like, "fuck-you-lees". I would go around saying it so casually, wondering why adults would stare at me so weird. Nobody told me I was pronouncing it wrong, because only my family ever heard it much, and they were too amused with my mispronunciation to tell me.

Anyway, one day, I came home from preschool and happily told Mom, "Hey, Mom! My teacher taught me something today!" Curious, Mom asked me what. I then shouted, "HA.. HA.. HERCULES!"

The look on Mom's face was priceless. She KNEW what I had said at school..

I still remember that absolutely HORRIFIED expression on her face.

Maya

Well. There are a few words I come across I cannot pronounce properly the first time I read it. The one I remember most is the word "patio." I was reading from a novel, and I remember re-reading the section about the "patio" (which I was pronouncing "Pay-She-Oh, probably due to French lessons.) Anyways, I turned to my mom and was like "What is a Pay-She-Oh?" and she was like "What?!?!" (This is coming from a grammar/spelling nerd, and a kid who used to read dictionaries and encyclopedias for fun, so it was extremely embarrassing for me.) I turned around and said "Pay-She-Oh." again, thinking it was some strange word. I showed my mom and read: (This is basically what it said, as far as I remember.) "They were sitting around a table on the pay-she-oh, eating Sloppy Joes." she turned around and looked me in the eye, and said "Honey, that's Pat-Ee-Oh." I really, really felt embarrassed. I've always taken my spelling, grammar, and pronunciation very seriously, and needless to say, I was tormenting myself by studying more of the dictionary after this happened.

StrangerForYou