Dave Barry recounted a friend of his picking up his wife from the hairdresser's but getting caught in a traffic jam. Seeing his impatient irritation, she asks if he likes it (her new haircut), and the husband naturally thinks she's talking about the traffic jam, responds "Not at all."
In Sense and Sensibility, Mrs. Jennings watches a conversation between Colonel Brandon and Elinor and assumes he is proposing to her, and afterwards offers the younger woman her sincere congratulations. The Colonel had actually been offering a job as his estate's resident clergyman to Elinor's friend Edward, and asking Elinor to act as go-between in the offer because the two men have never met. Elinor and Mrs. Jennings don't realise they're on different pages until their second conversation about it. They both have a good laugh once it's cleared up.
In Emma, Emma and Harriet discuss the man with whom Harriet has fallen in love after he gallantly came to her rescue, but each is thinking of a different man. Harriet is talking of Mr. Knightley, who asked her to dance after she was snubbed, but Emma thinks they are talking of Frank Churchill, who rescued Harriet from a band of gypsies.
By Title/Series:
The conversations between Willow and Terter Abhao in Always Coming Home often come out as that, due to their different views on both property and behavior (plus Terter’s poor grasp of the Kesh language).
Volume 1: Jinshi discovers that Maomao has been slated to be fired due to being distantly connected to a criminal. Jinshi can destroy the evidence and let Maomao stay, but he doesn't want to force her to stay if she'd rather leave and knows she'd stay if he in some way ordered her to do so. Maomao herself would prefer to stay as the job lets her pay off her debt that could be used to sell her off, but also doesn't want to be seen as too desperate. When Jinshi asks Maomao what she wants to do, she states she will do any job that is "ordered" with the implication that she wants to say. However, Jinshi believes she was just following his "orders" and wants to be laid off, so he allows her to be fired.
Volume 2: Jinshi, who has a thing for Maomao, walks in on her intently examining the near-nude body of Lihaku, and due to a series of miscommunications about her opinion of said body, doesn't figure out until the end of the conversation that Maomao herself had no interest in him: rather, she was figuring out whether Lihaku was her "sister"note Maomao is the daughter of a High-Class Call Girl and was treated like a baby sister by her brothel's high-ranking courtesans. Pairin's type, since he fell head-over-heels for her and wants to try to buy her out.
Volume 6: Basen walks in on the aftermath of Jinshi's first, badly botched attempt at getting Maomao to actually acknowledge his feelings for her, but, having very little experience with romance himself, misunderstands Jinshi's remarks about having "lost to someone" as having lost a sparring match, and insists that his boss reenact the scene with him. Which Jinshi is apparently too frazzled to think better of. Cue them both getting understandably Mistaken for Gay when Ah-Duo walks in on them.
Ben Safford Mysteries: In Unexpected Developments, a member of a court-martial board that adjudicated the aftermath of a plane crash is found dead with an envelope with a Saudi embassy postmark (the dead pilot is a Saudi trainee) and a lot of money inside. Safford has a brief, cryptic conversation with the Saudi ambassador about the envelope. Later, it turns out the Saudis never bribed the officer and that their previous conversation was filled with misunderstandings due to the prickly nature of the affair, making both men too careful with their words. The Saudi ambassador thought he was being used as a scapegoat and was agreeing to help the American government save face in exchange for future concessions. Safford thought that the ambassador was admitting to the whole affair and saying that the American government couldn't afford to make a big fuss about it.
The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman has an early scene where Galva, a knight who doesn't natively speak the language and is Literal-Minded and mostly chaste besides, is staying at a bathhouse when a maid offers her "company". She fails to get the innuendo so thoroughly that the maid thinks she's just not interested in women and suggests a "stablehand" instead, meaning a male courtesan. Galva's from a culture that loves horses, and since they've gone nearly extinct in this world, she eagerly agrees to see the stablehand. There follows a long, awkward conversation about "mares" and "stallions"...
In Born A Crime, Trevor Noah recounts an episode in his native South Africa where his dance team was performing at a Jewish school. Their star dancer was named "Hitler". None of the dancers understood the emotional significance of that name in Jewish culture. When one of the teachers raged at them, Noah thought she was offended by their dance moves, and nothing they said cleared up the confusion.
Teacher: We've stopped people like you before, and we'll stop you again! Trevor: Lady, you can never stop us!
The Christmas Appeal: Sarah-Jane has a conversation with Mick's friend, ordering "green, white, and brown sweets," to pass out at the performance for a total cost of $19.00. As it turns out, Mick's friend was a drug dealer, and "green, white, and brown sweets" meant cannibis, cocaine, and heroin, and he actually wanted $1900 as payment.
Harlequin novel Christmas In Cold Creek has two daughters of a con artist (for the younger one's safety from her real mother, the older one claims to be her mother) settling in Idaho. The older one, Becca, thinks the attractive local police officer has found out her "daughter" isn't really hers. Instead, he's concerned about the little girl's "illness" which turns out to be a con job.
