Is it pretentious to use "brava!' instead of "bravo!"?

[Anonymous]

I am writing reports for some people I manage. I am giving commendations to a few women and while I know that technically, if female, the word brava applies instead of bravo, I wonder if following the letter of that rule is pretentious? Also, I worry that people who may not be familiar with that technicality will think I had a typo or got the word wrong.

Thoughts from the gallery? TIA.

[Anonymous]

Just say good job. Bravo/a is best saved for live performances I would think.

[Anonymous]

Well, I think it's pretentious, but that's just because I didn't know what it meant.

[Anonymous]

I know exactly what you mean. Choose a different word. There's lots of other words of praise to choose from.

[Anonymous]

I was a little thrown the first time I was with my central american friend and she said "Brava!" very naturally as encouragement to my daughter. I admit to being a WASP and it sounded weird to me. But it was very nice of her and a very natural spontaneous thing for her to say. So I think it depends on who you and who your employees are.

[Anonymous]

I had an English professor in college who wrote Brava on my papers fairly often. I had never seen it before then but it didn't take a rocket scientist or even a Spanish speaker to figure it out. I actually liked it because it was different from the usual drivel people say. I'd say use it, but maybe use it in a meeting once or twice before then so it sounds like something you'd say.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's pretentious. But that's hardly a hanging offense here in DC. I know a dozen people who would use it, and while I might pause a second and think "hm. pretentious." there's too much of it going around to really get anyone's back up.

[Anonymous]

Personally I think either bravo or brava would be inappropriate for a professional office setting. These are only really appropriate if your profession is sports or the performing arts. Otherwise, there are far more appropriate words for a work setting and review.

[Anonymous]

No, not pretentious at all, just educated. It's like saying "alumnae" or "alumna" and people not being used to it. Just because their ears aren't used to it, it doesn't mean that the speaker or writer is pretentious. How silly. Use the proper word. Otherwise you appear illiterate. (And that isn't meant to seem unkind at all. It's just that when you're writing, especially for something that's going to be read by bosses, etc. you don't want to appear that you don't know better.)

[Anonymous]

Once, when I was young and naive, I tried to convince a bunch of my (very educated) senior colleagues that we must use "fora" instead of "forums" when talking about the various sessions available at a large conference. They all rolled their eyes at me. It's not that they didn't know the plural of "forum". It's that certain rules of Latin and other non-English grammar are suspended in common use, and to insist on the correct use as if your Latin teacher was grading you is, well, pretentious. I have come around to seeing it their way. I haven't forgotten what is correct, I have just accepted the conventions.

[Anonymous]

It reads and looks wrong so don't do it.

And no one will think you are being pretentious, they will just assume you didn't know any better and will correct you over and over.

[Anonymous]

Brava is written that way all the time though. See the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times. It's a little bit different than "fora".

[Anonymous]

We should all know when to use brava, bravo and bravi.

[Anonymous]

Yes, unless you are Italian or whatever.

[Anonymous]

What about saying "cheers" at the end of an email?