Faux pas

Post Reply New Topic

I overheard someone at work today saying their "ant" had died.
I sniggered.
They didn't.
Then I realised they meant their "Aunt".

It reminded me of another incident a few months back.

A colleagues mother had recently died suddenly.
They said something a bit risque, I can't recall what.
But I do remember asking without thinking "do you kiss you mother with that mouth?"

Any one else have moment's like these?

I can't really think of specific examples right now, but yes I've done this before....

If you've seen the annoying Go Compare adverts (this is a UK-thing if you're not here then you're lucky because you've spared from this highly annoying ad campaign) anyway, there's one advert where they say at the end

"What are they paying him?"

"only a tenner"

Now, there's a tenor guy singing the jingle for the company throughout the advert, and the 'only a tenner' part apparently refers to him (him, as in the tenor. Tenor/tenner, get it? I didn;t it had to be pointed out)

Out of interest, do you have a visual mind ie when you heard them saying an aunt had died, did you see an ant in your mind's eye? That's how I usually end up making the faux pas, not everyone thinks in a constant stream of images in the head, but I do so that often causes problems depending on the context of a word, for example vessel, which could be a pot, or a ship, or spaceship etc, so I might 'see' the wrong context/thing in my head and misunderstand!

Yes, I saw an ant in my head, a pet ant.

Who pronounces ant like aunt? That's really odd. Maybe I have made a faux pas in the past, but maybe it was hinted to subtlely.

No, other way around... people pronounce aunt like ant. I very rarely encounter people that pronounce aunt "ah-nt." It's almost always the same as ant.

The same goes around where I live. Regarding having a visual mind, I also have one, and I would have pictured a pet ant. That stinks about their aunt, though.

I'm not sure about what you're asking for in this topic, DilbertIRL... I guess I have one thing to contribute.

Me: (shocked at what I'm seeing on the television) "What's on TV?!"
Coworker: (laughing) "Did you just ask, 'What's a TV?'"
(Another coworker is laughing nearby)

Ugh...