Somebody asked about childhood misconceptions people have struggled to shake, and the answers will leave you feeling like an absolute genius

We all make mistakes, especially when we’re young. Luckily, most of us grow out of these misunderstandings but sometimes they end up so deeply ingrained that we end up still repeating them as adults, and making ourselves look like right wallies.

They’ve been discussing these hard-to-shake mistakes on the AskUK subreddit after user GotAnyNirnroot posted this:

What’s a silly/random misconception you had from a young age, which you didn’t figure out for an embarrassingly long time?

I used to think the phrase ‘I can’t be arsed’ was ‘I can’t be asked’, having heard it spoken by my older brother. I have a vivid memory of my friend’s dad telling me off, for saying it, like it was very rude. And I was utterly confused!

It was only until I was much older, and texted ‘can’t be asked’ to a friend, who then laughed at me, and corrected me. Suddenly that telling off made sense!

And lots of people chipped in to reveal the ways in which they too have been a bit silly for a long time, like these…

1.

‘I thought the ‘black market’ was a real place. Like a Christmas market but they all sell illegal stuff. I didn’t understand why the police didn’t just go there and arrest everyone, it seemed simple to me.’
–Tideripper98

2.

‘I found ‘flea market ‘ similarly disappointing. I thought it was where you could buy the flea circuses I’d heard about from older relatives.’
–Ok-Decision403

3.

‘Why do people keep going to Knife Point? People are always being mugged there?’
–pajamakitten

4.

‘Not me, but a person I know thought Sandra Bullock was Sam Drabulock for absolute ages.’
–bumpyhumper

5.

‘I thought there was a famous crime writer called Agath The Christie. She sounded so mysterious.’
–LittleSadRufus

6.

‘I thought the famous American civil rights activist was known respectfully as Martin Luke The King.’
–pr3tzelbr3ad

7.

‘When one of my baby teeth fell out, it looked a little manky so I gave it a brush to spruce it up. Then placed it under my pillow for the lovely cash reward but forgetting to tell my mum all about it.

Next morning I checked only to find the tooth exactly where I’d left it and in my smooth-brained youth believed I’d ‘washed off the magic’, hence no money. It was a long time before I figured out why.’
–PurrPaul

8.

‘Someone I knew a few years ago used to think the phrase ‘that’s a given’ was actually ‘that’s a gibbon’. I don’t know why she thought people were going around talking about gibbons.’
–littleduckcake

9.

‘Until I was in my 20’s I thought the queen was married to Charles and Harry and William were their sons. Philip was just some weird uncle who hung around the palace.’
–Goblin_Deez_

10.

‘I used to think that the Queen Mother was just some random woman whose job was to pump out future queens. Like, if the queen died, they’d just get the Queen Mother pregnant to make a replacement.’
–ICantBelieveItsNotEC

11.

‘When I was a young teenager I used to buy magazines (Sugar, Just 17, Shout etc) in the 90s and I always read the problem pages. One thing that confused me was that most of the problems came from someone named Anon.

I was reading one out loud to my friends and asked why there was so many Anons out there with problems and after they had a good laugh at me, they pointed out that it meant anonymous.’
–CuteyLovva83

12.

‘France is bacon.’
–TheFirstCircle