3 ms·

not tryna be a grammar nazi (think of me more like a schoolteacher within a fascist regime) but forte, pronounced "fort", is a French word for strong and that's

not tryna be a grammar nazi (think of me more like a schoolteacher within a fascist regime) but forte, pronounced "fort", is a French word for strong and that's the word we use in English. Pronouncing it forté is actually a confusion with the Italian word forte which comes from music and means loud.

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
Fair 'nuff. I appreciate the correction, and will use it correctly, henceforth. Thanks! You may like this: http://queenofwands.net/d/20031003.html http://queenofwands.net/d/20031003.html
- throwanem 5y ago
  Not so fast. /ˈfɔːteɪ/ is a perfectly permissible English pronunciation for "forte", and it's also the one most if not all fluent speakers expect that word to take - especially since /ˈfɔːt/ is how we pronounce "fort" meaning "fortification". The next substantiated claim I see that these words should be homonymous will be the first, and even a substantiated such claim remains incorrect in the face of the way people actually use and understand language. The only thing I see here to quibble with would be the acute accent on the final "e", which is rarely if ever a feature of modern English orthography in any case. Beyond that, I think GP's prescriptivism has, like that of the Académie Française, proceeded to a fault - specifically in GP's case, the fault of recommending you mispronounce "forte".
  - ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
    I took it as “Lose the accent, but pronounce it ‘for-TAY,’” even so (because that is exactly how it is pronounced, whenever I hear someone say it).
  - fsckboy 5y ago
    You are prescribing that people should say things anyway they want to, that there's no such thing as an error, and while you may very well be correct: I'm simply describing how to sound like an educated person.
    - throwanem 5y ago
      I'm a native speaker of American English, and I used to work with a bunch of Ph.D.s, mostly likewise native speakers, who adored correcting people's diction, on many occasions including mine. Despite this, I have never in my life heard anyone, educated or otherwise, pronounce "forte" as "fort". From what dialect are you prescribing here?

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago

Fair 'nuff. I appreciate the correction, and will use it correctly, henceforth. Thanks! You may like this: http://queenofwands.net/d/20031003.html http://queenofwands.net/d/20031003.html

throwanem 5y ago
Not so fast. /ˈfɔːteɪ/ is a perfectly permissible English pronunciation for "forte", and it's also the one most if not all fluent speakers expect that word to take - especially since /ˈfɔːt/ is how we pronounce "fort" meaning "fortification". The next substantiated claim I see that these words should be homonymous will be the first, and even a substantiated such claim remains incorrect in the face of the way people actually use and understand language. The only thing I see here to quibble with would be the acute accent on the final "e", which is rarely if ever a feature of modern English orthography in any case. Beyond that, I think GP's prescriptivism has, like that of the Académie Française, proceeded to a fault - specifically in GP's case, the fault of recommending you mispronounce "forte".
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
  I took it as “Lose the accent, but pronounce it ‘for-TAY,’” even so (because that is exactly how it is pronounced, whenever I hear someone say it).
- fsckboy 5y ago
  You are prescribing that people should say things anyway they want to, that there's no such thing as an error, and while you may very well be correct: I'm simply describing how to sound like an educated person.
  - throwanem 5y ago
    I'm a native speaker of American English, and I used to work with a bunch of Ph.D.s, mostly likewise native speakers, who adored correcting people's diction, on many occasions including mine. Despite this, I have never in my life heard anyone, educated or otherwise, pronounce "forte" as "fort". From what dialect are you prescribing here?