21 Words That St. Louis Natives Can’t Pronounce for Shit

In St. Louis, it is very common to change “o” sounds to “a” sounds. This means that when some people say “Highway 44” it sounds like “Highway Farty Far.”

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You know you’re old-school St. Louis if you drop an “R” into the middle of “wash.” Like, “I need to warsh these clothes.”

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Nelly famously exaggerated this very STL drawl, where we use a whole bunch of “R”s everywhurr.

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This is always a problem. Here, “born” in all forms sounds like “barn.” Talking about a newborn might have people thinking that you’ve built a new house for your horses.

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If you’re driving down highway farty and you say take the SPAY-dee exit, people will know what you mean. But if you pronounce it properly (SPOH-duh), nobody is going to know what you’re talking about.

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We know this one should be “Crehv-curr” but we’re stuck on “Creeve-core.”

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If someone in St. Louis says “hand me that fark,” what they mean is “hand me that thing that usually hangs out next to a spoon.”

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It should be “Bell-fon-TAINE” but here it’s just “Bell-fountain.” Or sometimes even “Bell-E-fountain.”

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Your map app will always say this as “Grav-WAH” but that makes us giggle because it’s clearly “Grav-OY” or even “Grav-OIZE” here.

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Apparently, this is supposed to sound like “shoe-TOE” but we’re sticking with “SHOW-toe.”

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We’ve said this as “Duh-BOLL-uh-ver” so long that we have no idea how to properly prounounce it.

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Politicians running for office will sometimes pronounce this as “Missourah” when they’re trying to appeal to their rural constituents outside the city. Hey, whatever works.

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Literature lovers know that this word is properly said “GURR-tah” but even people who live on this street insist on calling it “Go-thee.”

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This should be “Grah-see-oh” but everybody around here always says “GRATSH-it.” Like, rhymes with ratchet.

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Some people around here really think that you’re supposed to prounounce the “S” and make it “Ill-en-NOISE”

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We really use that “J” in Jungermann. Apparently it’s supposed to be a “Y” sound but we’re Midwesterners, not Scandinavians.

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