FORTE (fort) French
something a person excels at; one's strong point
FORTE (for·tay) Italian
a direction used in music; loud, as in a musical tone or passage played loudly
In English forte is two different words. When it comes from the French adjective meaning strong, it is a noun referring to something in which one excels. For example an accountant’s forte might be math, and a novelist’s forte might be inventing characters. When forte comes from Italian, it is a musical term directing a performer to play loudly. It’s also an adjective or an adverb used to describe loud playing, and it is occasionally a noun referring to forte performance.
The French word is usually incorrectly pronounced (FOR-tay) in English. While this roughly reflects the Italian pronunciation, the word in French is pronounced fort, and in fact forte is a femininization of the masculine adjective fort, which is pronounced for in French; however, careful English speakers choosing to use the French pronunciation might just confuse people and be accused of being pretentious.
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