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.

We have just officially named our two new Guinea Pigs Simon and Garth Funkel!

Sorry can't read it all, phone is dying. Found out very recently that next to the symbol for your fuel gauge on the car there is a tiny arrow which points to the side of the car where the filler cap is. Blown away by this, been driving for 25 years and I didn't know.

MsMustDoBetter
I know that hymn well and I've never paid much attention, but can you explain the lack of wall?

“Without” means outside (in Scotland they still say outwith to mean outside)

I realised only a few years ago that Nancy in Oliver is a prostitute!

Is she?!

LoveBeingAMum - that one regularly crops up on these sorts of threads, but apparently it's not true for all cars.

GiantKitten thank you, I never knew.

I'll save that for the school reunion! They might all be more successful than me but at least I (now) understand the bloody school hymn!!

Simon and Garth Funkell trickle treat and pull me closer take me down son I'm just 🤣🤣🤣

This whole thread has been everything I wished and more 🤣

And we're so nearly at the end

I thought jail and prison are only different in the US. When someone is remanded in custody awaiting trial, they are held in a prison, aren’t they?

I didn’t know Africa was a continent until I was an adult. I didn’t really know much about maps at all having had an appalling education. I didn’t know Central America existed for example.

I don't know what the difference is but I think you are correct mummyoflittledragon that prison and jail are only different in America, the poster who said that might be American (can't find it now)

As far as I know there's no difference in England

@BadlyAgedMemes 😂 I realised that as soon as I posted the baby brain is strong right now 😂

That chewing gum isn't made from boiled newspapers
( My mum really wanted to put me off !)

I didn't know the tag in a fitted sheet always (!*) goes on the bottom right of a mattress until a few months and it was one of the most joyous occasions of my life when I found out! No more wrestling the sheets every week only for them to ride halfway across the bed every night because they are the wrong way around!

• I suspect this may be a manufacturer based thing and not always true, but have tried it on 7-8 different sheets and it worked for all of them

@Sissyjd - try saying it out loud...... flamin' yon.

Filet mignon.

Not me, but I found out tonight that my wife doesn't know the order of the colours in a rainbow.
She's 49 and genuinely thought it was red, yellow, pink, green, purple, orange & blue (like the song).

I was open mouthed... How can she go her whole life with not knowing this? She's an intelligent lady??!!

@Nixee2231 the fitted sheet one is so useful! Mind blown.
I only recently found out that the numbers on a toaster are for how many minutes it cooks the bread for... cringe.

Another way of doing that fitted sheet thing is that one could look at the sheet and figure out which sides are shorter, and which are longer...

genuinely thought it was red, yellow, pink, green, purple, orange & blue (like the song)

That isn't the order????

I don't know, my eyes always go a bit funny when I'm fitting a sheet and I end up doubting myself which way is correct

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain Winter

Taught in rural Ireland in the 1970's and stuck forever despite having no idea who Richard of York was or why his battle was in vain!

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet

On holiday as a (late) teenager, I walked past a shop with BOOKMAKERS in big letters across the window. I thought, "oh, I would like to see books being made. That would be interesting. Why are the windows all covered up"

TheBrilloPad

Took me until my degree in English to realise "Hyperbole" was not pronounced to rhyme with "super-bowl". It was a very public and embarrassing realisation.

Your comment was the first I didn’t know! I just googled a video on how it’s supposed to be!

Bishoo wishoo made my evening 😂😂😂

That men become more stuck in their ways the older they get!!!

Please no one take offence but I was in my twenties before I realised cancer actually physically hurt people.
because I'd seen people who had it, walking around and doing their shopping and basically just living life I thought it wasn't painful 😔
Anyway my mum was on fire to call me out for that one 🙈