To ask the most basic thing you never knew/misunderstood until adulthood

[ChanandlerBongsLeftShoe]

I feel like a completely ridiculous excuse for an adult but the other day I found out the difference between cottage pie and shepherds pie.

I am in my 30s and gobsmacked (also feel a bit stupid now it's so obvious). I genuinely thought they were the same thing.

Is there anything you discovered as an adult that was just common knowledge to everyone else? Or perhaps there's a phrase you've found out you have been saying wrong all this time etc...!

Help me feel a bit better.

Why does Easter move Tara???

Six & two threes is a saying…

I thought (as a child) that once a woman started her periods she would bleed forever!

I also thought the same re USA and Russia in adulthood - geography not my strong point.

I thought that when you took driving lessons you went to a special centre and weren’t on the road (as a child).

I knew remuneration but until quite recently I though renumeration.

My word mistake was not realising ‘rapour’ was written as rapport until my late 30s!!!

Ha this thread has brought back some memories
I used to think it was Gnid Blyton
That Siobhan from Bananarama was called See-o-barn
I remember being confused that Mum always called it Shepherds pie but used beef - even as a child I thought lamb made more sense!
I thought the name Chloe was Ch-low
That Roy Orbison was blind because he always wore dark glasses like Stevie Wonder
I thought the saying was patience is a virgin - made perfect sense to me

Shut UP about the peppers!!!

Mine are all geography related. I thought for a long time that Tipperary was on the other side of the world ie ‘a long way’ away. And that Beirut was actually Bay Route... a really rough neighbourhood in America with lots of gangs. Was also convinced until the film came out that Dunkirk was in Scotland. Geography (or history) is not my strong point

Not me but as a teacher I've seen some funny things... one pupil was writing about 'coral doors' - it came up several times in one piece of writing. It took me ages to realise the pupil actually meant corridors!

Another pupil was referring to the 'claws' in the sentence she had just written. We had been working on different types of clauses in that lesson...

The lovely lemony/lime sparkling drink is in fact 7Up

Not

Zup

I used to think that if it was high tide here, then across the sea on the opposite side it must be low tide and that they water kind of sloshed backwards and forwards.

I was amazed to see that it more sort of bulges up in the middle, which sucks the water away from the coasts when it's low tide, then flows back down and gives high tide, all due to the moon.

MANY of my class had no idea until this topic that yellow dandelions were the same plant that produces the dandelion clocks when they went to seed.

Redpriestandmozart

I will never listen to 'Summer Of 69' again without hearing the words sex dream

OMG it's true!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/45522834

Also, Easter is not the same dates in the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches.

Prunes are dried plums? No way! I'm 50 and had no idea!!

thesnapandfartisinfallible

👋 👋 👋

Omg I'm learning lots of new things today.

I am well and truly shocked about prunes/plums 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

Nixee2231 I only clicked very recently that Ikea product names actually mean something in Swedish, they're not just made up words!

I got to the grand old age of 39 before finding out that birds do not sleep in nests each night.

@Anicesliceofcake a litter of kittens can and does often have more than 1 father, as generally a female cat (a queen) will mate with several cats when in heat.

Found out last year, at 54, that ducks do not eat fish.

I've only recently found out that the song 'Puff the magic dragon' is about drugs.

Lots on here I didn't know about.

Where the fuck do birds sleep?!

Maybe they meant "curtailed" haffiana?

I was quite slow to realize that 17th century meant anything starting with 16. Explains why my history essays were never that good at school. But it was already a long time ago that the penny dropped, so not sure it counts 😊

reMUNerate
hang gliding
green-yellow-orange-red peppers

WTAF - this mind blowing

and I am only on page 2 of this thread