Happy Friday!!! š
I am so psyched that it’s finally Friday because Mal and I are off to New York City for the weekend. On Saturday morning, I’m running the Mini 10K with some blog buddies and then Mal and I areĀ planning to explore the city and drink some good beer for the rest of the afternoon. I can’t wait to introduceĀ him to The Ginger Man!
Breakfast
This morning’s breakfast started with iced coffee. I poured myself a glass as soon as I got out of bed. It was one of those mornings.
To eat, I whipped up an oldie, but goodie recipe: Oatmeal Pancake. I topped it with banana slices, maple syrup, and a scoop of peanut butter. I also mixed some chia seeds into the batter. So good!
The other day, I stumbled upon this little piece in US Weekly about how some of the Real Housewives āwreck havocāĀ on the English language:
I love these ladies.
Maybe they’re just not the brightest bunch?
Or maybe they just have no idea what the hell they are talking about?
Which, of course, sometimes happens to the best of us! š
One of Mal’s favorite stories to embarrass me tell about me happened a good year into our relationship. We were in the car together going somewhereāā I was driving; he was in the passenger seat. I wanted my sunglasses, so I asked him to grab them out of the āglove departmentāĀ for me. Instead of opening the glove compartment, Mal stopped and started at me, and then he asked me to repeat what I just said. Clear as day, IĀ asked for my sunglasses in theĀ āglove department,āĀ so, of course, he started cracking up. Apparently, I made it 24 years of my life thinking that the glove compartment in a car was called the āglove department.āĀ Mal still makes fun of me.
This story is even funnier because my sister callsĀ the glove compartmentĀ the EXACT same thing. I guess my mom never corrected us growing up. I’m sure she just thought it was funny, but my sister and I both made it into our adult years calling it by the wrong name. Thankfully, we have husbands to correct make fun of us!
Question of the Day
Have you ever had trouble with the English language?
Please share your story. I need a good laugh this morning!
218 Comments
I didn’t knew the difference between itch and scratch until I was in college and my boyfriend explained it to me! He had to correct me every time I would mess it up for a good year before I could actually get it right, and I still have to think about it before I say it. Guess my family just didn’t care! I love all these stories :).
@Kristie: Ah! And I also forgot a great one from my husband. Apparently his Nana always pronounced the Mentos candy “mementos” so that’s what he always thought they were. He has even had dreams where he has “proved” that they are mementos and not mentos… poor guy ;).
@Kristie: I always mix up itch and scratch! My husband correct me and now sometimes I just say the wrong one too make him correct me š
I can’t think of anythng I have ever mixed up although I am sure I have and I am very good at making up my own words to songs. I do have a few funny ones from others. My dad gets his words mixed up when he talks like one time when my brother and I were fighting for the millionth time my Dad shouted “Ro to your goom” instead of “go to your room” and we all laughed so hard we got out of trouble! My roomate thought boisterous was was “voice-fer-us” and we argued about it so he looked it up online and found the word vociferous and was so happy he thought he was right but I told him that word is prounounced voss-if-er-ous, we have these word battles all the time. Lastly, my girlfriend is from the south so she prounonces PEN and PIN the same and calls macaroons maroons. I could go on and on. This was such a fun topic!
@Stace: LOL!!
@Stace: I actually posted on here that my boyfriend makes fun of me for saying PEN and PIN the same way. I also say LEN and LYNN the same. (I’m from FL)
Hi Tina!
I love your blog and am an avid reader! I see that you’re coming to NYC! I’m a student here and styaing in the city for the summer to work. I hope you have a great time–the weather has been hot but beautiful!
I’m working on getting my blog up and running, I need to devote moer time to the posts but I hope to be able to share with everyone soon!
I used to think it was “Width” and “Heighth”…like I knew it was spelled “height” but I always threw a “th” at the end….now I know how it is SUPPOSED to be pronounced, but I still say “heighth” here and there š
I have a couple to share. Up until last year, my boyfriend thought that it was “Mine as well” instead of “might as well,” and “Long and behold” instead of “lo and behold.” Just like you, he used the phrases in regular (but separate) conversations with me and I had to stop and say “What??”
haha thats hilarious. I always get picked on because I cant pronounce onion properly. I guess my parents thought it was cute when I was little, so they never corrected me and I’ve always added an “I” sound – like “iyn-yon”. Now its stuck in my brain that way and everytime I say it people look at me like Im crazy. š
My husband thought chest of drawers was “chester drawers” for oh, about 30 years of his life. It was hilarious when I realized what he was saying. His explanation was that he assumed Chester Drawers were named after someone, like Sir Chester of Canterbury or something. Hilarious!
bahaha! Once in junior high school (read: a very long time ago), I asked who won the Civil war…..Couldn’t live that one down during H.S! hah
These comments are too funny! My sister thought a hamburger was pronounced “hang-a-bugga” and napkin was pronounced “nakkin” for the longest. We both say standing “on line ” instead of “in line”. Our stepdad makes fun of us by asking if we’re on the Internet!
