speaking

Every year the older kids in my school would give a little play, and all the younger kids would come in and watch. Well, the teacher called it a matennae (sp?) and i thought that she said Matt & A. Like the name of the show was that, and Matt & A (like for Amanda or Amy) were the stars. I was so excited, because i knew a boy named matt, who was older. My name starts with an A and i was hoping that they would have the same play later when i was older so i could be the A in Matt & A. He wasn't even in the play!! I was so confused. I didn't figure it out for 5 years what a matennae was

A

When I was about maybe...8 i used to think that picturesque was pronounced picture-skweh

Anon

I always wondered where all the words and their meanings originated from, and I decided that at the beginning of time, there was a big table of old wise men with long white beards, and they all discussed certain sounds and decided to give them meanings, for example, "PEN-CIL" would mean that pointy skinny stick that you write with.

Anon

Not my belief, but my brother's. When he was around 12 and I 14, the subject of foreign accents came up in a discussion. At one point, I mentioned American accents. (We're American.) He looked confused, and said... "What? Americans don't HAVE an accent."

He had been assuming that people from England, Australia, etc. had to go out of their way to talk like that, and that the American accent was just the normal default way of talking.

Anon

I used to believe "foyer" meant fireplace because is german feuer [pronounced like foyer] means fire.
I never heard anyone say foyer before, until i was at my grandmas house once. She told me to go wait in the ''foyer'', and i had no idea what she was talking about. I thought she wanted me to wait in the fireplace!!

Kupfer Staub und Feuer

When I was young I used to think a prostitue was someone that gives you good deals, when I was out shopping I got alot of candy for a sweet deal and turned round to the man and said "Your the best Prostitute ever!" As I left the shop many people looked at me...

Didge

I used to think that an episode was an episoda, and that it was a kind of soda that made you sick when you drank it (epi meaning EPIdemic). I got upset when somebody was talking about that funny episode of Spongebob, thinking that they were jerks to think that Spongebob with a disease was funny.

Anon

I got the word hobo confused with homo. So one night years ago, my family and I were walking out of a restaurant, and my dad said "Let's walk the other way, there's a hobo asking people up the street for money". I yelled "Where's the homo? I want to see him! Why don't you like homos dad!?". Haha, I look back and laugh.

Shayla

When I was in kindergarten the teacher would tell us to "make sure to color inside the lines" but until I was in about 2nd grade I always thought she said "color inside the lions." I was always very confused, where were the lions?! Coloring was a tad scary for me then...I thought a lion would pop out.

Amber

When I was in 2rd grade a few friends and myself were stopped by a group of 6th graders and asked if we were homosexual or heterosexual. When my friends looked ro me for an answer I replied, homosexual because I figured 'home' is a good place to be.

Anthony M.

When I was young & we said the pledge of allegiance in school I always thought that was "and to the republice for witched stance". I was so relieved when I finally realized that it was "for which it stands". It just made so much more sense!

Pledge Girl

I used to believe that "boots" were actually called "boots on". This was because whenever it was time to go outside, my parents would tell me, "get your boots on!".
Because of this, whenever I wanted to take them off, I would tell my parents that I wanted my boots on off.

feebs

When i was about 5 i was watching an old movie on tv where a lady was yelling at a guy, saying he should be ashamed of himself for "robbing a young woman of her virtue". I knew what robbing meant- taking something away. But what was a virtue? I asked my mom who as i recall was scrubbing the bathtub. "Patience is a virtue" she mumbled. So i assumed that "robbing someone of their virtue" meant making them lord their patience. Fast forward to the next day. I'm in the cart at the grocery store watching my Milky Way candy bar creep slowly down the conveyor belt. "Mom, can i have my candy now?" I asked. But she insisted i wait until we left the store. I sighed loudly and declared, "Mom, you are ROBBING ME OF MY VIRTUE!" She turned 7 shades of red and rushed of out of the store. It wasn't until a good 10 years later when i say that movie again that i understood what the phrase meant.

Jamie, the virtuous

I used to believe the word 'lack' meant lots of something. I'd say things like "we sure have a lack of pepsi here!", and adults thought I had learned sarcasm.

SlowLearner

I used to believe that "Meningococcal" was pronounced "Ninja cockel."

Anon

when I was really young, about 3 years old, I just learned to burp the alphabet. My dad tried to scare me by telling me that if i kept on burping the alphabet as often as i did, my normal voice would disappear and change in to the sound you make while burping. i found that really cool and every day i spent hours burping, just to achieve that voice, quite disappointed was I, when I realised it didn't happen

Double Dutch Nathalie

I thought that Saturday was actually "Sadderday" because it was some how sadder than the other days of the week!

Freaky Beaky

I used to believe that when someone sneezed you would respond with "Blesh You" and that blesh was some word used only when someone sneezes.

Anon

Two things. My brother thought "gaining" and "gagging" were interchangeable, but he'd use the wrong. For instance, running ahead of me down the stairs he would shout back, "I'm gagging on you."

Up until just a few years ago, I'm 29, I thought cartwheel was named after a gymnast rather that it being named after how it looks when you do it comparing to an actual cartwheel. In my defense there are a lot of gymnastic and skating moves named after the first people who did them, but that doesn't stop friends and family from chuckling, "Oh, like Bob Cartwheel?"

Ben

My 3 year old little girl announced after spinning around for ages that she was 'feeing guilty' :-)

Adam