Turns out "different" isn't a compliment in Minnesota, and that innocent water fountain has a name that'll make you question everything you thought you knew.
I'll be honest with you: the first time someone at a coffee shop in Iowa told me my order was "different," I thought they were judging my oat milk latte. Turns out, they just meant it was ready. Welcome to the Midwest, where words mean something entirely different than what us coastal folks expect.
After spending a few weeks traveling through Minnesota and Wisconsin last summer, photographing small-town diners and interviewing locals about their food culture, I realized I'd stumbled into a linguistic parallel universe. People were perfectly nice, but half the time I had no idea what they were actually saying to me.
If you've ever found yourself nodding along to a Midwesterner while secretly wondering what language they're speaking, you're not alone. Here are eight phrases that left me completely baffled until someone finally explained what was actually going on.
1) "Ope"
This isn't even a real word, and yet it's possibly the most Midwestern sound you'll ever hear.
"Ope" is what Midwesterners say when they nearly bump into you, when they're squeezing past you in a tight space, when they drop something, or basically anytime they need to acknowledge a minor disruption to the social order.
It's like "oops" but shorter and somehow more apologetic. I heard it approximately 47 times during a single trip to a Madison farmers market when people kept navigating around my camera setup.
The first few times someone said it to me, I thought they were starting to say something and then changed their mind. Nope. That's the whole word. "Ope, just gonna sneak right past ya there."
If you hear this, just know that absolutely nothing is wrong and the person saying it is being extremely polite by Midwestern standards.
2) "Different"
When a Midwesterner tells you something is "different," they're not making a neutral observation. They're telling you they don't like it, but they're too polite to say it directly.
Your haircut? Different. Your quinoa salad at the potluck? Different. Your life choices? You guessed it, different.
This took me way too long to figure out. When that barista called my order "different," she wasn't announcing it was ready. She was subtly expressing that oat milk was not the usual choice in rural Iowa.
The Midwest runs on indirect communication and conflict avoidance, so "different" becomes a catch-all term for "I would never do that, but I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong."
Once you crack this code, you'll start hearing it everywhere.
3) "Come with"
On the coasts, sentences end with objects. "Come with me." "Go with them." Basic grammar, right?
Not in the Midwest.
There, people will simply ask, "Do you want to come with?" And that's the whole sentence. No preposition, no object, nothing. Just hanging there in the air like an unfinished thought.
The first time someone asked me this at a brewery in Milwaukee, I waited for them to finish the sentence. They stared at me. I stared at them. Finally, I asked, "Come with where?" They looked at me like I was the weird one.
Apparently, this construction comes from German, where the equivalent phrase works the same way. But if you didn't grow up with it, your brain keeps waiting for the rest of the information that's never coming.
4) "That's interesting"
Similar to "different," but even more loaded.
When a Midwesterner says something is "interesting," they mean it's bizarre, questionable, or possibly offensive, but they're wrapping their judgment in the nicest possible packaging.
I've mentioned this before, but when I first went vegan and was still in my evangelical phase, I got a lot of "that's interesting" responses to my passionate speeches about factory farming. I thought people were genuinely curious. They were not.
They were politely telling me to shut up while maintaining social harmony.
If someone tells you your idea is "interesting" in the Midwest, don't pitch it to investors just yet. Decode the subtext first.
5) "Uff da"
This one is especially common in Minnesota and areas with strong Scandinavian heritage, and it's basically an all-purpose expression of mild distress, surprise, or exertion.
Stubbed your toe? Uff da. Heard some surprising gossip? Uff da. Lifted something heavy? Uff da.
I was completely lost the first time I heard this while photographing a community potluck in St. Paul. An older woman looked at the dessert table and said "uff da" with such feeling that I thought something terrible had happened. Turns out she was just impressed by the quantity of bars (Midwestern sheet cakes, not the drinking establishments).
It's derived from Norwegian, and it's pronounced "OOF-dah," in case you were wondering. There's really no English equivalent, which is probably why it's survived as its own thing.
6) "The bubbler"
If someone in Wisconsin tells you to get a drink from the bubbler, they're not directing you to some kind of champagne fountain.
They mean the water fountain.
This term is basically exclusive to Wisconsin and parts of New England, and it comes from a brand name that became generic, kind of like how people say Kleenex instead of tissue.
But if you're from California like me, "bubbler" sounds like something a toddler would say, not a legitimate word adults use for drinking fountains. I spent an embarrassing amount of time looking around a Madison office building for some kind of fancy water feature before someone took pity on me and pointed at the regular water fountain.
Language is regional, and this is one of those words that instantly identifies where someone grew up.
7) "Duck, duck, gray duck"
Okay, this one isn't a phrase you hear in casual conversation, but it's a cultural marker that still confuses the rest of us.
If you grew up anywhere except Minnesota, you played "Duck, Duck, Goose" as a kid. Someone walks around a circle, taps heads saying "duck, duck, duck," and then says "goose!" and the chase begins.
In Minnesota, they play "Duck, Duck, Gray Duck." Same game, different word. And Minnesotans will defend this variation with shocking intensity, insisting their version is superior because it requires more strategy.
I discovered this while reading about childhood development and regional psychology, and honestly, it broke my brain a little. Why would you change a perfectly good game? Minnesotans have their reasons, apparently involving the need to use descriptive adjectives before choosing the gray duck.
It's not a phrase that affects daily life, but it's a perfect example of how the Midwest just does things differently and sees no reason to explain why.
8) "Puppy chow"
When someone offers you puppy chow at a Midwest gathering, do not panic about being served dog food.
They're talking about a snack made from Chex cereal coated in chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. It's actually delicious, despite the unfortunate name.
The first time someone offered this to me at a holiday party in Chicago, I politely declined because I thought they were making a weird joke. Then I watched everyone enthusiastically eating it and realized I'd made a terrible mistake.
Why is it called puppy chow? Because it looks like dog food. That's it. That's the whole explanation. Midwesterners apparently decided this was a perfectly reasonable thing to name a dessert, and everyone just went along with it.
On the coasts, we might call this "muddy buddies" or just "chocolate cereal snack," but in the Midwest, it's puppy chow and that's final.
Conclusion
The Midwest isn't actually speaking another language, but they might as well be sometimes.
What I've learned from my travels through the heartland is that these phrases aren't just quirky regionalisms. They're windows into a culture that values politeness, indirectness, and community cohesion over the direct, sometimes blunt communication style we use on the coasts.
Understanding these phrases isn't just about avoiding confusion. It's about recognizing that different doesn't mean wrong, even when "different" is actually Midwestern code for "I think this is weird."
Next time you find yourself in the Midwest, listen for these phrases. And when someone offers you puppy chow, just say yes.
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