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.

wineoclockthanks
Absoluepower Can you explainit please? For a umm friend!

I didn't get it either so I googled flaming yon. There are lots of hits

Up until I was about 19 I genuinely thought Reindeer were mythical creatures

I nearly fell off my unicorn reading that! 😂

I always thought fairy (washing up liquid) was called fairy up liquid and had an argument with a friend who said it wasn't. I remember we went into a shop so I could show her the bottle which I was convinced would say fairy up liquid but alas, I was wrong and my friend laughed at me! Also thought dragons had existed alongside the dinosaurs until I was in my 20's. Also went to school with a girl called Cheyenne but Ithought her name was Anne and she had the nickname shy Anne. She was quite shy to be fair

I told my sister that marshmallows grew on trees as a child and she genuinely believed me til she was about 21.

That the fridge dial isn't the temperature 🤦‍♀️

Say whaaaaaaaaaaaat?

No apparently the higher the number the colder it goes.. so it's some kind of setting that's what my dad said anyway!

I have only recently found out that sweat bands worn on wrists when playing tennis are for wiping sweat off your forehead. I thought they were for sweaty wrists!!!

I told my sister that marshmallows grew on trees.

Liar.

They come from bushes

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althaea_officinalis

I have NO idea what you're on about with Flaming Yon. I've never heard of that saying/ thing.

Just found out at 32 years old that this is a goose & not a duck!

I blame my parents though as they used to take me to the park to “feed the ducks” & this what we were feeding!

You know when you choke on your food and say 'oo that went down the wrong pipe'.

I thought that was when your food started going down your water pipe instead of your food pipe!
I genuinely thought you had a separate food pipe and a water pipe, and that as you swallowed, a drink would be shifted to your water pipe and food would be shifted to your food pipe.

I was always confused as to which one soup or watery foods went down

I have NO idea what you're on about with Flaming Yon. I've never heard of that saying/ thing.*

Filet Mingnon

Another moon one. I recently found out that when the moon is full it doesn’t then go to a crescent moon the next day. I genuinely thought the next phase after full moon was back to crescent moon.
I found this out in a P2 class I was helping in...I am 48..for shame 😳

Happyhusband
I never thought about the pink bunny! I am 53.

Oh, cross post. So it's a filet mignon.

Ha, cross post again.
Damn, my tablet is slow to load today.

When I was a student nurse I vaguely wondered to my friend who was also a student nurse how painkillers such as paracetamol knew which part of the body to work on how did they know I had a head ache and not a sore throat for example she told me the block the pain receptors ,in my defence I was doing mental health nursing

I thought hyperbole was hyper bowl too until recently.
I had only ever seen it written down and not spoken. I knew the meaning though.

I was 38 when I realised the moon doesn't emit its own light and 'shine' like the sun.

pushingdaisies Pretty certain Wales is a country in it's own right whilst being part of the UK.

Having the same currency doesn't mean it's not a separate country plenty of countries in Europe have the same currency ie the Euro.

I found out how hyperbole was pronounced a couple of months ago on here, I'm 47 today at work we had eves pudding, one of the girls hasn't even heard of Adam and eve! Also found out that its decrepit, not decreped. Until I saw the movie I'd been reading hermy-own in Harry Potter! And thought the actor was shyler bouf, (Shia LaBeouf)

Giggling like mad at some of these!

Yes to.....

Thinking Arkansas was Our-kansas not Ark-An-Saw.
I only just found out that moon fact today, so thank you.
I found out the Easter one yesterday after a conversation around the dinner table with my in-laws, and showed my ignorance
Didn't know about the peppers until today.
Didn't know plums were prunes until today.

I obviously need to go back to school!

I thought the expression 'to make ends meet' was 'to make hen's meat' i.e. you were too poor to buy any chicken.

Oh, and I used to think that red grapes made red wine and white grapes made white wine, found out that's not the case when I was about 30!

Also when I was much younger I used to think if it was raining, it was raining all over the world. I didn't think rain came from clouds. I was very young though!

Who mentioned duck/duct tape? There's a company who make Duck Tape which is duct tape to capitalise on the very common confusion.
So if you ask for Duck Tape you are asking for a type of duct tape and are not daft :)

@IloveBray, that is a funny screen name to see on mumsnet!
of course, it has just occurred to me that you might mean Bray in Berkshire not Bray Bray big bad Bray