Quote Originally Posted by Veronica
From the dictionary - according to Webster's it should have a long a or a long e sound at the end.

V.

When you are speaking of someone's strengths, "fort" is correct, however, the musical term is "for-tay."

However I admit that we continue to corrupt the English language and pronounciations evolve despite the efforts of the grammar police to lock our language in place.

From http://thesaurus.reference.com/

for·te Pronunciation Key (fôrt, fôrt, frt)
n.
Something in which a person excels.
The strong part of a sword blade, between the middle and the hilt.


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[French fort, from Old French, strong, from Latin fortis. See fort.]

Synonyms: forte, métier, specialty, thing

These nouns denote something at which a person is particularly skilled: Writing fiction is her forte. The theater is his métier. The professor's specialty was the study of ancient languages. Mountain climbing is really my thing.
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, (fôrt), 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.