@Emily @ Comfortable Home Life: Also I worked at Starbucks a while back and customers would mispronounce things ALL THE TIME. My favorite was when people would ask for a “grand” coffee instead of a “grand-eh” (how you’re supposed to say it). We sure will make it extra “grand” for you!
I LOVE these comments. Laughing out loud in my cubicle at work!
This week at work actually, I was giving a webinar (a virtual presentation) for like, 50 of our clients. We were recording it so we could send it out to the participants afterwards, and the whole thing went smoothly until I said, “Thank you so much for joining us today. Again, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our support team here and we will be HELPY to HAPP.” Instead of happy to help. I didn’t even correct myself. Ha!
I thought that the “concession stand” was called the “confession stand” all the way until, like, high school.
I cringe when people write “balling” instead of “bawling.” They are definitely NOT the same thing! :-/
Also, I once saw someone write “Coodles on your achievement!” on a comments page. I think he meant “kudos.” I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume his mother never corrected his mistake, either. š
@Jennifer @ Flowtation Devices: Coodles! Love it!
That is so funny about the “glove department”. When my oldest son was little he loved the movie “Toy Story”. He would pretend to be Buzz Lightyear and run around saying, “To Infinity…Happy On!” (instead of …and Beyond) We just thought it was too cute to correct.
I forgot how to spell black yesterday! I literally had to sound it out then check the dictionary. I also pronounce “milk” wrong… I say “melk” maybe its the Canadian in me š
PS- love the blog ( ive been creeping (in a good way) for awhile now
Haha… this are hilarious! Makes them look so silly. But yes, happens to all of us.
Your pancake bake looks delish!
This is hilarious! I always mix up organism with orgasm! I made that mistake in biology back in high school (much to the amusement of my classmates) and just made it again last weekend at a friend’s lakehouse! i said something about all kinds of orgasms in the lake! i’m going to stick with the word “creatures” from now on…
Growing up a city girl I never really knew how they would move cows around if they needed to. One day while driving on the highway we saw a cattle truck, and I felt bad for all of the cows stuck in there.
I meant to say “that’s so rude”, but it came out “that’s so moo”. I then followed it up with “they’ve got them herded in there like cattle.”
My friend just looked it me until I realized they were cattle. I felt pretty silly after that!
I was out to dinner with my family and called minestrone “mine stron” soup. My uncle was with us and he calls me every time he goes to a restaurant and orders it! I was probably at least 22 by that time š
I also have a thing with songs. I LOVE singing to the radio and if I don’t know the words to a song I just make them up. Sometime in my late teens I was singing Lynard Skynard’s song “Give me three steps” (I think that’s the name of it) and instead of saying — Give me three steps, give me three steps mister, give me three steps “Towards the door” … I said — give me three steps “Georgia Jones”! I funny part about it is that I truly believed those were the words! Only this time my mom was in the car with me and made me repeat what I said then corrected me. My whole family still makes fun of me for this as wekk š
Messing up the English language is what I am best at. It happens multiple times daily. My favorite mistake, that I was not corrected on until college, is confusing Bill Cosby with Bing Crosby. My bad!!!! š
HAHA YES! this is a running joke in my family, I mess up expressions all the time. Until recently, I thought the expression “Play it by ear” was “Play it by year.” oops!
I love the looks of that oatmeal pancake! It seems like it is more oats then pancake, looks yummy and filling!
my mom thought it was cute when i started to call spaghetti “pasghetti.” she thought it was SO cute, that when i started saying it correctly, she’d tell me i was wrong and that it was really “pasghetti.” helloooo, confusion
@Veronica (Run Write Repeat): Haha I can see where that would be tempting (but also cruel)! My niece used to say that “piders were pooky” and we miss it now that she can pronounce s’s!
I love this!
I’ve been living in this country for 15 years now and still have trouble with English ALL THE TIME. I used to think the word, “pint,” was supposed to be pronounced like “mint” & “lint.” So when I went out to grab some beer with my friends in Boston, I ordered my beer: “Can I get a ‘pint’ of No.9?” Yeah, everyone at the table including the server went “huh?” and then got a good laugh after I explained. English is hard. I’m happy to know that I’m not the only one that struggles with it! But do you really blame me? I mean, really… lint, mint, hint, tint and PINT!
@Mayumi: Haha this cracked me up! Can’t blame you though š
No, they are NOT smart. At all. I watch that show and it hurts my brain. Have fun in NYC!!!
hahaha! “glove department”, that’s so cute! I don’t know if it’s because I’m a learner of English as a 3rd language, but I make silly mistakes all the time. It might also be because I’m on cloud 9 usually š
For the longest time my little sister got “kitchen” and “chicken” mixed up. She’d get so confused when guests burst into laughter every time she said “Mommy’s in the chicken!”
I used to think that in the winter when they were saying the temperature with the “wind chill”…I thought it was “windshield” and I always tried to figure out what the windshield had to do with the temperature LOL
@OntarioGirl: Another reader left a comment saying the same thing!
