I know that most (all?) families have funny stories about how their kids have misspoken words. I like these stories. And I like it when my kids do this. Not only is it cute and funny, but it shows that they are experimenting with language. Any time a kid talks in a new way, he’s taking a risk and we should encourage them if they say something not quite right, even as we are correcting them.

But I, for reasons that I can’t explain, except with the statement, “I am goofy”, have incorporated my kids wrongly pronounced words into my own speech.

For example, Anna, who has heard us say, “Nuts” and “Oh, my” as expression of frustration and surprise, has changed these to “Nut!” and “Oh, mine.” Can I just say, as a casual non-offensive anti-curse word, ‘Nut’ works better than ‘Nuts’

And instead of ‘Quickly’, my daughter Adelyn, when she was younger, said “fickly”

And Barrett, instead of “Sure”, said “Shua”

And Carl, when there were only two kids in our family, would say to his younger brother, “Mon” for “Come on”.

And Adelyn said “Boes” instead of “Boys”

I now use all of these words in my language as I speak to my family.

So, it wouldn’t be unlikely, if my wife were to say, “Honey, could you bring the older three to the library, but please hurry, it closes in less than an hour,” I might respond thusly.

“Shua. Boes! Mon, fickly!”

 Can you translate?

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