speaking

I used to believe that accord was short for accordion

Anon

Because my grandfather spoke very quietly and very gravelly, I came to believe that we were born with a limited supply of speech and if we used it all up we'd be mute at the ends of our lives. I began trying to conserve words, as though they were a limited resource.

shacker

I consistently misheard "Dracula" as "Jack Lear" and that's who I was every Halloween until the third grade. I also believed that "The United States of America" was both spoken and spelled as one long word, and I spelled it phonetically for all of the 1st grade.

r. lacher

Whenever someone said the word "Grades" it reminded me of grapes and suddenly I would start craving them. I guess they both sound similar.

Also, when I was little about 5 or 6, my dad had chocolate and told me to share it with my sister. Since then, whenever I hear the word share or shares it reminds me of chocolate.

Lime

I used to think up until now that when a piece of jewelery was paste(fake) that it was litterarally made of glue! Though I always wondered how they managed to make the jewels out of glue...

Glowworm

whenever the tv announcer said "brought to you", I thought it was one word - "brotue".

Anon

When I was little, I did a lot of reading on my own. If I had read the word incorectly or pronounced it as it had looked, I became stuck with that word in my language. When I took my first human origins class in college, I asked my professor whether or not it was the "Oran-goo-tens" that made nests up in the trees....I was nineteen years old!!!

Anon

When I was about six and first encountered the word 'slippers', I asked what it meant, and was told that slippers were shoes you put on your feet indoors. I made the assumption that they were called 'slippers' because you slide around on them indoors, like on ice skates, and was disappointed for a long time afterwards that this didn't seem to work.

The Tall Guy

when i was little around 6-7 years old, i used to read alot. but 2 words i distinctly remember messing up were Foreign( i used to think it was pronounced Foureean) and Hoax(which i thought was pronounced Ho-Axe)

Anon

Until about a year ago, when I saw it written, I thought 'To kill a mocking bird' was 'Tequila mocking bird'

Layla

When I was little I misheard people when they said deaf. I thought they said 'Death'. I knew that it meant someone who couldn't hear though. So when ever my friends couldn't hear me I said "Are you death? I SAID --------"
Well I did this to a teacher. who kindly corrected me.

deaf

When I had just learned to talk ( like in saying sentences) My mom once asked me to go call to dad that dinner was ready. Neither of them could stop laughing when I stood at the bottom of the stairs shouting "Call, Call,Call"
Unfortunately for me my dad even taped it on video.

little girl blue

My kindergarten teacher was English, so for the longest time I thought 'rubbish' was the correct word to use, not garbage, and that the letter 'H' was pronounced with a Huh sound in front of it, like Hach, not ach.

Anon

I wish to beleive that white Christmast was for white people.

Ati Mosupyoe

I'm a Finn, and I used to believe that everyone in the world understands Finnish. Also when, say, two Englishmen would talk English to each other, they actually hear it as Finnish.

Sbetsho

I used to think Yiddish was pronounced to rhyme with Swedish.

Anon

I used to believe that I could talk when everyone around me knew that I was making no sense. Mark would look at the box of cornflakes on the kitchen table and point to a letter. "A" said Mark. Mum would say "Very good Mark," or nod approvingly. Then I would point at a letter and say "Yab" or "Boo" or any other sound that I could think up.

I think I got a lot of encouragement so I really did believe I was talking even though I didn't have a clue what I was saying. This extended from letters into words and sentences and I'd burble on for hours "talking" to everyone who happened to be around regardless of whether they listened. One day dad turned around and said "oh look Nico's talking!"

My parents can't remember my first word, or rather my first real word, my speech just evolved slowly into English.

Nico

I thought for years that the name of john travolta was johntra volta

adi

A 7 year old girl that I know wanted to know why people invented words that you weren't allowed to say. (i.e. the f word)

Anon

My percocious cousin developed a capacity for language early on. Earlier, that is, than he developed the needed vocabulary. So he was speaking in coherent complete sentences, which were about half english and half words he completely fabricated. Only some were ever decoded, and the only one I can remember right now (danged memory block!) is his word for fire-engine: Synanoonie. He also had some notable ones for various zoo animals which slip my mind at the moment

Pinkl