Watching our children learn to speak can be one of the most exciting parts of being around little ones.When we hear our kids say, ‘mummy,’ or ‘daddy’ for the first time our heart just melts, and we’ll get them to repeat ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ to everything from the cat to the kitchen sink, once they start.Teaching children language skills is an important task we don’t take lightly as parents. However, there are certain occasions when children get things so very mixed up that we just can’t bring ourselves to correct them. We’ve scoured the internet and found a list of some of the most hilarious mispronounced words that have made our day.Mealtimes are hilarious when we hear our kids use new words and realise they’ve got mixed up!“My toddler’s favourite food is Mac and Cheese, but he calls it monkey cheese.““My little girl used to call pancakes ‘pigcakes’ - I have no idea where it came from but I love it.““My son has always referred to a cucumber a cucumbumber, and now that’s the word that the whole family like to refer to it as.““My four-year-old calls chicken ‘kitchen.’ - it gets quite confusing when he’s asked to help with the Sunday roast!““My littlest child had a tantrum last week because she didn’t want to use the ‘strawbabies’ in our trifle. I couldn’t bring myself to make her once she started to play with them and give them all names!““We had a barbecue the other day, and my youngest child asked if he could have a ‘burglar’ meaning burger. The whole family were in hysterics.” “My sister’s kids have named corn cakes, ‘fawn-cakes’ and it’s made me see them as so much cuter than before!““When she was trying to say ‘spaghetti,’ my daughter said ‘sag-betty.’ I can’t help thinking of an old lady called Betty whenever we cook it now!“And it seems that spaghetti is one of those words that’s a common struggle for kids!“My son always says ‘scabetti,’ instead of spaghetti, and I have to say it’s put me off eating spaghetti for a while!““After spending about six months trying to pronounce the word spaghetti and having absolutely no luck, my three-year-old decided to rename it. Forget spaghetti, now we use: ‘wiggle worms.’“Famous names are also hard for kids to get a grasp on…“Our five-year-old is a big fan of Justin Timberlake - he’s named him, ‘Justin Tinkersnake!’““My nephew used to struggle to say his ’d’s’ - he’d always sound like he was saying a ‘b’ sound instead. It was hilarious when we watched Noddy - you can imagine what he called him!““When she was tiny, my little girl loved Peppa Pig. She never bothered to learn her name though - and just said ‘Peepeepee,’ and pointed at the toy she wanted to play with.“Jobs can be quite difficult for kids to work out too.“After careers day at school, my daughter said she wanted to be a ‘blaster-naught’ when she grew up - meaning astronaut. It makes better sense, which made us laugh!““My brother is a policeman, and my son wrote him a birthday card saying he was a ‘peace man.’ It felt weirdly accurate!“And transport is another problem area when your kids are learning words.“Like lots of young boys, my son is obsessed with all sorts of trucks and lorries. Whenever he sees one in the street he absolutely has to stop and point and shout until it goes past. Unfortunately, he struggles to say words that start with ’tr.’ They usually come out as an ‘f’ sound. We just hope the truck drivers don’t have their windows down when they drive past!““When she was little, my daughter would call helicopters ‘hopeecopters,’ and bounce around the garden to demonstrate their ‘hopping.’“Speaking of flying things…“When we were younger, my little brother used to love to play with balloons, but he couldn’t pronounce the word properly. He used to say baboons.““My youngest child says ‘uh-bloons’ instead of balloons and I still won’t tell him he’s mistaken, it’s too cute!“Animals are often kids first words - so it makes sense they’re some of the first to get wrong!“My three-year-old calls a crocodile a ‘snappydile,’ which we think is hilarious, but also totally makes sense!““We have a problem with my daughter every time she goes to the park. Her favourite thing is to see the ducks, but she mixes up her words and ends up saying ‘f’ when she means to say ’d.’ I swear anyone that overhears must think we’re terrible parents!““My son is extremely scared of spiders. I overheard him explaining to his babysitter that he wasn’t just scared - he was ’tetrified.’ I reckon that might be a new one to add to the English dictionary!“Just being a person, in general, can sometimes be a lot for kids to grasp.“My friend’s daughter was obsessed with telling her parents that she was a ‘human being,’ which we thought was cute, but didn’t really dawn on. It was only when she wrote a birthday card with a human bean on that we realised what she thought it meant!““My four-year-old points to his belly button and says it’s his ‘beebo,’ and his bottom his ‘biscuits.’ We’re trying to keep them going as long as possible, it makes every day more hilarious.“And sometimes it’s not that children can’t pronounce a word right - it’s just that they can’t remember which way round the word goes.“For some reason my son has never been able to grasp the right way to say forehead - he almost always says his ‘headfore’ by accident.““My niece says she had a ‘marenight’ instead of a nightmare, which I find adorable!“The things we put on our bodies seem to end up a big jumble for some kids too.“My younger sister always calls her cardigan her ‘cardyon,’ when we were growing up. It took years to realise it was because when we’d go out my mum would make her put her cardie on!““My youngest child used to call her swimsuit her ‘swimming soup,’ for years before she figured out it wasn’t right, but it was too hilarious for us to ever want to tell her.“The best words kids get wrong are the ones that ease the tension when we’re feeling stressed out.“I was stressing about work, and my son came over and rubbed my shoulders, and asked me if I wanted him to do me a flavour, meaning a ‘favour.’ I don’t think he even really knew what a favour meant, but it cheered me up straight away.““One day me and my husband were bickering about something he’d forgotten to pick up at the shop, and my two-year-old came out with, ‘cheese-l-weasels!’ We think he meant, ‘Jeez Louise,’ but it was so funny we couldn’t be mad at each other any more.”
Watching our children learn to speak can be one of the most exciting parts of being around little ones.
