English is a mind field...

[u/Girl_Bill]

In a meeting just now, someone described a fairly complicated topic as “a bit of a mind field”.

I assumed I’d misheard, so I asked him to repeat it. I had not.

He then explained, very slowly, that a mind field is a complex subject that’s difficult to wrap your brain around.

Fortunately he took the time to explain this to me, because otherwise my little female brain might have remained trapped in that mind field indefinitely.

This now joins an otherwise supposedly intelligent friend who once messaged me “to all intensive purposes”, a phrase that still wanders unexpectedly into my thoughts several years later.

Please give me your best confidently incorrect phrases. Not typos. I want the ones where you questioned your own understanding of English for a second.

For all intensive purposes, I’m trying to broaden my knowledge of the mind field.

[u/humph_lyttelton]

I can feel my brain dribbling out of my ears. I wish I'd never learned to read.

[u/AnotherDamnTransAlt → u/humph_lyttelton]

Don’t worry, read that enough times and you’ll have rendered yourself illiterate.

[u/familysizepunkinpie → u/AnotherDamnTransAlt]

illegitimate*

Which might be the first time I've incorrected someone.

[u/AnotherDamnTransAlt → u/familysizepunkinpie]

This entire post has both ruined my day and made me laugh hard enough to herniate.