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 only found out a few days ago that Arkansas is pronounced Arkansaw

When I was about 25 living independently in my own apartment there were pigeons nesting outside my window. My boyfriend at the time and I were taking about them and he was saying that pigeon eggs taste delicious, I looked at him in disgust saying you can’t eat them there are baby chicks in them - he took the piss out of me for years after, telling people that Tuckwit thinks the eggs in the shop come out date stamped blush

I’m sorry I don’t understand this?

But @Hairyhat Goofy is a dog...

I didn't realise that Rice Krispies were made from actual rice. I thought they were just called that because they looked a bit like rice.

Jonty Rhodes

That football scores “on aggregate” on not games where the teams are so closely matched that they had to play on a gravel pitch.

No one in my family was interested in football!
My dad worked in the construction industry!

That when you take off for example a jumper, and it crackles with static, if it’s dark you can see actual real blue sparks I only realised this quite recently.

Talking of mispronounced names, Dd thought the name Yvonne was pronounced Why-vone. She’d only ever seen the name in a book she was reading . It took me ages to work out it was Yvonne 😁

I only found out how to open an Oxo cube correctly last year. Prior to this I always would peel the foil off the cube and crush/sprinkle over my pan. The moment of enlightenment when I saw that you squash the foil to make a little bag and then tear and pour was truly astounding.

I was doing well until someone suggested that the 'why did the chicken cross the road' punchline might actually mean something

I only found out how to open an Oxo cube correctly last year. Prior to this I always would peel the foil off the cube and crush/sprinkle over my pan. The moment of enlightenment when I saw that you squash the foil to make a little bag and then tear and pour was truly astounding.

I honestly had no idea...

Oh and that kahoonas (as in US slang for testicles) is actually spelled cajones.
Two different words! Cajones is Spanish and slang for testicles. Not pronounced like kahoonas – that's kahuna, as in Big Kahuna, which is Hawaiian and means an important person. Or in surfing, a big wave.

Wait MrsGlow Im still peeling oxo cubes! Squashing and foil bag you say ?

I never worked out whether my primary school caretaker was called Mr Rusby or Mrrrr Usby. Took a nostalgic school FB group for me to find out.

Standing in a queue at a gate in an airport, an airline employee came up to two Asian women and asked if they needed some extra paperwork for schengen visas. They said yes and went up to the front of the queue. Couple behind me:
Woman: where's schengen?
Man: it's an area in China
Woman: ah, yes.

I didn't turn round and correct him

BluebellCockleshell123 I always knew that about Rice Crispies. However, I also used to think that prawn crackers where made the same way i.e. puffed up real prawns

Another who didn't realise about how to open oxo cubes. I used to think they were useless until an ex showed me how to open them properly . I was about 28 at the time. Quite like them now.

The pronunciation of hyperbole. I thought it was hyperbole. Luckily i’ve Not actually tried in public. But I was wondering what this “hi-peer-bo-ley” thing was that they kept going on about on radio 4.

What?? Is that why people bother buying actual OXO cubes?!?

This thread is brilliant. I also thought .Wombles were common, as you may have guessed...

that 12M 8M thing on the side of plastic bottles ... I never knew!
learning so much here.

Until very recently I pronounced 'drawers' (as in a chest of) as 'draw-ers'.

My OH (then boyfriend) cooked a meal for me and some other guests. I pronounced the artichoke to be rather chewy as I tried to bite through the whole piece...

My brother once told me that all those incredible acrobats that can bend backwards had been injected in the spine with a chemical to soften their bones up. I believed this until well into adulthood!

That when you take off for example a jumper, and it crackles with static, if it’s dark you can see actual real blue sparks

When I was little I had a new nylon nightdress and brushed nylon sheets. Lights off and I started moving about to get comfy, saw sparks and thought my bed was on fire

Oh, also the hyperbole thing... I thought they were too different words until quite recently...

I thought a babybel you ate with the red thing on until my dh saw me and asked me what the fuck I was doing

GAH, two not too

I was banging on about the Milky Way the other day, saying 'ooh there are places you can go to see it'. And some bright spark pipes up 'you are in it'.

I thought Goofy was a dog