‘What is something everyone gets wrong that you don’t understand why everyone gets wrong?’ – 23 utterly mystifying mistakes

There are some things in life that are blatantly obvious, right? Stuff that we’ve known forever, that we never question, and that we presume everyone else knows too. So when we discover that other people are unaware of these certainties, it can be quite a surprise.

A user on the AskUK subreddit called Jumpy_Imagination208 has been thinking about this, and posted the following on the group’s page:

What is something that everyone gets wrong that you don’t understand why everyone gets it wrong?

I’ve always known, from a very young age that the 12 days of Christmas starts on Christmas Day and ends on the 5th January (with the epiphany on the 6th). I am always really surprised when people talk about the 12 days of Christmas being before Christmas (for one, a quick google tells you when they run from).

What is something else that everyone gets wrong?

And this opened the floodgates for people perplexed by everyone else’s complete lack of sense to get some things off their chests.

1.

‘Loose instead of lose.’
–benDB9

2.

‘My husband is native British and I’m German. After 45 years of living as a Brit I had to teach him that ‘would of’ isn’t a thing. He was convinced it’s correct grammar.’
–busysquirrel83

3.

‘I swear I’m the only person alive who cares about the difference between ‘less’ and ‘fewer’.’
–bopman14

4.

‘Standard answer – the belief that earning enough to go into the next higher tax bracket means that you somehow get less pay after tax.’
–yearsofpractice

5.

‘That going out with wet hair will give you a cold. Drove me batty that people believed this old wives tale even before Covid but now there is literally no excuse, surely they learned something about virus transmission in 2020!’
–FlossieAnn

6.

‘Bias instead of biased.’
–DeliciousUse7585

7.

‘I grew up vegetarian (still am, but don’t tend to be around people who comment on what I eat these days), and I was baffled by the number of people at school (kids and adults) who’d tell me I couldn’t eat eggs as a vegetarian because they’re baby chickens. An unfertilised egg is closer to a hen’s period than a chick.’
–1nkSprite

8.

‘Maybe niche, but graduates who don’t understand how their student loans work. I work with lots of people who complain that their interest/repayments mean they will never pay it off and they just don’t know what to do about it.

In the majority of cases this is the intended outcome and the ‘debt’ is just a paper made up figure that will be written off in the future.’
–pruaga

9.

‘People that argue cyclists should pay ‘road tax’ to use roads, nobody has paid road tax since 1937.’
–Haggis-in-wonderland

10.

‘Not indicating at roundabouts. How can you be such a thoughtless prick?’
–Nannyhirer

11.

‘Apostrophes for plurals. I see it every single day, on permanent signs. 60’s, CD’s, ABC’s.’
–theivoryserf

12.

‘Commentators who say that an athlete is expected to ‘medal’. It’s a noun, not a verb.’
–AlRedux