Here are the 6 Missouri Town Names Almost Everyone Says Wrong

Even though I have been a professional broadcaster for more than 40 years, I am amazingly not a linguistic expert especially when it comes to confusing town names in Missouri. Things are sometimes said differently here and there are some Missouri places that almost everyone says wrong.

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I found this fun topic on the Missouri sub-Reddit. The subject of the post is "Missouri's towns are pronounced all kinds of crazy ways. Why?" I can't completely answer the "why" part, but I will confirm that many of these I have either said wrong in the past or still do to this day. I am guilty. What about you?

This is one I got wrong. Think Nevada, Missouri is pronounced like the western state? Wrong. There's no "ah" in Missouri's Nevada, but it's said "Nev-Aye-Duh".

This one isn't really that hard, but you'd be surprised how many people call Lebanon, Missouri "Lebnin". I just love how we Missourians can run all our letters together to eliminate vowels.

Versailles, Missouri is said either "Ver-Sails" or "Ver-Sigh". Only one of them is right, but guess which way most people say it. The French would be so disappointed at us.

I completely blew this one thinking Hayti, Missouri is said like the country of Haiti. It's "Hay-tie".

Not only do I not say this right (Do-Kane), but I can rarely spell it right either. Wrong, wrong.

Do you say "Au-vaz" or "Ox vase"? What is French for speed trap? Asking for a friend. Oh, and the correct pronunciation is that second one, by the way.