# Annoying pretentious words, sayings, or pronunciations people use to sound smarter **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 4, 2001, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456 "2001-01-04T20:43:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/161 "2012-12-08T14:43:46Z")
I’m surprised no one has disputed the post where someone bitched about pronouncing forte as forTAY. How the hell else would you pronounce it? Does anyone rally say “sorry, that’s just not my fort.”? ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/162 "2012-12-08T14:52:23Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > I’m surprised no one has disputed the post where someone bitched about pronouncing forte as forTAY. How the hell else would you pronounce it? Does anyone rally say “sorry, that’s just not my fort.”? I imagine that’s just a fawks pass on their part. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/163 "2012-12-08T16:27:29Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > What’s wrong with that expression? > > The word _closure_ has had many different meanings for a long time. To describe an emotional process, _closure_ has been a term in psychology since [1910](http://www.robertfulford.com/Closure.html). Okay, but not while someone is still alive! Plus, trust me, this was bizspeak. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/164 "2012-12-08T16:49:20Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > I’m surprised no one has disputed the post where someone bitched about pronouncing forte as forTAY. How the hell else would you pronounce it? Does anyone rally say “sorry, that’s just not my fort.”? It sure looks Italian, doesn’t it? Just like the musical direction? Obviously! I used to think so too. But in fact as a loanword to English in the sense of someone’s major skill, it came from French and was all along pronounced just fort. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/165 "2012-12-09T10:28:08Z")
Ooh - I forgot to post another that causes angry twitches - ma TOO rity for maturity. It just sounds beyond pretentious to me. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/166 "2012-12-09T10:32:05Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > It sure looks Italian, doesn’t it? Just like the musical direction? Obviously! I used to think so too. But in fact as a loanword to English in the sense of someone’s major skill, it came from French and was all along pronounced just fort. Oh wow… that’s embarassing. I’ve been saying it as FOR-tay my entire life. Fort from now on though! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/167 "2012-12-09T10:44:25Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Oh wow… that’s embarassing. I’ve been saying it as FOR-tay my entire life. Fort from now on though! “Look, it’s Italian! Frah-_jee_-lay!” Weirdly, the inverse of that mixup happened to _furore_: It was originally borrowed into English from Italian, and had 3 syllables: foo-roh-reh. But somehow people missed that fact and took it to be an ordinary Latinism ending in -or like color or honor, and it lost its final -e. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/168 "2012-12-09T10:54:13Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > “Look, it’s Italian! Frah-_jee_-lay!” > > Weirdly, the inverse of that mixup happened to _furore_: It was originally borrowed into English from Italian, and had 3 syllables: foo-roh-reh. But somehow people missed that fact and took it to be an ordinary Latinism ending in -or like color or honor, and it lost its final -e. The Brits still spell and pronounce the final E. One friend in particular looked at me funny when I said Americans don’t. I’ve since heard enough Brits pronounce it to know it’s widespread. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/169 "2012-12-09T11:37:57Z")
Criminy! I’ve been mispronouncing forte as well. Wow! You learn a lot by reading zombie threads, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/170 "2012-12-09T12:41:10Z")
For “forte,” my American Heritage Dictionary lists _for-tay_ as the first pronunciation and _fort_ as the second. The [online version](http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/forte) too, with the following Usage Note: **“The word _forte_, coming from French _fort_, should properly be pronounced with one syllable, like the English word _fort_. Common usage, however, prefers the two-syllable pronunciation, which has been influenced possibly by the music term _forte_ borrowed from Italian. In a recent survey a strong majority of the Usage Panel, 74 percent, preferred the two-syllable pronunciation. The result is a delicate situation; speakers who are aware of the origin of the word may wish to continue to pronounce it as one syllable but at an increasing risk of puzzling their listeners.”** I’m going to keep pronouncing it two syllables myself. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/171 "2012-12-09T14:16:59Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > It sure looks Italian, doesn’t it? Just like the musical direction? Obviously! I used to think so too. But in fact as a loanword to English in the sense of someone’s major skill, it came from French and was all along pronounced just fort. I made the opposite mistake with “tiramisu”. It just sounds so Japanese to me, I assumed it was a Japanese dessert (and found that odd – the Japanese are undisputed masters at all kinds of culinary arts, but milky, chocolately, sweet, cakey things are not their, ahem, forte.) Turns out it’s Italian for “pick me up.” Partly, I was fooled because the English phrasal-verb-with-inserted-direct-object form is reflected word for word in the Italian – this sort of thing doesn’t usually happen (in my experience) when passing between Germanic languages and Romance ones. (It seems that Italian uses “giu” and “su” – “down” and “up” – as adverbs in a way which sometimes coincides with certain English verb-plus-preposition phrasal verbs. I first came across the Italian practice thanks to rap/pop singer Jovanotti’s song “Piove”, which mentions “piove, senti come vene giu” – literally, “feel/notice how the rain is coming down”.