How often do we hear some one humming away our favourite song with the wrong lyrics! One all-time favourite is Boney M?s Rivers of Babylon. Many are convinced the line after ?...hey hey we wept? is ?in Australia? rather than ?in a strange land?.

The technical term for such misheard lyrics are Mondegreens. The term was coined by Sylvia Wright in 1954. As a child, Sylvia used to sing out ?They had slain the Earl of Moray and Lady Mondegreen?. She didn?t realise her mistake for years. It was supposed to be ?They had slain the Earl of Moray and laid him on the green?.

Mondegreens have so fascinated certain people, they have gone ahead and written series of books on them.

Classic Mondegreens:

Jimi Hendrix sang ??Scuse me, while I kiss the sky? in Purple Haze, not ??Scuse me, while I kiss this guy?. ?The girl with kaleidoscope eyes...? in The Beatles? Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds has often been sung ?The girl with colitis goes by...?.

Not just songs and lyrics, a simple sentence with a word misused can, at times, lead to hysterics. Such laughter-inducing sentences are known as malapropisms (Mom says ghosts are a pigment of my imagination; I have extra-century perception).

The term malpropism comes from the 1775 book The Rivals, where Richard Sheridan introduced the world to Mrs Malaprop (mal ? propos is French for inappropriate). The lady was, needless to say, usually creating a riot with her vocabulary.

Of late, Bushism has often been used as a synonym for malapropism.

The gems: They made the mistake of misunderestimating me; The terrorists were holding us hostile.

Another recent English phenomenon you could have fun experimenting with are Tom Swifties. These are phrases where an adverb is used both properly and punningly. (?The doctor removed my left ventricle,? said Tom half-heartedly; ?Justice Chowdhury is crazy!' said Tom being judgmental; are the simpler ones).

The quip Tom Swifty borrows its name from a series of books featuring the young adventure hero Tom Swift. Now, Swift hardly reported anything without an adverb in the sentence ? ?he added eagerly? or ?he said jokingly?. In the books though, they were straight-forward sentences and there were no puns or wordplay involved.

Evergreen Tom Swifties:

?I?m going to end my life,? Sue sighed; ?I have a split personality,? said Tom, being frank; ?I won?t finish fifth,? Tom held forth; ?We got late for the funeral,? said Tom gravely.