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.

I'm from Northern Ireland and here people tend to pronounce mirror " murr" I always tought that in the nativity one of the three wise men was really cheap because the first two brought gold and Frankincense and he just brought a mirror. I was almost 30 before the penny dropped.

Totes thought Roy Orbison was blind 😳

Happy Birthday - have a gooden! (what do they think they are saying?)
They think they are saying “ have a goodun “ ie good one.

@groovergirl,

Not sure what you think it means but 'fud' is a vulgar slang term used by Scots to address an idiotic person or a woman's genitals. Much like twat.

HTH

How is Gibraltar NOT an island???

Because you can drive or walk into Spain, across the runway! It was a kind of island when the Spainiards closed the border for many years, it could only be accessed by air or sea but it was still joined to the mainland at La Linea.

The beginning of the film 'look who's talking' when the sperm is going to the egg. It wasn't until my 20's I realised it wasn't a lava lamp!
My dad told me it was a lava lamp when I watched it when younger! Inbelieved it right until adulthood! Now I wonder how!

We were recently shocked to find out that DS2 (aged 16) believes that penguins are "people sized". He worked this out because when he last met a real one (age 4) they were of equal height.
He is now 6'2".

In the hymn 'there is a green hill far away' I always thought 'without a city wall' meant it didn't have a wall round it!

Doesn't it mean that?

@caughtinanet Apologies if my initial post was worded badly: I thought jaywalking described a prostitute hanging around on a street for business (so a kerb-crawler goes looking for a jaywalker). Probably did simply get it confused with 'streetwalking' although that's not a term which quickly comes to mind.

Looking for handy hints before a USA trip I found lots of mentions of how one shouldn't randomly cross the road because - unlike the UK - jaywalking was a no-no.

I don't get Fud

It dawned on me watching the 6 nations at the weekend that England's flag is not the Union Jack, and is in fact a white flag with a red cross. No idea why this never came to my attention before.

Serin that's amazing!

Filet Mingnon" sorry I know it's a typo but 😂😂😂

I think you'll find that's what Flash Gordon's arch enemy eats

I have JUST realised, while reading a post on this thread, that the mummy in the song "I saw mummy kissing Santa Claus" wasn't having an affair!

Thanks whoever posted it, how obvious is it now I realise?!

I thought archive was pronounced our-chive 🤦🏼‍♀️
Someone had to tell me.

one pupil was writing about 'coral doors' -

Doing supply in a primary school I had the class do a piece of writing and many children wrote about a pet. One lad's work contained the 'word' yrntn, eventually I asked his what it meant and he looked at me like I was crazy. 'I keep it in a cage made of 'wire netting''.
When teaching Pythagoras Theorem years later in my real role as a Maths teacher I introduced the word 'hypotenuse' and said they needed to learn what it meant. One revolting specimen, he really was, called out 'it's Harry Potter's pubes' and I never forgot it.

ilovepixie

without = outside in this context

It was only recently that I realised that the word 'banal' wasn't pronounced like anal with a b in front of it!

At a WW class once, the 'leader' kept talking about a "pluffman's lunch." She said it several times, while everyone sat there and stared at their feet.

@Burlea

Puff

Don't think it is about drugs

without = outside in this context You'd love the Scottish 'outwith'

DH used to think ‘abroad’ was a place

My brother once asked where Random was because competitions always drew the winners name 'at Random'
My mother thought that the horse Bar ran in every race when she was looking at the odds on the TV.

I love 'Grid Blyton'. I never knew it said 'Enid' either, although I think I knew her name was 'Enid Blyton' so I don't know what I thought it said tbh!

For years DH thought BHS was called Bins.

A friend told me they were traveling to Wales and they kept going around in circles and got lost. (Pre Sat Nav days) Turns out they kept seeing a sign for "Gwasanaethau" and kept wondering how they kept getting back to this town. Gwasanaethau means Services in Welsh.