It’s a flipping tortoise!

[GingerSwan]

To want to scream at the top of my lungs every time someone calls a tortoise a “turtle” 😂

I’ve just read so many comments on a fb video of one and everyone got it wrong, it makes me so irrationally angry

Yes iabu to get so worked up about it, what other mis-named things make you rage?

yanbu

How do they manage to flip, surely their legs are too short and they're just not athletic enough?

And they are not wrong if they are not English, how would you know if the commenters are using their correct word for the chelonian in question?

sirfredfredgeorge I didn’t know if I could swear in the title haha!

yabu
in many languagues there is only one word for these reptiles and the first (and easiest) translation is 'turtle'

I have a box turtle, he is a tortoise

Don't get me started on people calling gorillas, chimps & orangutans 'monkeys'

It's common for Americans to use the word 'turtle' as a catch-all term for turtles, tortoises, and terrapins.

It’s mostly my friends here in England that do it which is why it grinds my gears but I know iabu really hence why it’s irrational and I never pull people up on it... just silently rage to myself 😂

Yudnbu. I can't stand it either! Turtles go in the water, tortoises are on land. Really pees me off.

Did anyone see the video of the tortoise's penis? I was not expecting that!
We had a long standing family joke about tortoises/turtles. You had to be there.

My daughter's tortoise got attacked by my son's giant snail. It all happened so quickly!

I like turtles.

We have a tortoise, he is lovely and has a great personality (I may prefer him to the kids sometimes!)It gives me the rage when people call him a turtle.

OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow
Tortoise penis are terrifying! Albus spends lots of time trying to hump the sofa, I thought he had had a prolapse the first time I saw it.

Never heard anyone call a tortoise a turtle

Yes it drives me insane..we have a family tortoise that is over 100 years old, he's earned the right to be called the proper name!
AFOL...he humps EVERYTHING. Feet/ shoes re the favourite. Random garden ornaments. Anything.

In the us it's interchangeable but here in the UK, arghhhhh. Worse as we have two tortoises and before school it was fine but now she goes to school they've suddenly become turtles!

I'd pay good money to see a tortoise flip.

iklboo What about when people call orangutans - orangutangs 😡. And when they say koalas are bears. Drives me nuts!

I had a tortoise as a child but it ran away.

That is actually a true fact, not a joke.

Ha YANBU, DD and I have had this discussion a few times lately although I suspect she's doing it just to annoy me now I have a feeling in America turtle can mean turtle, terrapin or tortoise, which may explain the comments though.

The other one that gets me is I live near a priory, the number of people who refer to it as a convent, monastery, nunnery, friary or even a church winds me up. It is actually called the priory ffs, how much more of a clue do they need?

Indeed feska. Bloody annoying. (Not like I'm David Attenborough or anything )

Tortoises live forever, have scaly skin and shag everything. So basically Rod Stewart in a half shell.

quietly Googles tortoise penis

Once a tortoise is flipped it cannot right itself . I recently heard that tortoises do not need to hibernate. Is this true? If so did Blue Peter get a new tortoise every year - was his name Fred?

It is another Americanism slipping into common usage. Like zee instead of zed.