speaking

When I was about 9, I had a 2 year old baby sister and a few months old baby brother. Sometimes, I would play with them and then they gurgle and mumble stuff and look at each other. I used to think they were communicating in some secret baby organization language, and it made the most sense to me. I asked myself: "How come I don't remember those times when I was a baby?".
Then I came to the conclusion that they had a secret Baby organization in some base and that they were members of it. I thought that when members got too old, they erase any memory of the organization.
From then on, I started interrogating my baby sister and brother whenever my parents would leave them alone with me.

Alley

I used to believe that "Hello" was a bad word because of the 'Hell' element in it and I used to try to avoid saying it at all costs!

dippingmytoes

i used to belive cock.. was another word for poop.. and i used to go arond yelling mom i need to take a cock.. or look momy the dog is taking a cock.. lma too much

Jesenia

When I was young, I remember hearing my dad say that a co-worker of his was fired. Not knowing the meaning of 'fired' at the time, I pictured his co-worker being attacked a literal wall of fire.

Madeline

I Used To Believe Gibberish Was A Real Language, And I Thought I Was Fluent At Gibberish And I Came From A Country That Spoke Gibberish

KellGirl

I thought "opera" was pronounced "oprah", as in Oprah Winfrey.

Molly

I used to think that when my parents said "we're having a lie in" was actually "we're having a lion" So used to think there was a pet lion I knew nothing about!

Anon

my former colleague, david neilsen, used to belive that there was a nomadic dwelling - perhaps like a yurt - called a "purpose". he inferred this from a figure of speach which he took to mean "what i'm about to say is so obvious it's known by all nomads". the idiom in question was "to all in tents and purposes...."

stuart Swanston

When I was in primary school, I always wondered why we had to give the teacher a "round of the floors" after assembly. I mean, why on earth would a teacher want a circle of linolum?
It wasn't until many years later I dicovered the word "applause"....

Rachel Worrall

In my neighborhood growing up, all the older people were refugees and they all had thick accents. I thought that when people got "old", they began to speak with accents.

Rod

When I was young (about 3), I learned how to pronounce simple words from Sesame Street. They would sound out each letter of a word and then say the whole word. From this, I believed for a short time when you said a new word, you always had to say "buh...buh..." before it (sounding out the letter B), as in buh...buh...hand.

John Miles

I used to believe that everyone was given a certain number of words to say in their life and if they used them all up to quickly they wouldn't be able to talk when they were older

Maya

When I was about 4, my family went to get our Christmas pictures taken at a studio. The owner happened to have a glass paperweight that read "Noel" on the front. I asked my dad what Noel meant, and he told me it meant "don't touch", because he thought I would break it. From the age of four until I was about 14 that's really what I believed, but I found it very rude to be posted inside a church during the holidays.

Joe Mama!!!

i used to think that original meant plain and old like the original flavor of something is usually the blandest.

Anon

I remember my aunt teaching me some basic manners. She gave me a piece of gum, and said "now say thank you" which I did, and she replied "you're welcome" but i thought she said "you're well gum" and thought you only had to say that when you gave someone a piece of gum.

Jill454

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 last name is Adams, so when I first heard my parents use the expression "Up and at 'em," I thought they were saying "Up and Adams," which was a special expression just for our family. According to my logic, people who weren't named Adams couldn't use that expression, and therefore would just have to say "Get up," or whatever, because they weren't as cool as us. ;) My parents thought that was so funny, they actually started saying "Up and Adams" instead of the real expression, lol.

Anonymous

When I was little, I used to believe that Baskin Robbins was called Batman and Robin's. For the longest time I never knew why everyone would laugh at me when I said, "Hey mom, can we go to Batman and Robin's?"

Anon

When i was 3, my 10 year old cousin said she had piano lessons and couldn't play with me.

For some reason, i thought that piano was a type of a game you play on a table, like chess or checkers. My cousin was confused when i asked her where the "pinanno"(how i pronounced "piano") game was. Then when i told her she said she had "pinnano" lessons and couldn't come over, she laughed and told me what it really was. I felt stupid.

I never had a piano in my house, only a toy keyboard, so that's probably why i never knew what it was.

Anon

I mixed "confidence" up with "competence" so when I was watching an episode of a kids' show that involved the idea of "losing your confidence", I was like, "But she didn't lose her confidence! She's still good at it, just too nervous to actually do it."

Anon