In the Ciaphas Cainnote Hero of the Imperium! novel The Emperor's Finest, Cain's Girl of the Week Mira is the Planetary Governor's daughter who wants to marry him for a political maneuver. Cain fails to realize her intentions until he accidentally agrees to it, to a truly ludicrous extent.
When receiving orders that interrupt their private time together, Mira assures him that one day, he'll be powerful enough to refuse them. Cain appreciates the optimistic outlook on his career.
Upon boarding a Space Marine battleship, Mira tells Cain that she intends to be married soon. Cain concludes that she's looking for a Space Marine husband. Incidentally, Space Marines are sterile.
Even their breakup conversation has shades of this. Cain tells Mira that as much as he wants to stay with her, he can't. His narration reveals that he would like to leave the soldier's life because he's less likely to be killed in action, but as a Commissar, he can be executed for desertion.
Discworld: Some of Carrot and Angua's conversations:
Their discussion of affirmative action hiring practices in Men at Arms. Carrot admits Angua was probably accepted to the Watch, and Vimes probably isn't happy about this, because she's a w... and Angua interrupts in outrage. Carrot (and, at this point, the reader) thinks Angua was hired because she's a woman; Angua, thinking (correctly) that it's more likely she was hired because she's a werewolf, assumes Carrot knows this. The resulting conversation makes sense both ways.
They have a conversation at the end of Feet of Clay where she thinks he's asking her to stay with him and stay in the city, but he's actually asking her if she'd like to volunteer at a museum with him. Her feelings are briefly hurt when he says he just assumed she'd say yes but if she doesn't want to, then that's fine too, before she realizes that they're having two different conversations.
Elle Enchanted: In Chapter Four, there's a conversation that breaks when "Why" is asked because a conversation about historical circumstances is mixed with kitchen duties, so "Why" was misinterpreted as "Why dry the dishes?" instead of the intended "Why are things like that?" until it was quickly realized in the next sentence.
In the German best-seller Er ist wieder da (Look Who's Back), Hitler wakes up in 21st century Berlin and struggles to get back on his feet in spite of modern society. From that point on, this trope is in full effect, as everyone sees the guy as a brilliant Hitler-themed method actor and satirist who never breaks character, while Hitler at the same time is convinced that he is experiencing a glorious comeback from obscurity, because nobody ever bothers to tell him what a hilariously bad reputation he has in modern-day Germany, thinking that went without saying and he is just taking Refuge in Audacity.
TV Exec: One more thing, Mr. "Hitler". The topic "Jews" is not funny. Hitler: I couldn't agree more! Finally I meet someone who fully shares my sentiment!
Prisoner of Azkaban has pretty much everything the title character, Sirius Black, says leading up to The Reveal near the climax. In the backstory, after betraying Harry's family to Voldemort (who meant to kill baby Harry but only managed to off the kid's parents) and killing his other former friend Peter Pettigrew (in an explosion that also killed a dozen Muggles), all Sirius did was laugh. Before inexplicably escaping Azkaban, he was repeatedly heard saying "He's at Hogwarts" in his sleep. When Harry and company finally meet him, Sirius says "There'll be only one murder here tonight" with a grin when Ron warns that Sirius will have to go through him and Hermione to get to Harry. Then he says "I don't deny it" when Harry mentions that Sirius killed Harry's parents, and "I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for" after revealing that Peter is still alive. But as it turns out, Sirius intends to avenge Harry's parents by killing Peter, the real traitor. In truth, though Sirius had started out as the Potters' appointed Secret-Keeper (meaning that nobody could find the Potters unless he revealed their location), he later convinced them to make Peter the Secret-Keeper instead, under the assumption that nobody would suspect Peter. After Peter betrayed the Potters, Sirius blamed himself for their death (hence "I don't deny it") and hunted the traitor down for retribution. When found, Peter loudly accused Sirius of betraying the Potters, then faked his own death by creating the aforementioned explosion and leaving his severed finger at the scene of the crime before fleeing in the form of a rat. This also explains Sirius's unhinged laughter when he was apprehended: he was distraught to the point of incoherence at Peter's betrayal and the Potters' murder.
Goblet of Fire: Snape accuses Harry of stealing Polyjuice ingredients from his office, but words it in such a way that Harry thinks he's talking about the time Hermione stole those ingredients two years ago for the Polyjuice Potion in Chamber of Secrets. In fact, Snape is talking about a much more recent (and plot relevant) theft, but Harry (and therefore the reader) doesn't learn this until the end of the book. The confusion is helped by the fact that Harry is innocent of the more recent theft, so he doesn't have the necessary frame of reference to realize what Snape really means.
Half-Blood Prince: A short-lived one occurs when Ron accidentally eats a candy laced with love potion by Romilda Vane (originally meant for Harry, but Harry was wise enough not to eat it.) Ron then starts going on about how amazing "she" is, and Harry assumes he's talking about his current girlfriend, Lavender, until Ron lets slip that "she doesn't even know who I am".
How to Survive a Horror Movie describes this sort of conversation as a common symptom of being Dead All Along and recommends that people who find themselves having strangely vague conversations try asking trivia questions.
