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.

For the scots..my husband thought it was

"A wean in a manger, no crib for a bed
The little lord Jesus laid down his wee head"

WTF. He listens to everything with half an ear.

Bishoo wishoo genuinely had me howling! I've also learnt a lot of useful facts about birds!

I only realised that Brunei was not in the Middle East when I started planning our move to Sarawak in Malaysia and looked at a map of Borneo!
The pepper thing everyone seems so excited by isn’t exactly true, there are lots of variety’s of sweet peppers they all (as far as I know) start green, many go green directly to red, others to purple, orange or yellow sometimes via another colour. The RHS guide to the peppers that have won their ‘award of merit’ has a handy little colour guide for each variety on page 6 www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/PDFs/Plant-trials-and-awards/Plant-bulletins/Sweet-Peppers.pdf I have had very little success with getting them to grow and ripen hence searching for recommended varieties.

When I was a kid, I thought a line in "God Save the Queen" was "Send her Victoria" - as in, "dear God, please send our queen a visit from Queen Victoria". I don't know why - I probably didn't know the word "victorious", but I'm not sure why I thought the present queen would be delighted to receive a visit from a ghostly ancestor . And it's not even as if I thought the next line was "Happy and Gloria" in order to rhyme!

Bishoo Wishoo is our new family greeting

I thought Black Lace and Black Grape were the same band. I found out when I asked why Shaun Ryder enunciated more in Agadoo

My sister went to view a flat when buying for the first time. She was bragging how big it was and even had an ample room 😂😂

Also my mum (sadly no longer with us) went through her entire life not realising that you can pierce stuff like toothpaste/tomato puree with the lid of it turned upside down. Found this out in my 20s after spending years using a knife to pierce seals!

@KinkyHair,
Before I learnt to drive I thought that every time the driver braked, they had to turn a switch to turn the brake lights on at back!
As I’ve been driving around 30 years now , I think I’ve mastered it ! LOL

Well, apparently Taiwan is a real place. And hares aren't mythical.

And Boyzone. Boy-Zone! That was last week. I'm 40.

@ Absolutepowercorrupts @Chocolate35 @jebuschristchocolatebar,
When I was a teenager and before I learnt to drive, I knew so little about driving that I was always amazed that drivers remembered to turn the brake light on each time they braked, with some secret hidden switch.
I had no idea it was automatic 😂

I always thought that Disney was Disnep because of how the y looks!

I used to love Robot Wars as a child.

It was only a couple of years ago that my dad told me that when they said "Roboteers stand by" it wasn't "Robot ears stand by". That knowledge broke me......

Bishoo wishoo My cousin used to say “pleased to meet you” and at the end of mass the priest would always say “the mass has ended. Go in peace” and the congregation would say “thanks be to God” which I thought meant they were all pleased they could go home.

Another great one from the same cousin was “snotrils”. His nostrils obviously. Made sense to him

My sister always thought “Thanks be to God” was “thanks Peter God”. She was corrected when she was a teenager and she had asked someone why God was called peter lol!

"Shepherd's Pie should be beef as shepherds wouldn't eat their own flock" I know it's factually wrong but I think that reasoning is bloody genius!

Don'tpeeonthecat - I know that but I'm sure I've noticed it not being applied as stringently to other products (which of course frustratingly I'm struggling to think of an example right now)

"I like to think that if I got a new car I'd have a choice..." A friend of mine once got in trouble because they didn't know you couldn't just buy "personalised" plates (as in just request them at a shop without any checks) and put them on the car. She was driving with the original plates on the front and the personalised ones on the rear, expensive mistake!

"I thought Karl Marx was something to do with the Marx Brothers until last year (I’m 40)" I suspect there are politicians making that error

"Only found out last week (via my 10 year old son) that bananas are in fact herbs.

We all said we didn’t believe him. Googled it. Have now apologised" my dad told me this years ago but I didn't believe him as he's a total wind up merchant even though he's very into nature, gardening etc. It cropped up on a pub quiz years later and the way the question was worded made me realise he was right and I was able to get our team a point for it still lost

"For the scots..my husband thought it was

"A wean in a manger, no crib for a bed
The little lord Jesus laid down his wee head"

WTF. He listens to everything with half an ear."

I bloody love that!

Upon learning this at school dd came out with "why are they weighing him? And wouldn't they weigh him on scales not 'inamanger' what's an 'inamanger'?"

What?! What is the fridge dial then? 😮😮😮

@burritofan Penny had an abortion!?!?!?

Omg its the end and I only read 3 pages so far, plus this one. Which meant I learnt all about peppers, only to come here to find that ain't so!!

I’ve only just found out in the past few weeks that Southwark isn’t pronounced “south-wark”

When I worked for the local Council we had a student working with us for a time who regularly referred to "the Arboretorium" rather than "the Arboretum". As he worked in the green/open spaces section, it was pretty embarrassing. Assuming he has realised his mistake by now, I would have liked to have been there when it finally dawned on him.

Shepard's pie is supposed to be lamb with fluffy mashed potato on the top which looks like a sheep

Cottage pie is supposed to be beef with slices of potato on top rather than mash, which resembles a cottage roof

We call a veggie one shepherdess pie and it has mash on, not sure why but that's just one name for it

Strawberries aren't a berry but a banana is 🤔 it's all to do with where the seeds are

Hitler was a vegetarian

Peanut butter contains no butter - a lot of people assume it does because of the name

My friend used to say "pleased to meet you" instead of peace be with you, at church. I never went so wouldn't have had a clue what I was supposed to do/say

We did the lord's prayer in school and I never said the line "hallowed be thy name" as I didn't want to change my name - I thought it was "hello be my name" and I thought it would sound silly, people would have to say hello hello when they saw me!

I didn't know what flatware was until a man arrived in reception with a briefcase Del Boy style!

I still don't know what flatware is

Fascinating the mash and meat descriptors for shepherd s and cottage pie! Well well, didn't know about the potato for roof slates. Although I thought it was Shepherd LESS pie, when veggie?

This needs a new thread OP?