speaking

Until relatively recently (I think i was about 17 and I'm 25 now) I thought the saying "up and at em" was "up and Adam" since I heard it but never saw it written down.

Nate

When I was little I thought that the saying was "party gifts" instead of "parting gifts". I thought that the people who lost on games shows got prizes that were called party gifts because they were fun!

Loves any gifts

Quite a few years ago, we went away with some friends near Christmas time and we were talking abut what our New Year's resolutions were going to be, and one of my friends said she gesticulated a lot when she talked and that her family etc said it can be annoying, so she was going to try and not do it so much. I had no idea what it meant, but for some reason, I thought it was something to do with sex, so i looked round really awkwardly as if to say 'Is she allowed to say that????' even though no one else flinched when she said it. I now realise why!!

Lauren Nind

O.K. you smugs,........OOPS that was really O.K. you's mugs

oddsox

I used to associate words with mental images...I had many, but the only one I can remember to this day was the word "Friday" conjured up an image of the king of spades.

Kendra

My friend told me that "namreg" was "moron" spelled backwards, and i believed it until my mom said it wasn't

Dummy

I used to think the word "stag" meant naked. I was shocked to hear my Baptist preacher father announce from the pulpit that the men's prayer breakfast would be held in our home, and that the men needed to "come stag".

Sarah

My friend and I had some confusion about the word "rape." I insisted that the word was pronounced "rap," as my dad with his heavy Chinese accent said it was, and that it was when a man kidnapped a girl. My friend thought it was pronounced the correct way, because his older siblings had told him that, but didn't know what the word meant. In the end we accepted my pronounciation of the word since after all, I knew what the word meant.

Jen

at the age of 6 i believed that flush was a color

zod227

I thought that Cul De Sac was one word "coldesack" because I had only heard it but never seen it written

Samilton Duerheiser

When I was very little, I couldn't understand what the grown-ups were always talking about. I hadn't learned to speak properly yet.
I remember thinking back then: "Oh no, do I have to learn that awfull dificult language one day?", or something of that kind.
Looking back on it, it was kinda funny, since I work with languages now.
:-)

Wolfgrrrl

As a young elementary-school student I thought you pronounced POLAND (the nation) as Pah-land (short O sound). To this day my father still ribs me about this.

Ellen Levitt

A long time ago, my friend had a different meaning for the word "gay".
So, one day, we were driving in the car (his dad was driving and his older brother-who was about 16-was in the passenger seat) and my friend said "hey dad, I'm gay!"
He was about 6 years old at the time and since then everyone still teases him about it.

Anon

when i was younger, instead of saying 'ladies and gentlemen', i used to say 'ladies and jelleyments'

sausage

i used to think the word "navel" was somthing kind of dirty. i knew it wasnt,but everytime it was said, i would secretly laugh in my head.

anastacia beeverhousen

I used to believe adjacent was pronounced add-juh-sent, the a making the uh sound like in the word uh. Then when I heard adjacent I thought I heard ajason, so I've pronounced adjacent over three different ways before learning the correct pronounciation.

Aerith

When I was younger, I used to think when my mom said "P.O. Box" she was really saying "Pill Box." So I wondered why she would call it as pill box as if there were medicine pills in there when there was only mail. Just recently am I finding out that it's pronounced Pee-Oh box.

Tiara

when I was about 9 I started hearing other kids say "My bad..." for the first time. But I heard it for the first time at the end of recess, when some kid had left his lunchbag and a teacher was going around asking who forgot theirs. So the kid went up and seeing him taking his lunchbag, I thought he said "My bag...." and the next day at shop class I pushed someone's eraser off the table by mistake and said "My bag..." One of my classmates said that it's supposed to be "My bad..." They all laughed.

Art

I used to often wonder if the words that came out of my mouth sounded different to others, and the things they said sounded different to me.. odd huh?

Jen

i always thought albeit meant i'll be it

reh