@Tina: haha ok good I’m not the only one! I don’t even think it was that long ago that I figured it out….and I’m 27 LOL
I always call a traffic circle a cul-de-sac. I was giving my boyfriend directions and told him to take the first right in the cul-de-sac and he asked me to repeat myself and I said it again! He makes fun of me for it every time we’re driving!
My friend told me a good story that she and one of her clients had been going back and forth via email discussing a proposal for a few days. At the end of one of his email he wrote “sorry for the reach around”… instead of “sorry for the RUN around”.. I don’t think she said anything but that one cracks me up!
When i first moved to the states and didn’t speak much English (8th grade) a girl in my class was complaining about short she was so I asked her “how high she was?” because I didn’t know the word for height. Of course everybody cracked up, but I was completely mortified š
Have a wonderful weekend in NYC! My sister works there so I LOVE going there on the weekends to play.
I love watching Reality TV shows and the Real Housewives Franchise is my guilty pleasure.
I actually call it the “glove department” too–only sort-of on purpose! I’m the oldest of four, so at different points in our lives all of us definitely mispronounced/misnamed things. “Glove department” is one that stuck, and now my whole family says it–the first time I asked my husband to get something out of the “glove department,” he stared at me probably just like Mal did at you!
I am pretty sure my little sister said “glove department”
The one that always comes to mind for me is Yosemite. I said it like “Yo’s Might”, instead of the way it’s supposed to be i.e. Yosemite Sam. Somehow I never put that cartoon character and park name together. I think I was in college when we flew to San Francisco and as we were flying over Yosemite, the pilot announced it, and I had one of those moments.
Early in our relationship my now-husband and I were driving down to visit his family, and I have no idea what we were talking about, but I said something about “self-depreciating remarks.” He was like, “you mean self-deprecating remarks.” And I felt like the dumbest turd in town. I guess I had never said the word before, but when I read it, I read it as “depreciating.” That happened nine years ago and I still feel like an idiot!
I totally forgot about oatmeal pancakes!!! It’s been too long..
HAHA! I love that glove department!
I definitely thought up until a few months ago that the term “peace of mind” was “PIECE of mind”
uuhhh… it makes so much more sense the first way. woops?
In high school this guy I had a crush on asked me what I thought of Tracy Chapman and I immediately gushed, “I love him!”. In my defense, though, Tracy Chapman does kind of look and sound like a man. It could go either way!
My favorite story like this is a friend of mine who honestly believed, until like age 16, that the expression “way to go” was actually “wait it go.”
hehehe! That is so cute! I mess up words all the time and my Hubby catches them too.
Ooo oatmeal pancake, I’m so glad you resurrected this – I’m due for a change in the breakfast routine and could see that sassy lil’ number sliding right in.
So funny about the glove department. I’m not sure why or how but when I was little I was rendered completely incapable of saying the word ‘nostril.’ I called nostrils ‘behnostrils.’ No clue.
The other day my Mom was reading her email and said, “Panera now has “glutton” (instead of gluten) free bread.” I started cracking up, and I said I wished there was glutton free food. She also says electwicity instead of electricity.
On our first date, my bf took me to a fancy restaurant and requested a Jewish circumcision ceremony instead of the creamy lobster soup special. Heh. :X
Haha! Too funny! When I was little I used to refer to film as phlegm. My parents would correct me all the time and I would just say, “That’s what I said…PHLEGM!!” Lol
i called it the “jockey box” growing up! my husband teased me so much when he heard me call it that. but it seems totally normal to me! though i have never heard anyone else call it that. ha! š
My boyfriend and I were out at a nice restaurant on what happened to be the night of the prom in the small town in VA that he’s from. There was a couple sitting right next to us, and when their waiter came to take their order the boy ordered the “fill-it mig-non” and his girlfriend kicked him and said “no you idiot! it’s FILET mig-non!” We STILL crack up over this and probably bring it up once a week.
For the longest time I thought that the phrase “making ends meet” was “making ends meat,” like “ends meat” was a noun.
Also, now that I’m a lawyer I always inadvertently call “statues” “statutes” just because I’m so used to saying the word statute all the time. Statute of Liberty.
No language mixups come to mind, but I went my first 19 years of my life thinking that you HAVE to have exact change when you go through a toll booth! My mom was nuts about it when we were growing up. It wasn’t until I was on a road trip with one of my friends and started having a panic attack because I didn’t have exactly 75 cents that I was told that they will actually give you change at the toll booth. I felt like an idiot.
Side note: That toll is now $2. How sad!
One of my friends tried to use the phrase “seed of Satan” once. (You know meaning a really “evil” person.) Instead, she said that they were the “sperm of Satan”. Lmao. We still pick on her about that.
Good luck!! Have a great time š
Love it! Thanks for making me laugh out loud at work!
My favorite is that my sister-in-law always yells out “Shot Put!” when we’re walking to a car and she wants to ride shotgun. I die.
My little sister read a ton as a kid and was often reading about things people didn’t talk about. She called a thoroughbred horse a “tough breed.” We thought it was so cute but she was not amused š
That’s something that I would say! When I was younger I never knew exactly the right name of volleyball. Was it bolleyball or volleyvall? I finally figured it out.