4 ms·
Off topic, but did you know the word "forte" in that context is pronounced "fort" not "for-tay"? I just learned that recently.
by hodwik 11y ago
Off topic, but did you know the word "forte" in that context is pronounced "fort" not "for-tay"?
I just learned that recently.
- e12e 11y agoI think you have that backwards -- it would appear it's pronounced ˈfȯrt when used as a technical term of the the strong part of a sword hilt -- but not here, as it is used as a reference to a certain tools strong use-case? http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forte http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forte
- gjm11 11y agoThe OED gives the bisyllabic pronunciation for all meanings, with a note saying that the monosyllabic pronunciation used to be used.
- nkozyra 11y agoBoth pronunciations are now standard.[1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/forte https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/forte The pronunciation for the Italian word for strong/strength is "for-tay"
- tired_man 11y agoI wouldn't say its a standard. It's more that those who do pronounce it correctly can't be bothered correcting a sea of semi-literates any longer. Dictionaries are no longer the bastion of language they once were as they now stuff in new faddish words at the drop of a hat. Too bad they don't also have a removal process to remove them once they've had their few years of trendiness and are forgotten.
- randcraw 11y agoItalian --> English: forte --> loud. French --> English: forte --> strength. In French, forte is pronounced "fort" In Italian, forte is pronounced "fortay" In English, the pronunciation of forte depends on which language you borrowed it from. It inherits its proper pronunciation from the source language. BTW, English --> Italian: strength --> forza.
- tired_man 11y agoYep. That's how the word was taught to me. In the US, quite a few people say it as "fort."
- nocman 11y agoI've lived in the US my whole life, and I've never heard anyone pronounce it "fort" in this context.