What stupid things have you believed/said/assumed before finding out to your embarrassment you were wrong?

vivid I sat in on an English teacher's lesson and she pronounced it that way too. Twenty minutes later her class of 30 were pronouncing it like that as well. I was for her.

I always confused the pronunciation of hyperbole when I was younger
hyper-bole
or hi-per-bo-lee

CornishMade, I was told, when younger, that scampi was made from the tails of monk fish.

when I had just passed my driving test I was driving on the motorway for the very first time and wasn't sure I had enough petrol and was feeling very nervous. I found myself thinking that I'd better hurry up and get home before I ran out of petrol!!!

I am permanently ashamed of myself for that :) I also, when driving back from university on the way home for the first time, got to the M6, only to panic and have to text my mother to ask whether I needed to go North or South. I was going from Wales to London.

I thought that the word Career meant a place where televisions were made, cos our black and white telly had "made in Korea" on it. So a grown-up talking about their career to my ears was talking about a big television factory where they worked.

Not quite on thread but similar. My 22 year old ds has just asked me if I knew why breakfast was called breakfast. I was surprised he'd got to that age without realising :) . To be fair though, I obviously didn't tell him and he went to a French school until the age of nearly 16.

Yep, St John pronounced Sinjun.

alemci - I would have thought so, like Norman St.John Stevas.

ROFL thanks for sharing. OK up until quite recently i hadnt thought that robins were around other than at Christmas time and mentioned the fact that they were around "not just att 9hristmas and WInter you know!".

also St john in Jane Eyre. was his name sinjohn. bit confused?

Pacific I know that bit about Jesus, but my friend thought the two religions were EXACTLY the same, but Judaism followed the Old Testament as well. She thought synagogues had crosses as well as The Star of David.

thumbwitch, sadly I need no help whatsoever with farting .

Iklboo, well, Jesus was a Jew and ASAIK in Judaism Jesus is seen as a prophet but not worshipped as such. So the two religion share a lot of the same roots albeit Judaism being much much older of course.

frazzle, at bumsex.

Until I investigated how to start a sourdough starter myself I did not realise that sourdough is also made with yeasts. I thought there were doughs that rise with 'yeast' and others that rise with 'sourdough' . I think I learnt that last year, aged 44.

You live, you learn

LMAO at bumsex... VERY funny!!!!!!!! :)

Right as we are all fessing up... I was very young when on holiday with family I saw a sign which said Tall Trees Walk and turned to my mother and said "but mummy, trees don't walk".

However it was years and years (at least in my 20's), before I realised what the sign actually meant , I just thought the sign was wrong.

I have had to correct people who say pacifically instead of specifically; I had to explain to one that the Pacific was an ocean and these are business people.

Until about the age of 18 I had no idea what gay men did during sex, I thought they just rubbed their willies together or something. The idea of bumsex never entered my head

Well that explains that then, Elefant! Thank you. :) I feel a little better (it's been a tiny thorn for nearly 20 years!)

My (Christian) friend firmly believed Judaism & Christianity were just two branches of the same religion. As in, the Jewish people also worshipped Jesus.

Thumbwitch some of the books in the Swallows and Amazons series were set in the Norfolk broads
here

Pacific Dogwood, are you sure she wasn't saying they make you fart? Cos they do that, you know.

I remember having a very embarrassing event in Trivial Pursuit with friends - the question was "Where is Swallows and Amazons set?". Now, I hadn't read these but my then-BF was a huge fan, because they went to the Norfolk Broads every year on holidays and he said they were to do with that. Like a twat, I had believed him and stood my ground against my (far better educated and had actually read them) team mate who said it was the Lake District. Obviously she was right - still don't know why she let me give my answer

For youngishbag and bottersnike

I was embarrassingly old before I realised that 'wiggars' not a general term for insects, spiders and all the other things we now call 'mini beasts'. It was just a family term invented by my older brother for things that wiggle.

My partner delighted in taking the piss out of me for weeks when I told him off for 'Renegading on the deal'.

Luna, that reminds me of the time I was talking to a distant family friend who is a priest. He looked at DS and asked if I was married, to which I laughingly replied "oh god no!".

He smirked and said "I think you're getting confused, I'm just his representative"!

reminds me of the time I was talking to a distant family friend who is a priest. He looked at DS and asked if I was married, to which I laughingly replied "oh god no!".

He smirked and said "I think you're getting confused, I'm just his representative"!

8 months pregnant with ds, in hospital due to itching and polyhydramneous. The lady vicar comes to do visiting rounds. We get talking. I ask her; "Are you from the Catholic church?"

She replies, verrry slowly...

"No dear"

I have a lovely image in my mind now of little foals with armbands in the toddler pool, learning how to play water polo