# Hey wolfpup **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 2, 2025, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127 "2025-06-02T22:53:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/21 "2025-06-03T00:22:03Z")
I wonder if it’s appropriate to Pit someone about complaining that they never get Pitted. Or would that open a wormhole that sucks the board in with it? ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/22 "2025-06-03T00:22:14Z")
What does Will Forte have to say? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/23 "2025-06-03T00:23:52Z")
[![](https://i.imgur.com/nf3S8Dc.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/nf3S8Dc.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/24 "2025-06-03T00:50:54Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I’ve never heard anyone pronounce forte as fort, and if I did, I’d laugh at them (politely.) Is that really a thing? And I’d laugh back at you less politely. Fortay is for ill-educated folks. I was once one too. But then I went to high school. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/25 "2025-06-03T00:54:19Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > And I’d laugh back at you less politely. > > Fortay is for ill-educated folks. I was once one too. But then I went to high school When she was in elementary school, I explained to my daughter that people who think it’s pronounced fortay will think she’s screwing up if she says “fort,” and people who know it’s pronounced “fort” will think she’s screwing up if she says “fortay.” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/26 "2025-06-03T00:55:46Z")
“Fortay” is how I normally hear it pronounced throughout my life. Though I have also on rare occasion heard “fort” and it doesn’t sound wrong to me. Pronouncing it as “for” absolutely sounds wrong though. (The word “cache” is similar, though it should always be pronounced as “cash”; you pronounce “cachet” like “cashay”, but sometimes people confuse them.) ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/27 "2025-06-03T01:00:11Z")
For another word that’s really confusing, I present “homage”. It’s either pronounced “AH-midge”, or “oh-MODGE” depending on context. It’s the former if you “pay homage”, but it’s the latter if you say “it’s an homage”. The only true conclusion anyone can draw is that English is a really fucked up language. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/28 "2025-06-03T01:03:16Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > When she was in elementary school, I explained to my daughter that people who think it’s pronounced fortay will think she’s screwing up if she says “fort,” and people who know it’s pronounced “fort” will think she’s screwing up if she says “fortay.” Exactly! There is no right answer. The only way to win is not to play. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/29 "2025-06-03T01:12:50Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > It’s the former if you “pay homage”, but it’s the latter if you say “it’s an homage”. Well, no, not quite. It’s HOM-ij. All my dictionaries up through 1993 list _only_ that pronunciation. Sometime in the next decade or so, I started hearing people in podcasts ironically over-exaggerating the pronunciation as though they were speaking French (like calling Target “tar-ZHAY”). My theory is that everyone who’d never heard the word spoken aloud before assumed that was the correct pronunciation, so now we’re stuck with the masses having altered the pronunciation. Same thing is happening to “patina”. It’s not pa-TEE-na. Or wasn’t, until people stopped using dictionaries. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/30 "2025-06-03T01:25:21Z")
You sound like the sort who rhymes penchant with trenchant. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/31 "2025-06-03T01:35:33Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Who do I have to blow to get a link around here? That would be me. (You asked for it!) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/32 "2025-06-03T01:37:00Z")
But winning is my forte brag. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/33 "2025-06-03T01:46:30Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Same thing is happening to “patina”. It’s not pa-TEE-na. Or wasn’t, until people stopped using dictionaries. Well, huh. Merriam-Webster gives that first, then PATuhnuh. Same with Cambridge for the US pronunciations. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) gives PATuhnuh first, then puhTEEnuh. I’ve literally never heard anything but puhTEEnuh. I have heard “fort” for “forte,” and it’s one of those words I just stutter through by saying both “fort” and “fortay” or just wimp out and say “strength.” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/34 "2025-06-03T01:58:56Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Same thing is happening to “patina”. It’s not pa-TEE-na. Or wasn’t, until people stopped using dictionaries. I have never heard it pronounced any way but “pa-TEE-na” in my life. I’m very confident saying that’s the only correct pronunciation. At least in the US. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/35 "2025-06-03T02:13:13Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I have never heard it pronounced any way but “pa-TEE-na” in my life. I’m very confident saying that’s the only correct pronunciation. At least in the US. My 1980 dictionary lists _only_ PAT- e-ne, with the "e"s being little upside-down "e"s. I remember the same pronunciation from my unabridged Webster’s as a child, but with an apostrophe instead of the middle upside-down “e”. So until I was at least 24 years old, that was the _only_ pronunciation recognized. My 1993 Merriam Webster dictionary lists both pronunciations. So due to people hearing a mispronunciation and not knowing any better and not looking it up, the pronunciation shifted. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/36 "2025-06-03T02:14:57Z")
The only correct pronounciation is that from the Great Vowel Shift. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/37 "2025-06-03T02:15:12Z")
Realistically we could go around for years on how words are said, here, there, now or in the past. Never get a clear consensus. You talks like you talks. If you go putting on airs and trying to say things differently than you were brought up to say it just sounds fake. This ain’t no Pygmalion thing. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/38 "2025-06-03T02:15:43Z")
Fuck, soon “fentanyl” is going to be “fentinall”. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/39 "2025-06-03T02:16:35Z")
Oh it already is here. (But medicine names are difficult for lots of people. Heck we still call an acetaminophen tablet an aspirin ) ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127/40 "2025-06-03T02:21:16Z")
I’ll go completely nuculer if that happens! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-wolfpup/1019127.md?page=3)