{"id":70129,"date":"2017-06-09T14:46:14","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T13:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/eggcorns-cute-things-children-say\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T17:18:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T17:18:59","slug":"eggcorns-cute-things-children-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/eggcorns-cute-things-children-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Eggcorns and other cute things children say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBig brothers and sisters around the world couldn\u2019t be more thankful for eggcorns. What a great excuse to take the mick out of the little one for getting something wrong.
\nIf you\u2019re already confused, an eggcorn is when someone mishears a phrase or word and says it wrong, but somehow it still makes sense. For example, if a pal innocently said \u2018pre-Madonna\u2019 you would understand that they meant \u2018prima donna\u2019 \u2013 even if you have no idea what a prima donna is. (Obviously we do \u2013 it\u2019s the lead singer in an opera. Thanks, Google).
\nChildren are often the culprits of making up eggcorns. They\u2019re new to the world, so they repeat what they hear rather than properly thinking about what each word means and how each letter should be pronounced. For us adults it provides endless hours of entertainment – especially when they bring home their first sweetheart.
\nFor today\u2019s entertainment, we\u2019re bringing you our favourite eggcorns said by the Stratton Craig team and our loved ones. And just to let you know, it\u2019s not just children \u2013 I bet your boss is guilty of some of these.<\/p>\n

Eggcorn words<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Chicken pops instead of chicken pox, aminals rather than animals and skellingtons for skeletons \u2013 ring any bells? These are overheard across the nation \u2013 every child finds it hard to understand that there\u2019s no \u2018g\u2019 in skeleton apparently. Then there\u2019s the classic flutterby rather than butterfly.
\nSome are more unique, like coco pox for coco pops (overheard by Claire), mook for milk (by the sweet angel I once was), and mot for what (said by mini-Beth).
\nAnd for the adults\u2026
\nThere\u2019s no escaping the beady ears of writers. We\u2019ve heard colleagues, friends and family say:
\nViginar for vinegar, expresso rather than espresso, and melon when they mean to say lemon (probably during gin and tonic time). And if you\u2019ve ever been told off for saying duck tape rather than duct tape, it\u2019s time to get your own back \u2013 it was originally called duck tape as the brand, so both work.<\/p>\n

Eggcorn sayings<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We recently wrote a blog on where idioms come from<\/a>, and there were a few revelations. As most of us don\u2019t really know what the idioms we use mean, it comes as no surprise that we get some wrong.
\nIt\u2019s only recently that one of us (not mentioning any names) thought \u2018separate the wheat from the chaff\u2019 was \u2018separate the weak from the chaff\u2019. Then there was the 15-minute debate we had on whether it was \u2018wiggle room\u2019 or \u2018wriggle room\u2019 \u2013 apparently both are fine, even though \u2018wiggle room\u2019 is more common. And you\u2019ve probably heard people say \u2018escape goat\u2019, \u2018tenderhooks\u2019 and \u2018all intensive purposes\u2019. Cringe.
\nThe thing is, often the new versions make more sense to us. \u2018Scandally clad\u2019, rather than \u2018scantily clad\u2019, is logical, as is \u2018eaten mess\u2019 if you don\u2019t know the history of the pudding.<\/p>\n

Just some cute sayings from mini-me<\/strong><\/h3>\n

These don\u2019t fit into categories, but are super cute so worth sharing.
\nMy sister once declared \u2018I don\u2019t want to go and see Nick Root, who is Nick Root anyway\u2019 when my parents suggested going on the scenic route home. I announced that I didn\u2019t want to be a tomboy I wanted to be a Jack-boy because I loved a family friend called Jack. And Beth used to say \u2018bank you\u2019 rather than thank you because she misunderstood the meaning of the end of the song in Mary Poppins where Jane and Michael say their full names, Jane and Michael Banks. She thought they were saying \u2018banks\u2019 meaning \u2018thanks\u2019. Bless.
\nGot any cute eggcorns that make you smile every time? Let us know \u2013 our ears are open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big brothers and sisters around the world couldn\u2019t be more thankful for eggcorns. What a great excuse to take the mick out of the little one for getting something wrong. If you\u2019re already confused, an eggcorn is when someone mishears a phrase or word and says it wrong, but somehow it still makes sense. For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[314],"tags":[553,489],"class_list":["post-70129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copywriting-us","tag-eggcorns-us","tag-english-language-us"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEggcorns and other cute things children say - Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting & Content Strategy Agency<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you\u2019re already confused, an eggcorn is when someone mishears a phrase or word and says it incorrectly, but somehow it still makes sense.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/eggcorns-cute-things-children-say\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eggcorns and other cute things children say - 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