More communication snafus

When I read about mondegreens, I realised that I also had been stumped sometimes by such auditory glitches but unfortunately I cannot remember any, except for the confusion between 'about' and 'above' which happens frequently. I will frame a sentence containing 'about'. I will dictate 'abo..' and Jaya will guess 'above'. I will hear it as 'about' and blink affirmatively. When the sentence is over, Jaya will stare at it in incomprehension and I will wonder what was so complicated about it. When I examine it, I will realise what the problem was and make the necessary correction.

Dictating mathematical notations could cause problems. Once I wanted to dictate a²-b² = (a-b)(a+b). I began : 'a square...' and immediately ran into trouble. Why? That was because Jaya started wondering why I was telling her about a square when the problem had nothing to do with squares or rectangles or any other shape. After much rolling of eyes, pulling of hair (figuratively speaking), stiffening of muscles and cough induced due to frustration, Jaya will guess what I was trying to dictate. I had thought that I would be able to solve the problem in fifteen minutes but here I was having just got started. I will realise later that the confusion could have been avoided if I had dictated 'a power two minus b power two' or 'x square minus y square'.