On a family trip to England, my tired and jet-lagged parents had an argument in the hotel room in front of my small siblings and didn't quite bother to watch their language. Once things calmed down a little, we all went out for a walk, and saw a pond full of swans. "Wow, that's a lot of swans," I said. "Yeah," said my five-year-old sister. "What's with all the fucking swans?"

This troper heard her first F-bomb dropped in a movie at the age of 7, and after it was over, quoted the line containing it at the top of her lungs in the theatre lobby. Hilarious for others, yes, but my humiliation and embarrassment after learning what a "terrible word" it was almost reduced me to tears.

This troper had a very sheltered childhood. At the age of 11, some of the "cool" kids at school asked her if she was a virgin. This troper thought being a virgin meant not having a boyfriend. Since she wanted to be cool and appear as if she had a boyfriend, she said "no." Cue being teased for the next seven years.

This male troper sympathizes with you, having also been pretty sheltered and enduring similar teasing (though for different reasons) in high school.

In a similar vein to the above, this troper was asked on a bus ride for a school field trip if he was a virgin. Of course, having been in Catholic school all his life, he'd only ever heard the word "virgin" in relation to the Virgin Mary, and from that assumed "virgin" meant "has given birth". Cue an immediate, sharp "NO."

My little sister decided to come up with a sound effect for pushing doors and whatnot, because she is a weirdo...she came up with 'doosh'. Every time we came across a revolving door? Dooooshhhh. Yeah.

This troper, at the age of about five, singing to herself about the rainy weather outside... "Oh, what a yucky day, what a yucky, mucky, blucky, rucky, f..." I think you see where I'm going with this.

When I was about six, I saw "fuck" written on a wall somewhere, and asked my mum what it meant. She wouldn't tell me, so I ended up asking my four-year-old friend, and we came to the conclusion that it meant "kill".

I'll Fuck You!

When I was about 7 or 8, I used the phrase "pissed off" in front of my mother. And ''grandmother''(who as far as anyone knows, never uttered a single swear word in her life). No, I don't remember where I picked up said phrase. They didn't freak, but I was made to understand, in no uncertain terms, that I was never to say that again.

I did this in the third grade with the word "dumbass," while arguing with a classmate. He called me out on it and I was instantly mortified at having uttered a "bad word." (Now I cuss like a sailor.) My little brother also did this after learning the word "pussy" from ''StandByMe'' and got scolded for it. He also mispronounced the word "truck" as...a certain rhyming word, when he was three or four.

In fourth grade, this troper and a friend had "made up" the word "nigga" as an exclamation for when we were mad, shocked, upset, etc. We were at my house talking one day and both of us used the word, causing my mom to scold us. We weren't told what it meant, but I found out eventually.

Although more like insulting than swearing, this Troper fell victim to something similar when she was little. A friend's older brother asked "Do you think Caroline is a moron?" while said Caroline was right next to me. I didn't know what that meant, but I said yes. Caroline was not amused.

When I was little, I used to swear at my brother a lot... without knowing what I was actually saying. For example: I honestly thought that calling someone a "pussy" was just another way of calling them a "scaredy cat", but not any worse. Whoops.

This troper's sister spoke her first f-bomb at age 4. I wasn't alive, but I was told they were playing in the backyard and suddenly got into an argument over which house they wanted to go to, to which she yelled "I DON'T WANNA GO TO YOUR FUCKING HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!"

At some point in elementary school, I learned the "no more teachers, no more books" last-day-of-school rhyme, and immediately recited it at the top of my lungs. Then, in sixth grade, when it was my turn to read aloud from TomSawyer, I had no idea why my teacher told me "You can just say "n-word" for one of the words. I seem to have been particularly prone to this as a child, because at age six I managed to make my best friend cry and got a scolding from her father for sticking my middle finger up. I don't think I was even aware of what my hands were doing at the time. And I remember another time at a sleepover, when I got mad at a girl who kept holding the door open while I was on the toilet. I still don't know what the "other meaning" of the word "doorstop" is.

Several times for this troper. When I was 5, my father always expressed his anger in Spanish. So there would be a five-year-old girl skipping around her house cheering 'BLEEP' in Spanish until they pointed out it was a bad word.

Then, I got in trouble when was 6 for trying to balance a ruler on two fingers, not understanding there were bad positions too.

I was pretty sheltered until middle school in Georgia. They called me a 'retard' and 'gay' within the span of the first week. When I asked my mom what they meant, she wondered what the hell happened to her happy little kid.

And, my brother kept saying 'Shib' while trying to say... the 'S-H-I' word with the T at the end. Sad to say he was only 2.

In kindergarten, this troper was asked if he knew which finger was the pointer finger. I... guessed wrong.

Back in elementary school, this troper learned his first curse words from when a friend told him to say the words that she was spelling out. He learned what made them curse words when he was pulled away and scolded by a teacher.

This troper used to mispronounce the word "fuchsia" as a three-syllable word beginning with...well, I think you know where this is going.

This troper had two friends in Georgia that were much less innocent than she. When their mother got into a feud with another friend's mother, the two kids started to write mean things about the members of the other friend's family. I understood every insult but one: It said, "Gabe is gay." I was confused because I own several books from the early 1900s, and in all of them, "gay" is used to mean "happy" or "bright", not "homosexual". I had to ask my mom why they'd used it if they were trying to be mean. She was not pleased.

A few weeks ago I tried to tell my sister, "You fail," but I decided to change it to "suck" after I'd begun saying fail. It did not turn out well.