Laughing, because I was the same. I could figure out the meaning of words way before school, from the context of the story and the sentence. But, words I had never heard I didn’t know how to pronounce.
So, many decades ago, before I started school (and phonics). My father asked me to get him something in the other room. Like a little miss smarty pants, I said... “what do you think I am? your slav?
Remember, this was before phonics. My parents started laughing at me as soon as they realized that I meant slave.
LOL!!!
I used to read whatever print I could find. I remember reading on cereal boxes how to make hors d’ourves with some kind of crunch cereal and nuts.
I thought it was pronounced and meant “hours of devoures”.
According to an article I read recently the word slave came from the word Slav, since Slavs were the original European slaves.
This sort of like the Arabic word for slave is the same word as the word designating an individual who is black.