I think for-tay, but I’ve been told that fort is correct, so sometimes i correct myself and say that.
I say neesh when talking about biology/ecology, but nitch when talking about the location of my ornamental pot. Basically, i learned two different words that happen to have the same spelling, same etymology, and similar meaning.
You just reminded me of one of my dear departed dad’s pronunciations. He simply could not say “poached” as in “poached eggs”. He always said “porched eggs”. My brothers and I, every time he asked us if we wanted “porched eggs”, would always ask him if they were front porch or back porch eggs. I really don’t know how he developed that mispronunciation. We know he didnt’ do it on purpose, because he’d get upset when we teased him about it.
Typo. I meant ‘PORSH’.
This made me laugh out loud!
My seventh grade English teacher told us it was pronounced “fort”, so that’s how I pronounce it in my head when I read it. When speaking, I pronounce it “strong point” or “strength”, because I find the fort-ay pronunciation to sound pretentious and wrong, and no one would understand me if I said “fort”. In fact, I find the word to be pretentious in general anyway.
Also, neech for niche and cash for cache.
Interesting. I find forte a pretty normal word, no pretentiousness at all, unless you find all French-sounding words pretentious. I mean, I grew up in a working class neighborhood, and I don’t think anyone would bat an eye if I said “that’s not my forte.”
How did you pronounce it? Because “fort-ay” is not a French-sounding word.
Well, I’m partial to a glass of Chateau de Chasselas, even though as a young lad I used to live in a tiny tumbledown house with great holes in t’ roof.
I think to many people it is. Or you can say “foreign sounding.”I mean, you have passé, entrée, risqué — how does “for-tay” not sound Frenchy to an English speaker?
(ETA: The word “plié” was originally included before I edited and saw the response.)
I have no problem with those words. Maybe because my seventh grade English teacher never told me to pronounce them “pass” and “plea”.
In Hebrew, the same word is used for both “strong” and “loud”, and even “high” as in “sick with a high fever”.
He spoke with a loud voice == He spoke with a strong voice.
He has a high fever == He has a strong fever.
English spelling and pronunciation can be a beesh.
Let’s not even get into “quiche” and “quinoa”.
You ‘ad a roof?
Luxury!
I learned from years of having British, Aussie etc colleagues in Thailand that Americans say “for-tay” and Brits/colonials “fort.”
Not they are completely unrelated words, but why would it be illogical for the French-based word and the Italian-based word to have two different pronunciations in English, based on French and Italian, respectively? Nor would it be remarkable if some people “incorrectly” mixed them up.
Hebrew has many synonyms for both strength and height and concepts related to each; not sure what is remarkable about this (nor the figurative use of height to describe something like a “high fever” or a “lofty attitude” in Hebrew vs English)
Heck, i say neesh or nitch, depending.
We don’t use a French word in this country, we use an American word pronounced ‘for-tay’ and it means ‘strong point’. I don’t care how French words are pronounced and apparently the French don’t either considering the way they spell.
I too speak American, but only when ordering my Freedom Fries.
I know it’s properly pronounced fort, but I also know that if I do say it that way people will think I don’t know how to say it because it’s usually always known as “for-tay,” so I end up saying “for-tay.” 
Huh? In what world is “fort-ay” not a French-sounding word? Ballet, matinee, plié, soirée, buffet, cafe, parlez, etc.
From the American Heritage Dictionary:
Usage Note: Forte, meaning “something in which a person excels,” can be pronounced with one syllable, like the French word from which it is derived. It can also be pronounced with two syllables (fôr tā′), which is the more common pronunciation in American English and was the choice of 74 percent of the Usage Panel in both our 1996 and 2016 surveys. Some of those who dislike the two-syllable pronunciation argue it should only be used for the music term forte, which is derived from Italian.
I’ve always appreciated American Heritage because of their rather outspoken panels. But, oh lordy, they have had their issues.
Check their thoughts on impact as a verb sometime.
Are you referring to the Usage Note here?
I’m not seeing anything obviously controversial.