This is a difficult subject for me to tackle since I struggle with my mother tongue of English. That's why it's tough for me to defend us Midwesterners from an allegation on Twitter that we can't say French words correctly. Bon jour?

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There's a running joke between my wife and I that Tuscany isn't in France despite the fact that I always think it is. (Editor's Note: please learn where Italy is. Thanks.) I got a big laugh when I saw a thread on the Missouri sub-Reddit page about a person on Twitter who accused us of messing up French names. Here's the original tweet for reference.

Of all the responses, this was one of my favorites with help for Midwest guys like me. I won't put it here since it has some lively language, but hit the link if you'd like phonetic assistance with the French places among us.

If you say the name Versailles as "Ver-sales", you and I are on the same page. We speak what is referred to by "outsiders" as Missouri French. That is really a thing as the Wikipedia page proves. I speak the more informal version of that so in a way I'm keeping a rich cultural way of communicating alive.

A few years ago, St. Louis Public Radio did a fun story about our unusual way of dealing with French things here. It's worth a read and will add even more backstory to what I think is an honorable way to deal with the weird names around us.

Parlez-vous Français? Si.

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