Pritkin and Cassie have a brief one in Hunt the Moon. Cassie believes they're talking about how Mircea considers Pritkin a danger to her physical well-being, while Pritkin believes she's speaking of Mircea's distrust of Pritkin as a potential romantic rival.
The Impossible Us: A very short example, as Bee interprets "Don't wait" as encouragement to pursue love but Magda later reveals that, if she said it at all, it was advice on taking out the recycling.
A sinister example in the Ruth Rendell novel, The Lake of Darkness. One character is trying to do a good deed with a pool win, and is offering to buy a house for another character and his mother in the country. The other character thinks he's being hired as a hitman.
In the third book from The Legend of Sun Knight, Knight-Captain Hell goes to see his vice captain Tyler, who has been acting captain since Hell was sent on a mission years ago, and with whom Hell has never met before. Tyler thinks that they are arguing over who should rightfully be leading Hell's squadron, as Hell has been gone and Tyler is the one who has completed all of his duties for a number of years. Hell is only trying to confirm that he's talking to the right person, and then confess that he's not the person who was actually appointed as Hell Knight, but rather was tricked by Sun into filling in for the position after the real Hell Knight quit. Tyler mistakes the confession for Hell agreeing that he shouldn't be able to return after years of absence and claim command of the squadron.
In The Lunar Chronicles, the conversation between the titular character and Prince Kai during their dance at the ball was this. Cinder thinks he's talking about her being a cyborg, but he was actually talking about Cinder's stepsister's recent death.
The Monk: Don Christoval is just trying to be nice. Leonella swears he wants her.
Ranger's Apprentice: During Horace's wedding to Cassandra/Evenlyn, Horace and Will are standing at the altar when Cassandra enters to walk down the aisle with her chief bridesmaid (and Will's own girlfriend) Alyss walking close behind her. Mesmerized by the sight of his wife-to-be walking his way in her wedding day finery, Horace soon says 'She's so beautiful' in reference to Cassandra. Will subsequently responds, "Yes she is" in seeming agreement with Horace...except he's already been revealed to the reader not too long before this response to at that moment only have eyes for Alyss and thus is thinking about how beautiful she is when he responds to Horace's comment.
A hilarious conversation between Elinor and Carlyon at the start of the The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer. Carlyon thinks Elinor has answered his advertisement for a woman to marry his cousin, while she thinks he's discussing a governess position.
In the short story Story Of A Curse, while stopping by a Planet of the Week, a starship captain has sex with a Girl of the Week after exchanging what he thinks are sweet nothings. When she objects to his leaving her with their child, he reminds her that she had been as eager as he was in their liaison, that he had never seen anyone freer. However, this was because what, to him, were sweet nothings were actually wedding vows in her culture, and the woman is understandably devastated to find that he never had any intention of honoring them.
That Hideous Strength: Downplayed, in that only one sentence is misunderstood between Merlin and Ransom: "My masters are the Oyeseru." In Merlin's mind, this is a password, and the fact that Ransom said it at all meant that Ransom has to be a part of the same druidical college that Merlin was a part of, which in turn means that Merlin should take Ransom with at least a modicum of seriousness, however strange, silly, and unimportant he may seem on the surface to Merlin's fifth-century eyes. Ransom, by contrast, says it because it was quite literally true, and was thus warning Merlin that he'd be very badly outmatched if a supernatural throw-down were to ensue. It wasn't until a much later conversation that the truth comes out, and when it does, Merlin is terrified!
The Way of Kings (2010): Played for Drama in The Reveal at the end of the book. Throughout the book, Dalinar has been having visions in which he thinks he's having Cryptic Conversations with God. After a disaster caused by following what he thought was advice, he demands a direct answer in the next vision, and completely fails to get it. It turns out that the visions aren't conversations at all, they're a magical recording, an Apocalyptic Log. God can't talk to him because God Is Dead and the end of the world is about to commence.
King Gavilar's last words. In The Way of Kings, his assassin is baffled when he asks him to tell his brother to "find the most important words a man can say," but dutifully records his words anyways. In Oathbringer Gavilar's brother Dalinar realizes that the most important words he can say are a promise to be a better person. As of Wind and Truth, it turns out that Gavilar was actually talking to the invisible Stormfather at the time of his death, not the assassin, and the "most important words" were the oaths he had to say to become an immortal Herald.
Played for Drama in The Traitor Game. What cements Michael's suspicion that Francis had betrayed their secret is Francis, noticing that he is acting strange, asking "is it because you found out about...?". Michael thinks that Francis is talking about Evgard, and nods. Francis thinks that Michael found out that he is gay.
In Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle, Krulcifer deliberately lets her butler Alterize think that she and Lux are having sex. Alterize goes to Lux to ask the truth, but without explicitly using any words relating to sex. The thing is, Lux has been receiving private tutoring from Krulcifer every night, and thinks that's what the conversation is about. He therefore not only confirms that they're doing "it", but says that Krulcifer is very good (at teaching) and that they're doing "it" all over the school.
