speaking

Until I was about eleven, I thought that "the devil incarnate" was "the devil in garnet". So, until I learned the truth, I always pictured the devil wearing a red dress.

Anon

When my brother and i were younger, we went through a "parrot" stage (as my mom called it)we used to mimic each other and other people when ever we could, and on our way to an amusement park one summer afternoon, my mother and fathere were talking about how more and more housing was coming into the area....particularly condiminiums. my fater looks at the development and say," Look at all the condos." and with out missing a beat my little brother exclaims right after, "Look at ALL the CONDOMS!!" needless to say my family burst into laughter including my brother and i...not realizing what he had really said.

.*.Tiffany.*.

When I was young I assumed that 'yes' is always the positive response and 'no' always meant a negative response. So when someone would ask me "Do you mind if....blah blah?" I would get confused and instead of saying 'no' as in "no, i dont mind" I would say 'yes' as in what I thought to be "yes, i dont mind". I took me a while to pick up on why whoever was asking the question always looked at me as if I was a rude little brat.

Brendan

i used to be convinced that cats were called yaya's and no one could tell me otherwise! no one knows where i picked the word up from i just said it as a baby. i know better now [just]

confuzzled kid

I grew up on a small island in the South Pacific. I (we) mistakenly believed that the childhood game called Red Rover, was called Run Over. After all, you RAN over, right? Unfortunately, it wasn't until reminiscing with my adult friends in the U.S. that I discovered that something had gotten lost in the translation. It now makes sense to me why I received strange looks when trying to explain this great game we used to play as kids called Run Over. I was shocked that no one in the U.S. ever played it before.

FOB@pago

When my father was young, he would read adaptations of Greek myths. He thought that Persephone (purse-eph-oh-nee), the queen of the underworld, was pronounced "purse-eh-phone." He also thought that Penelope (pen-ell-oh-pee), the wife of Ulysses, was pronounced "Pen-ell-lope" (rhymes with "cantaloupe.") It actually took him a long time to adjust to the correct pronunciations.

Anon

When I was five, I kept getting the words college and recess confused. Somehow I thought they were one and the same thing.

Chris

Up until about 3 years ago i had always mistaken the expression: "Take it for granted" for "Take it for granite." As much as i tried to understand this, i could never comprehend why anyone would take anything for granite.

Zack

Living in the UK during the 70's and 80's I used to get really upset 'cos so many people were losing their jobs as plants and factories were closed down. I even asked my mother why didn't they just move to that town where there were loads of jobs. Following a rather blank look, she asked what I meant. "Well" I replied, "The man on the news said there were thousands of jobs in Jeopardy"

Rosey

I used to beieve that "play it by ear" was play it by year.

Alex

i thought that LOL meant Lots Of Laughs...even though it is used as Laugh Out Loud!!! Boy i was dumb

pimp skeet

Once when I was very young my uncle saved a person from drowning at one of our ponds. My grandma was so proud that her child could artifically inseminate someone back to life. She even told the newspapers this......it was years later that we told her that he artifically resesitated and not "inseminated" :)

embarassed family member

My mum would never let anyone swear around my brothers and me when we were children, and if they did, she'd ask them to apologise to us for it. I learnt to speak very early but had a speech impediment for a few years. One day at pelican crossing, while we were waiting for the lights to change, a large and imposing lady walked up with her dog and ordered it to "SIT!"

Of course I looked up at her from my buggy and told her, "You sould apolodise to me for saying dat."

Daisy K

When I was like 10 I read the word hibiscus and I thought it was pronounced hi-buck-shu-us and asked what it was and eventually my sister read what it really was and they still make fun of me now! :(

Katie Lyn

I used to believe that all languages were written exactly the same (ie: in English) it was just that different nationalities said the words differently.

Joanna

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

I used to believe that when my mum replied 'I wouldn't if I were you' she was actually threatening to 'fiver' me, which sounded pretty scary, so I never did the things I was asking her opinion on!

Lilli, UK

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

I once wrote a birthday card to my mum. I decided to put a rhyme in it - but the only thing i could think that rhymed with "birthday".... was "gay". but that was brilliant cos that meant happy...right?
Happy Birthday Mum.
I think you are very gay.

Got some strange looks, i did.

Cj