On Tuesday, August 5, 2014 1:00:51 PM UTC-4, sf wrote:
> On Tue, 5 Aug 2014 08:32:02 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
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> > On Monday, August 4, 2014 12:09:54 PM UTC-4, Kalmia wrote:
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> > > Would you use it adjectivally in a sentence, please?
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> > Here's how Carlin used it:
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> > The English word forte, meaning "specialty" or "strong point," is not pronounced "for-tay." Got that? It is pronounced "fort." The Italian word forte, used in music notation, is pronounced "for-tay," and it instructs the musician to play loud: "She plays the skin flute, and her forte [fort] is playing forte [for-tay]." Look it up. And don't give me that whiny shit, "For-tay is listed as the second preference." There's a reason it's second: because it's not first!
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> Those fancy French words are best left to the French, British and
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> musicians. Americans hear a word pronounced "fort" and think of it as
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> an abbreviation of fortification. If we mean it's not a "strong
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> point", that's what we say...unless (of course) we're trying to
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> demonstrate how cosmopolitan we are. Then it's foot in mouth.

Another goodie is the habit of plastering umlauts over just about any vowel one cares to choose, to make it look German. Likewise galling, ( get the almost-pun? ), is that practice of sticking accents over any French word ending in 'e'. AGGHH. Especially guilty of this are those developers who name subdivisions, streets etc. and probably never even mastered to, too and two.