speaking

I had a German boyfriend whose sister used to pronounce "W" as "v" and "v" as "w". They lived in West Vancouver and she'd always say "Vest Wan". It surprised me that she didn't pronouce Volkswagen as "Wolksvagen".

4-Strings

When I was in 3rd grade I heard a girl run up to the teacher and said "Robert has a crush on Alisha!" So, I thought that Robert was literally crushing Alisha by sitting on her or laying on her. I was quite mad to think that he was "crushing" her!

jazzaray

I don't remember how it started, but my sister once told me to "Carpe Denim" believing it was "Carpe Diem". I still tell her to "seize the jeans" and we get a big kick out of it.

Loving Big Sis

I used to believe that "prosecuted" and "executed" were the same word, and that shoplifting laws ("shoplifters will be prosecuted!") were rather draconian.

Susan Davis

my parents for some reason told my sister and i that toushee was a name for a girls private part. so one day at camp a counselor told a boy to shake his toushee. i was so confused! i later found out toushee was another name for butt!

Anon

When I was younger, I learnt 'big' words like "beurocrat" & "homicide". I wasn't exactly sure what these words meant, but I felt smart saying them and PRETENDING to know.

One day, I told someone that "democracy" and "suicide" meant the same thing.

Sounds pretty accurate to me...

Marshmello Da Strawberry Cow

As I child, I somehow got the idea that "bellow" meant manure. I began to find out otherwise when one time I baffled some people by saying, "Oops, I stepped in some cow bellow!"

Julie

I was a kid who loved to use big words. At 7 or 8, adults would be really impressed with the way I talked. However, most of my lingo came from just listening to people speak; my parents talking to one another, television, adults in public places conversing.
Well, I heard the word "thoroughly", but hadn't heard the word "thorough", so, for like, five years I thought the word was "thurral".
One Easter when I was about 13, after hours of searching for my prize egg, I had this conversation with my sister:
"But I've been really, really thurral!"
"You've been what?"
"You know, I've searched very thoroughly."
"Oh, you mean you've been thorough?"
"NO, I was thurral!"

She never let me live that one down.

Ari

When I was little, My mom and I were going somewhere in the car when all the sudden I started yelling "MILITARY, MILITARY, MILITARY!" When she did know what I was talking about, I said to her "The place with the little rocks were the people died." I thought a cemetary was actually a military when I was little.

Liz

I used to belive that the English language was made up by two men at the start of the world.Their was one tall and one short and that was why we had the same sounding word meaning different things (e.g. right and write) because they each wanted to call a different thing the same word so the tall one made the short one change the spelling!

Beth

as a kid i was convinced, since i'm not jewish, that "bris" and "brie" were the smae thing. so when i was five i saw my 2 year old cousin reaching out for a piece of brie on a cheese tray, so i yelled, "mom! let's give henry a bris!"

juliet

When I was younger I thought the the letters L, M, N, O, P were all one letter!!

Brittany

When my room was a mess I thought my mum was saying "it looks like a bombsit" which always confused me. I was about 16 when I realised she was actually saying "it looks like a bomb's hit it".

My sister also thought that balloon was actually said 'bloon' and that crayon was 'crown'.

Haylers

I used to believe that no one really spoke with an American accent, and that it was just something they put on for TV.

Anon

When i was like five, I was convinced that an antelope was something you put letters in.

marsha

My parents used to say, "six of one, a half dozen of the other." They said it so fast that for many years I thought they were saying, "Sixty-one, a half dozen, or another."

Lee Coursey

Until the age of 16 I thought velcro was called crow-felt.

T Smith

When I was younger, my and my (female) cousin used to role play at my nans. Anyway, one day, I decided I should play a criminal. So, I suggested she walk down the hall, and I'll jump out and rape her, and steal her purse!!

I ment I'd 'mug' her, but at the time didn't know the difference between the 2 words...!! oops!

As you can imagine, the our parents and my nan just went silent... :o/

Hmmm...

As a little girl, I called windshield wipers "heeter skeeters". To this day, my parents have no clue where that came from.

electrawomyn

when i was about 8 my sis told me what adore meant. later she also told what horney meant. i was telling my mum how much i adore her, but one day i said "mum i horney you" she just said "oh"

confused words