How do you pronounce Oregon and Nevada? Why?

25 comments

1. Or-uh-gun

   Ne-vad-ah

   I don’t know *why* it just is how I’ve always pronounced it

2. Or-ih-gun

   Neh-va-dah

3. The way locals do, because that’s also the standard way in California. Pronouncing them any other way is a great way to mark yourself as someone who’s never been there.

4. Ore-ih-gun

   Ne-vad-uh (with “vad” rhyming with “dad”)

5. If you say Or-ih-gawn then you are fed to sasquatch

6. Neh-vad-uh

   (Vad as in dad)

   Or-ih-gun

   I pronounce them the way other Californians (and, ime, the same way as the people of Oregon and Nevada) pronounce them.

7. Or-gen
   Ne-vad-ah

8. OR-ih-ginn

   ne-VAH-duh

9. I pronounce Oregon kind of like organ with an extra syllable. Nevada is Nuh-Vah-Duh.

   That’s just the one I heard them pronounced.

   Though I’m partial to the way David Lynch pronounces Oregon too.

10. [Nevada](https://nightinthecountry.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/its_nevada_Dark.png)

11. From Philadelphia.

    “Or-ih-ghin” and “Neh-vah-duh”

12. How do you pronounce Warshington?

13. Orgun, vad rhymes with sad

14. I lived in Nevada and it’s “vad” rhyming with “dad.” I pronounce it that way because it’s correct. lol It drives me crazy that Nevada in Zombieland 2 is mispronounced.

15. I’ve read so many different pronunciations in this thread that I can’t remember how I actually pronounce either and I’m not sure which ones are right.

16. Colorado here: Ore-ih-gun, Neh-va-duh

    Because that’s how you say them.

17. I live in Missouri and there is a dumb smaller town named Nevada, but they pronounce it Ne-vay-duh. My family always had a good chuckle at the absurdity of it

18. Oregano and Nev-ayyye-da cause I like mucking about and poking fun at interstate nonsense.

19. Correctly.

20. Or-uh-gon, and nuh-Va-duh (short A in the middle), because that’s how they look like they’re pronounced

21. My university sold bumper stickers that said “it’s Nevada not Ne-vah-dah.” I pronounce Oregon like local Oregonians do too. In my experience everyone West of the Rockies gets both states right, and the further East you go from there the more likely you are to pronounce them wrong.

    Nevada is both an early primary state and a swing state so we get tons of politicians coming through every 4 years who expect our votes and donations without bothering to learn to pronounce the name of the state and that really rubs people the wrong way. Sometimes they get booed by their own supporters, and they deserve it.

    Some people will say it’s an accent thing, but unless those same people refer to their fathers as their Dahds and call firearms Gones that is hard to believe. I find the Spanish argument disingenuous too — I speak Spanish and I know a lot of native Spanish speakers, and even in Spanish the word Nevada doesn’t get nearly as much “ahhhh” as East Coasters give it, and bilingual Spanish speakers in Nevada still use the correct English pronunciation while speaking English. Nobody is going to hold it against you if you have a speech impediment or a thick accent that makes it impossible, or if you just arrived and didn’t know any better, but it’s the effort that counts. Many locals in both states find the unwillingness to make the effort, or the arrogance to insist that the incorrect way is actually better, pretty annoying.

22. When Presidential candidates come to my state and call it Ne-vah-da, I seriously rethink voting for them

23. Or-i-gin (hard g), Nuh-vad-a (vad like bad)

24. Ore-eh-gone and Ne-VA-duh (capitalized to emphasize it is a hard A and not ah)

25. I’ve always said them like “Or-ig-un” and “Nuh-vad-uh.”

    Because that’s how I’ve always heard them pronounced by others. But I’ve been to both states, and not heard differently.