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/172 "2012-12-09T14:27:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Good point that last one, but SJ outweighs SF by a good margin, and thus if one is on the Peninsula or even the lower East Bay, “the City” could just as well mean SJ. True, SF is more urban than SJ, but SJ is hardly a suburb, being the 10th largest city in the uSA. > > Mind you, when Herb Caen used it, SF _was_ the local big city. When anyone says something like “I’m moving to the city”, I respond with “San Jose?” That usually elicits a little laugh. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/173 "2012-12-09T18:29:21Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > When anyone says something like “I’m moving to the city”, I respond with “San Jose?” > > That usually elicits a little laugh. :eek: I do the same thing sometimes! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/174 "2012-12-09T18:51:24Z")
These irritate me- Share used instead of tell. Feel used instead of think. Impact used exclusively because the speaker thinks it’s better than affect or effect. Anytime someone begins a sentence with “As a whatever,” supercilious bragging or chiding is sure to follow. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/175 "2012-12-09T22:14:02Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > For me, it’s the tendency of Christians to randomly slip into Olde English when they talketh about the LORD. Because apparently, not only is the KJV the One True Revealed Word of God, but the LORD can only heareth you (or perhaps the LORD only understandeth, or only payeth attention) when you speaketh as if you were reading the KJV. > > (Also, the convention of LORD in all caps in the Bible always bugged me. :)) LORD is that way because of the taboo about not saying “YHWH” for fear of using the Lord’s name in vain. So when you see LORD, the Hebrew used the name “YHWH”. And it irritates me when old timers (usually it’s old timers) who grew up with the King James pray in KJ language. I always want to say, “The King James bible uses that language because it was published in the early 1600s…not because God has this secret code of thees and thous he has to hear before he will listen to you!” Same with old people who demand nothing but hymns written in the 1800s. Those are great, but by those people’s logic, we should also sing popular music from the 1800s as well. After all, there’s nothing wrong with the old standards! Sorry about the rambling, but I’m a 31 year old deacon in a church where we still have a few vocal old timers who make it hard on us young whippersnappers… ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/176 "2012-12-09T23:17:40Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > The number one transgression: affecting, at ANY time, a British accent. > > Mocking a Southern accent but misusing the simple contraction of ‘you all’ in the singular. > > People who use ‘dihydrogen monoxide’ to mean ‘water’. Yeah, yeah, it’s cute the first time. Give it a rest already. > > ‘Capice?’ by people who aren’t Italian. > > The coy use of ‘moi?’ by the non-French. Inexplicably, when the French use it, it’s even more irritating. > > Same with … Oh, I don’t know. ‘Je nai se quois’ > > People who use, ‘ditto’ for ‘same with’. > > Language purists who like to point out ‘irritating’ doesn’t really mean ‘annoy’. > > The word, ‘comport’. Gah. > > The phrase, ‘vis-a-vis.’ Gah. Gah. > > People who quote Proust, then use the little “quotation mark gestures” with their fingerstips. GAH. > > I defy you to use the word ‘juxtapose’ in a sentence without sounding like a twit. > > Now, wouldn’t that last sentence have been vastly improved if I used the word ‘dare’ for ‘defy’ – and ANY other insult for ‘twit’? > > People who debate you on message boards, THEN instead of talking about the underlying differences in your ideas or beliefs, nitpick your posts by breaking up your train of thought, badly paraphrase, and throw out various debate team terminology like ‘attack ad hominem’ and ‘ad hoc’ and ‘straw man’… > > While I’m at it, using the word ‘forensics’ to mean ‘debate.’ > > People who avoid perfectly plain Anglo/Saxon words for the pretense of more so-called ‘genteel’ words… like ‘perspire,’ ‘masticate,’ ‘fornicate,’ et. al. > > Oh, yeah. People who verbally say, ‘Et. Al.’ instead of ‘excetera.’ And people who overdo that by repeating it twice in the same sentence. (“Excetera, excetera”) > > Anytime when the goyium use Yiddish. Oh, vey. > > Lastly – and I gleefully include myself in this – ANYONE with the nerve to drop foreign words and phrases and mispronounces / misspells them in a failing attempt to seem even slightly knowledgeable… Never have I seen anyone hoisted this high by his own petard. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456/177 "2012-12-10T00:40:41Z")
Something inexplicable and annoying I would see all the time at one job I worked at: Using the verb \*advise \*instead of _say_. Subject advised that his name is X. Subject advised that the sky is blue today. Subject advised he wanted to go home. Etc. What the hell is wrong with saying _say_? If you think replacing it with _advise_ makes you look smarter, you have another think coming. The two words are not synonyms. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-pretentious-words-sayings-or-pronunciations-people-use-to-sound-smarter/48456.md?page=8)